“Lily Pad Bliss”

Have you ever given up on finishing a piece of art, because you lacked inspiration? Did you place it in the UFO pile (Unfinished Object) or even worse in the trash?  Only to later rescue it, and give it a second chance?  In doing so, did it become one of those pieces of art that you are pleased with, and glad that you persevere in it creation?  I had one of those experiences a few weeks back where a dream intervened, and it was responsible for saving this feature art piece “Lily Pad Bliss.”   

With my new studio ready, I was beginning to feel the creative energy again!  During the organization of my studio my eye caught the attention of a stabilized fabric that I had painted a sky, ground, and water several months before we moved to our new home.  I felt it was now time to finally do something with it. I had originally placed the fabric in the UFO pile, because I was not happy with the way the sky turned out.  Pulling out my paints, I began reworking the sky, over and over again, but could not seem to make it look as I intended it to.  Finally, getting fed up with it, my scissors came out, and I cut the sky area off from the piece (it nice you can do this with fabric.) I was left with the ground and the water areas of the painted fabric.    

When I create, a painted background on the fabric sometimes reveals what the outcome of the art should become.  After studying what was left of the fabric for several hours, I still did not feel inspired on what to do with ground and the water.  Frustrated, I decided to throw the whole thing away in the trash, and went to bed. I had a dream that night that I was pregnant, but could not give birth “crazy right!”  When I woke up, I was just irritated, and I immediately knew it was a metaphor to how I was feeling about not being able to bring a creative project to reality. 

Walking into my studio that morning, I decided I was going to give 100 percent of my time to creating art, so I could feel as if I had given birth to my creative ideas.  I went to my work station, and notice the fabric piece I threw in the trash.  As I looked at it, I felt I need to pull it back out.  Studying it, my imagination over took me, and I knew finally what to do with it.  I sat down and began to work

I worked on the art for most of the day, and did the same every day for a week, not wanting to break the momentum of the creative surge that was pouring out of me.  After the week, I physically saw what I had imagined in that instant when I took the fabric out of the trash.  “Lily Pad Bliss” was the reward for not giving up on this UFO, and definitely  giving it a second chance . The Lessons I learned through all this were; Don’t throw art pieces in the trash out of frustration,  be more aware of my dreams, they are a reflections of my inner desires, in this case to sit, stitch, and create, and to trust my imagination it will guide me in creating art that makes me smile!