Musings of a Single Gal

Recently I was on the phone with a girlfriend who was lamenting being single. This got me thinking. I don’t begrudge my current single status. Do I want to be happily married with children? Yes, I do. But am I sitting awake at night worrying about this? Not at all.

As Patty on The Millionaire Matchmaker recently said - “You are 1 date away from a boyfriend.”

Since my last long term relationship I have been: to Greece (on my own); to Hawaii (with my Mom); to Vegas (with the girls); and had numerous overnight/ weekend trips to San Diego and Palm Springs (on my own). I’ve had 4 marriage proposals: one insulting, two sweet, and one Oh My God I Had No Idea. I’ve had my heart re-broken by my ex. Broken again by my most recent lover. Been asked by countless men to be their girlfriend. And oh yes, had at least 50 first dates - some hilarious, some excruciatingly painful, and some nice, warm and fuzzy.

I’ve met some really amazing, incredible, bright, talented men along the way. Some of whom are now true friends of mine. And I’ve gotten to know a lot of women I now call friends as well. Women I didn’t know before my last relationship.

Come on! What isn’t to love about this adventure called single life? The grass can feel greener whichever side of the marriage line we are on. In my mind, how I choose to live, I’m just going with it. Storing up the memories for when I’m one day in the future running on 3 hours of sleep, have 2 toddlers getting into everything in the house, and wondering when was the last time I had a minute to myself.

Right now that can sound like bliss. But I can tell you, listening to my girlfriends on the phone with their screaming kids on the other end, sometimes my life looks pretty good too. Like when I tell them on the weekend I got up late, or took myself to dinner with a good book and ordered a nice glass of wine. And of course when I say I met a great/ sexy guy and my stomach got butterflies.

So single? Relax. Enjoy the ride. It can be an awesome time in our lives, if we just let it be so. 

For another female inspired post, see A Creation Myth

Sometimes Size Really Does Matter

A few months ago my Mom and I went to Hawaii for vacation. I took lots of pictures of fish when I was snorkeling and now I'm painting a few. The problem with fish (creatively) is that they have a lot of tiny angles. And for some reason I decided to paint on smaller canvas than I normally do. Which means - I can't use my normal set of large brushes.

I know some say it's not the size of the tool, it's how you use it. But so far, I have not been able to figure out how to use a large brush to fill a tiny precise corner of canvas. Its like trying to hammer a tack into the wall with a mallet - it just doesn't work.

So now I'm sitting at my easel all hunched over, trying to work these tiny brushes into tiny corners. It's still kind of driving me crazy because I hate to work that tight and tense. But - I am making progress, which is fabulous. Guess I just needed the right sized tool for the job. Sometimes smaller really is better. ;-)

Happy Mistakes

I have a friend, Greg Martin, (www.lumartingalleries.com) who is also an artist. He has a concept which he shared with me called making a "happy mistake." This idea initially came up when something went wrong with one of my abstract paintings. And he said, maybe I would learn something or create a new type of art, now that I had to fix my mistake. At the time, it definitely made me feel better, but I didn't actually create anything new and unique from my "mistake."

A month or so ago, I decided to try gold leaf on a painting. Gold leafing is a 3 step process. Sealing the gold leaf is the third step in the process. Well, the sealant for the gold leaf had dried up, so I couldn't use it. I looked around my studio, found another form of sealant, and put it on the gold leaf. The next morning I came back, and realized that some of the painting and the gold had tarnished. At first I was a little irritated, because gold leaf in pristine condition is so pretty. But then I realized, that from an abstract painting point of view, having variations in the leafing was actually better. And is something that makes the paintings very unique and original. With no way to exactly replicate one, even if I make multiples of the same basic concept. This was indeed a very "happy mistake."

Have any of you had similar happy mistakes?

For another look at the making of art see Step Back