Playing in the Mud with Annie

Work In Progress
Time On Mars
18 x 18 x 2"
mixed media on wood box

What an awesome today today! Played in the white mud with Annie all afternoon. we scooped and blopped and blobbed, rubbed and buffed and stuck things in it.

I recently subscribed to a feed from the explorer on Mars. They have a widget you can get that tells you the time on Mars. While I was making this painting, I kept thinking about time on Mars and all that phrase might imply directly or tangentially. Like, if I were in a different place, would time be different? I know that if I were at a desk 9 to 5 time would probably go very slowly as opposed to the breeze of an afternoon playing in the mud with Annie.

If I were on Mars I would probably resort to marking each day with a thumb print on the wall like prisoners in solitary confinement where they don't know the time of day. I really don't know what this has to do with anything.

Yesterday I was running errands and as I came out of the Post Office looked around me and felt very alive. I felt like the world and my life lie ahead of me and anything is possible. I felt like just standing for a minute and watching the day happen. Then I focused on what my eyes were looking at and realized there was a kind of run down metal building across the street, a bit of trash floated across the pavement, and the sun was beating down hot. For me to feel alive and notice it, in this particular setting is a very amazing thing because all my life I have been sensitive to my surroundings and ones like this usually make me grab tensely inward trying to protect myself from possible harm or just unpleasantness.

I think this happened because of something I am achieving with my Alexander Teacher, Karen DeHart. We had a very good session yesterday. We talked about my art and my art business as we worked on letting go of tension. She helped me realize I have been concentrating and focusing on wanting to sell my art, rather than expressing it as a wish, letting it go, and waiting to see what happens. Believing it will come rather than grabbing for it to come. Afterward I felt as if a larger space was created around me and I felt free to live in it. I think that space has been there all the time, I am just now allowing myself to live and thrive in it. I think so many things I do are self-limiting. Amazing how responsible for myself I really am, yet how much I have to let go of trying to control everything around me.

So Time on Mars....