a bit of saturday night improv
three hands better than one. from left to right: my nephew a.r., sister yasmine, me, and a.r. (who happens to have two hands)
Yesterday was one of those days that was destined to go against every plan I had in my book. But it was also one of those days that things somehow fell in place in an unexpected and serendipitous way. My life at the moment consists of very regimented days and I fall apart if things don’t go to plan. I did have a bit of a panic when I found myself on the way back to my parents’ too early and without a single drawing/painting utensil. I drove to my favorite stationers to find that the parking was full (I’d walk but we had a bit of a dust storm). I called my sister-who was thankfully home-and asked if she had anything, anything, that I could use to bide my time at my parents’. Luckily, she had lots of tracing paper, watercolors, brushes and my nephew.
my intention was to paint a picture on my own. my sister was gushing about how fun it was to paint on tracing paper using watercolors, so i thought i'd give it a try. i didn't have much choice anyway
i liked the fact that as frustrating as it was with the paper wrinkling and all, i was getting interesting effects and found that i could 'erase' anything i didn't like
my drawing was going more or less as planned. it was ok...
...until my nephew showed up. after that things got leaps and bounds more exciting. he wanted to paint so i let him paint. you have to realize that normally i would find this exercise very difficult (imagine having a toddler scribble over your work), but i found this both liberating and educational (children draw without inhibition, and watching him reminded me yet again that i should be less stressed out when i paint and just go with my gut)
swirly whirly hands
lastly, my sister joined in and this is what we drew, us three
I loved collaborating with a three-year-old and want to do more of these with other people I love and am completely comfortable with.
Remarkable! Beautiful, collaborative project. I think we all have a need to play.