Staying Open to Possibilities

Yesterday was a day of being open to new possibilities.

I spent the morning in my studio with my next-door neighbor’s 9-year-old son. Eli’s school was closed for the day because of warnings of ice buildup on the roads in the early morning (which didn’t materialize, thank goodness) and his mother had to be at work for a while. So she asked if he could hang out with us. Of course I said yes, even though I had been planning to spend much of my day working in the studio.

In order to make the time as productive as possible, I decided to make some painted papers to add to my collage stash. I knew that Eli could do some of his own. I set him up on the opposite side of the table with his own paints, brushes, plenty of paper, and water container. Since anything goes with the painted papers, I knew my work wouldn’t be in danger from being in close proximity to his activity.

Pretty soon I got involved with what he was doing, answering questions, showing him all the basics you have to show a kid who is new to paints, like not loading up the brush too much, keeping it clean between colors, changing the water, etc., etc.

And then he got really into the paints — I mean that in a good way. It is obvious he hasn’t had much any experience with painting at all. In this particular instance it turned out to be a positive, because he was unafraid to try different things just to see what the paint would do. (You know, the way I paint!)

He squirted a rainbow of gloppy colors on top of the table cover and rolled through it once with a brayer. I said “Stop!” He froze and looked up at me as if he were afraid he’d done something wrong. I smiled really big and said “Now roll that onto the paper just the way it is.” What he had was something truly beautiful, and I told him so. He was so proud, so I dried it with the heat gun and put it in a mat for him to take home.

After about a half dozen more experiments, his attention span was done, and he was happily off to play video games at home. But before he left he told me he was “inspired.”

I picked up a few tricks from Eli during the session. The most important one of all is to stay open to new possibilities. What’s that saying about lemonade again?

Above: “Extra, Extra!” – Scan of Acrylic Paint Deposited on Newsprint, 8 x 10″