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| "Wash Away The Pain" © Tabetha Landt Hastings 16x20 acrylic on canvas |
I'm really excited about my new abstract series of paintings! It started as a challenge: use whatever paint was left over after my class left for the evening, enjoy the process, paint quickly, and don't get bogged down in details.
I find that to teach - even art - I have to access the left (analytical) side of my brain. This is kind of the opposite way that I like to approach art. For me, art is a very right brained, intuitive and creative process (for the most part, but that is a whole other blog entirely).
To teach, I need to be able to communicate to my students, analyze what they're doing, and help them to achieve their goals. All of that is fairly left brained. And as much as I love teaching, to be able to switch it off when they leave is a treat.
One evening after class I pulled out a canvas that already had some paint on it, and decided to experiment with some of the "left over" paint. "Experiment" is not really the right word... it kind of smacks of left brain, doesn't it? Let's say I decided to fiddle with it. Fool around. The idea was to enjoy the paint instead of looking for a specific result.
It felt wonderful switching into pure creative mode after all of that thinking, analyzing, and communicating! And I've been pleased with the results. So now after class I turn on some jazz and work on my own creative endeavor. I still have to pull out that left brain towards the end of each painting in order to know when to stop, but the time in that creative space is pure bliss.
