It was a learning curve I will never forget but somehow continues to happen. I see that one imperfection when everyone else sees beauty and I try to better my image. I feel a change coming and my paintings are battered senseless or so tenderly until I am content with the work on the canvas. Good or bad but content and that feeling continues until my creativity is at peace inside me.

So I have become custom to the act of breathing before and after using my paintbrush. What a novel thought, to simply relax and pick up a color. I then allow the process to unfold even with my negativity looking at my own artwork. Most of the time though my painting turns out better than when I started. Most artists I 'm sure, start out with a certain image in their head and continue until it appears on the canvas. Let's just say, that's not what happens here with me.

It became a calming process afterwards. To calm the racing in my heart yet the thrill was definitely there egging me on until my heart would be pounding in my chest again. But then it soothes itself and I relax. Every day I look at my paints, canvas and brushes gathered on the table and even before I start a peacefulness settles down over me. I knew I was there at the moment, the place I was supposed to be, to create with the passion I feel.

I swear white canvas is a beacon, guiding me, leading me on. A miracle when the excitement turns into harmony within me and I have never felt it before. Almost like empathy for the world while holding a brush in my hand. Its' effects teach me patience with myself. Totally unexpected consequence of a gentleness in my soul. However, I still sit there at times, staring unable to start while contemplate my first move then WHAM! Hard telling what's going to show up under my fingertips.

It could have been God sending me a message from the very beginning. A yearning behind my knees for self-expression. Perhaps, to awaken my artistry. I began to somehow recognize I may have the ability to create with colors and that is what I have set about to do. It has truly changed the person I used to be, brought joy to me, and thus it became Joy Artistry 2017 without a drop of paint anywhere. The journey of a lifetime began and I paint until an image appears on the canvas. It may get messed up and I have to begin again but eventually a creation completes itself. I simply hold the brush and am the outlet while the yearning continues.