I always think “I’ll blog more soon” and then I don’t

Sorry to all who follow this blog with genuine interest- I’m so bad at remembering to do things! Even things I like doing!

Although a lot of the time it’s not just a matter of forgetting, it’s also a matter of a mental wall that makes me not want to do things even though I actually enjoy doing them. I think this is what a lot of people call art block. For me it is also a product of my neurodiversity, from the executive dysfunction. My combo of ADHD and autism makes it to where I don’t want to do anything that isn’t the easiest thing a lot of the time. Art can be hard, so my brain likes to prevent me from doing it, even though I usually very much enjoy myself when I actually get around to doing it. Blogging is never really that hard per say, but it does require me to actually take time to use the computer and write, and a lot of the time I just can’t be bothered.

So anyway, here’s an update. In the past several months I’ve been playing around with different mediums.

For example, here is a Molotow acrylic marker painting I did on a wood cutout from The Dollar Tree that I did for my partner’s dad. We have a very limited number of colors in Molotows, and he’s a veteran, so I figured it was a good excuse to use a color pallet I don’t use very often: red, white, and blue. He likes to garden too, so the flower shape is also fitting.

Another medium I’ve taken up lately is a collaboration with my mom!
She likes to do “coloring page stained glass” crafts. She’s not much into drawing herself, so she generally just traces free-to-use coloring pages. I create free-to-use coloring pages, so I offered to do the tracing part of the project for her of some of my pieces! I love to do elaborate designs on my mandala which were a little intimidating to her, so doing it myself allowed me to have a piece of the action and let her just color the piece stress-free!
I consider any instance of someone coloring one of my coloring pages as a collaboration between myself and the person coloring, so it was especially meaningful to me to have my mom be one of those people.
The first one I did for her was April’s Mandala, which she colored, backed, and framed for me as a gift. It now hangs on the bedroom wall in memory of our lost daughter.

I have done several more of these for her since then, and I always find it very enjoyable. Retracing my line art is very soothing and nostalgic for me, and I have the opportunity to correct tiny mistakes I made in the original line art which is so satisfying!

I am now getting back into watercolor and I’m in the process of creating my own palette using a nice little tin I picked up off amazon with empty half pans and tube watercolors mixed with glycerin. I don’t have much of anything to show for it yet, as this is quite a recent development. It is getting closer to September so my anticipation for autumn is building, I think I will be doing some seasonal pieces soon.

Our rainbow daughter is due in October (yes I know, how perfect!) so I think I may create some autumnal birth announcement cards to send to the extended family members. I want to get on that sooner than later so that I don’t have to think about it postpartum! I am sure I will not have the energy for any sort of creative endeavor for quite a while following her birth.

That’s all for now folks, I’ll try to update you again at least once more before Birdie gets here!
No promises though unfortunately, hahaha.