This week in Open Art Studio, I took the plunge and tried painting. I haven’t taken art since 7th grade, so you can imagine that it all felt a little foreign! Expressing yourself in a new medium is a little like trying to write with your non-dominant hand. The act feels awkward, but you can feel synapses in your brain firing that haven’t fired in forever, and that triggers all sorts of new ideas and associations.

Honestly, I had no idea what I was doing, but I did it anyway and my classmates were so helpful. I joked that my fellow artists needed to write a blog post while I painted! I found it hilarious that my fellow students were painting with sophisticated hues like Cerulean Blue while I showed up — LITERALLY — with bottles of Crayola-brand paint that I bought at Office Depot (for good measure, I also purchased the matching Crayola brushes and all-purpose paper). A generous classmate loaned me a palette. Hey, I had planned to use a Tupperware lid, but why not! Soon, I was off and painting. In the picture above, you can see my first effort. I painted the clouds in a perfectly blue Minneapolis sky, inspired by the famous suit worn by Prince in the “Raspberry Beret” video, below.

After I painted the sky, I got ambitious and did a drawing using a gold Sharpie. Finally, I decided to paint with the color red. It turned into a big fat red heart with yellow rays emanating from it. I didn’t know what I was making until I realized it was a birthday card for my father-in-law, who is 91 years old and in hospice. Even though he has dementia and has good days and bad, I hope he can feel the love!