Creative Every Day

Wellness Wednesday – Visit an Art Store

November 28th, 2007

Today, I drove into the city to visit a particular small underground art store that has these fantastic wood panels that I like to paint on. I might have ordered them online, but their website doesn't have all their items on it and I knew if I just sucked it up and drove in, it would be well worth it. I went in the early afternoon when the traffic was slower and made it in fairly quickly. Once there, I fed the meter and walked around soaking up the colors and textures of an urban area, the grafitti, the layered paper stuck to the walls, the murals, the variety of people. On a door, someone painted, "throw stones at glass houses," in big blue swirly letters. As I was staring at it, the door flew open and two men carrying flowers in vases came rushing out.

I crossed the street and entered the art store. And I lingered. I picked out what I needed there and brought it to the counter, so I wouldn't have to lug it around and then I wandered aimlessly. I didn't really buy much of anything at this point, but I wanted to look. I went up and down each aisle and touched the handmade paper, looked at all the gloriously rich oil paint sticks, I felt the tips of paintbrushes and the thickness of deep cradled canvases. I peeked into boxes of mat boards and opened blank journals. I checked out the flyers stuck on the wall and the art displayed there. I soaked in all the different types of mediums, powdered pigments, and adhesives. I picked up big blocks of beeswax, paraffin, and microcrystaline waxes to see how heavy they were. I quietly breathed in the scent of the beeswax when no one was looking. I poked into drawers of transfer paper and illustration board, and laughed at silly trinkets on the counter. And when I felt all filled up to the tiptop of my head with color and inspiration, I was ready to go.

Chilly days are a wonderful time to take yourself on a solo trip to the art store, even if you aren't buying anything (I go a lot without buying anything!) It's a place full of possibility and endless rows of color to fill your eyes and your heart. And if you feel inspired by a particular medium, do buy something and take it home with you and bring some of that art store color into your life.

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Unrelated to Wellness Wednesday, I was tagged today by the super sweet Karen of Zazazu to do a meme of six random things about me. I'm not sure what I haven't mentioned before, but I'll just start typing and see what comes to me.

1. I have loads of art in my home, but very little of it is on the walls. The hubster and I live in an apartment with old walls that seem to crumble when trying to put in a nail. Having huge holes in the wall is awful to me and since we painted our living rooms, I haven't wanted to wreck the walls any further. But I think it may be time to give it a try again.

2. Recently I've been drooling over patterns. Patterns on wallpaper, upholstery, whatever. I never would have imagined myself liking such a chair, but now I want two of Anthropologie's Astrid chair in different patterns (above and below)!

3. When I paint, I especially like to work on a surface that's square or long and skinny.

4. I'm very sensitive to sounds and I'm not a fan of super loud noises, especially shouting or loud buzzers.

5. I space out quite often.

6. I'm not a big fan of the color pink, but I have this hideous mug with pink hearts all over it holding the pens and pencils on my desk. I've got to do something about that!

And now, I'm supposed to tag six people to do this meme, but I'm just not feeling like it at the moment, so if you want to do this meme, please do!

 

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