Who's afraid of pastels?
Me. I was totally afraid of pastels, of brights, of anything that wasn’t deep and somber toned. I did whole paintings using nothing but varying layers of grey and muted green.
Of course, when you are roaming through the deep misty forests of Oregon, it makes sense that those are the shades you would be inspired to use. But there’s so much more to my experience with the natural world than the darkness.
It’s funny how your art style changes. I’ll be bee-bopping along, really feeling a groove with my art, like I got this all figured out. Then I hit a wall, the same was I sometimes do on a run. Hitting a wall with art for me looks like doing nothing but watching TV and staring listlessly out my window for months wondering where my inspiration has gone. This last period coincided with the winter season as I wrote here and facilitated a nice season of rest and introspection.
Then just like a seedling does after days or weeks in the ground, a burst of new growth, new inspiration, new focus springs from me seemingly out of nowhere. It is a lovely synchronicity that as my creativity wakes up, it’s as the earth is waking up too.
With that comes a complete shift in what I’m creating these days. Florals, sunlight, PASTELS. And you know what I’ve realized as I’ve started to use more shades and more color? Light adds DEPTH. There is a connection to my art that wasn’t there before because no matter what or how I was inspired, the paintings still felt 2D in a way that they no longer feel. And that is because I am expressing the nature that I see more wholistically, embracing both the shadows and the light.
So here is where I take a right turn on the topic that may feel like a non sequitur but stick with me.
There is a whole area of psychology that focuses on shadow work, defined as “Working with your unconscious mind to uncover the parts of yourself that you repress and hide from yourself. This can include trauma or parts of your personality that you subconsciously consider undesirable.” -Better Up.
It’s important, beneficial work. Meant to heal and allow for self-compassion and acceptance so that you can have a healthier, more fulfilling life and relationships.
At the same time, I think many (women especially) are prone to getting stuck in the shadow. In ‘fixing’, in focusing on what’s wrong. I know I can. The dark parts of us are important, even beautiful the way a foggy forest is beautiful, but they are not the only parts of us. And we become pretty two dimensional ourselves if that’s all we focus on. I have been particularly stuck in the dark these last few years and as I’m focused on light and depth in my painting, I am committed to focusing on it in other areas of my life as well.
I hope that for you too. I hope you are honoring the light in yourself as much as you are facing the dark parts. I hope you are giving yourself credit when you handle something stressful better than you would have in the past, when you are kind to others, when you give someone the benefit of the doubt instead of jumping to more negative conclusions.
I hope you are painting the full depth of your life-the light as well as the shade.
~Brandi
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