Under the bed

Yellow farmhouse
Road trip from Ottawa to Kingston
acrylic on canvas
8 x 8 inches
Barbara Muir © 2009
(I'm pretty close to finished with this one -- a great
delight to do. Of course the farm house was
not yellow, but beige, but despite the colour
changes this scene reminds me of that
route and I know I've seen this house
many, many times. So I'm grateful
for Steven's fast little camera
that let me catch it as we sped by).

The other day I was doing crunches so I vacuumed
the rug in my bedroom. Down on the floor I looked
under the bed and decided it was high time that
space, packed with storage boxes (like every space
in a tiny house) and thick with dust from the lives
of the three animals who grace our house, got a cleaning.

It's hard enough for me to let go of old things (I even
feel sentimental about receipts from the years
I no longer have to hold onto for tax purposes) so
I made an art connection. As an artist I think one
of the true bonuses of the blog world is learning
about different approaches that push my work
in new directions, and teach me new techniques.

I know artists who have stuck to one method, style,
colour range for 15 or 20 years, produce beautiful
work, but are decidedly unhappy with what they
do. Maybe the reason is that it's time to clean
out the mess under the bed. Maybe it's time to
let some things go, and realize that there are no
monsters waiting to pounce on you, when you put
your feet down and walk with confidence. You get
my point. We are here. We are the net under your
trapeze. We are the nightlight when you feel you
can't see properly. If it's time to change, you
have the whole world on your side.

Now I'm going to go and clean out the space under
the dresser.

Have an I-will-be-released-into-joyous-creation day.