6x15 | Oil on Wood

Week 19

"Be brave." He said to me as I looked at our images to paint. 2? I thought we'd do them separately ...because we only have 2 hours. "We don't know if we don't try, and if you stop challenging yourself, what do you have? Thus embarked this weeks painting(s). 

We worked on the smallest surface yet - and quite different. We reclaimed some wood from my grandmothers barn last time we were there. Alex remembers Sabka using wood to do certain paintings. As I prepped the surface, I wonder how it's gonna work out with the split knots and circles. 

The possibility, maybe even inevitability, of arguing before hand is always present. And as it happens, in that moment I think we won't paint anymore tonight - the mood has been ruined. But as we continue taking steps in preparation - getting paint out or drawing- it seems to dissipate as our excitement increases. Whatever it was was not worth getting in the way this time. Both of us jumped right in with our two canvases side-by-side painting on each - jumping back-and-forth or crossing over with a roaming brush. There was much feeling but it was like muscle memory. 

Being brave is both, choosing to challenge yourself in action- whether creatively or relationally. Ultimately the choice is upon us each week to dive in, to allow some surface things to make us mediocre, to destroy a night or to look past into something bigger and go there.