The Path of Change is...(pick your word)

As a person who likes to make things, I’m always looking for new and interesting techniques to expand my creative horizons. At the same time, after learning these new and wonderful techniques, I find myself almost always reverting back to the same mediums and symbols that feel most like ‘me’. Occasionally part of a technique or a new medium will work its way into a project, but it’s a slow process. 
 

With the thought of trying to move past my reserve in implementing changes in my art I took a "Free-Frawl" painting class from my friend Susan Brasch.  She is a very talented visual artist, writer and mediator, who teaches at her home studio and through Art&Soul, here in Lincoln. 

Here is one of the pieces I completed in her class. I call it ‘Sleeping Heart’. It's worked on a piece of smooth paper, 24"x36", in acrylics and soft pastel.

She's a little crinkly from the color washes

I really like the colors.

While it has some spontaneity to it I think I still fell back into one of my art patterns, women and hearts, BUT it is looser and wilder in many ways, so that’ a start! I don’t think I will ever stop exploring the possibilities, but I know what I like to do, so isn’t that what I should do? I don’t think it’s a ‘fear’ thing exactly, but this quote is a good one for me to keep in mind then next time I start to explore a new idea:
 

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” —Marianne Williamson