How has your week been and what has this prompt got you thinking about?

 

I have had the chance to be in some interesting environments this week: the darkness of the eclipse, heavy rains and hail in hot weather, really windy weather, then a hot and sunny day! My good friend and fellow CSN member, Archna is visiting me here in Austin and we are planning to visit some nature spots today and I'm hoping we can make some temporary art with the fallen leaves, flowers, rocks, and branches for our current prompt! Fingers crossed we'll have good materials to work with and it'll turn out!

 

Here's a playlist of 8 songs inspired by this prompt, enjoy these songs as well as the inspiration from our community below,

“Growth. Watercolor and acrylic. It's the beginning of spring, so of course I thought of flowers. I watched a fun tutorial on simple watercolor flower designs I wanted to try. I forgot to save the post though and couldn't find it again, so I worked from memory. It was a fun, playful exercise. After I painted the flowers, I added some gold acrylic for shimmer. I just love those metallics.” - MITZI

“This week’s prompt is Growth. Oh sure Spring and flowers come to mind and I’m going to work on that next but this image (bottom pic) on IG spoke to me. At this point in my life I feel like an old (mature) building that could use a little cosmetic work but actually looks amazing when surrounded by people and things that are beautiful, and notable those individuals committed to being better humans. Thank you @atiliay for being one of those people and helping me grow." - KAREN It's my pleasure to get to create and grow alongside you, Karen :)

I drew the above picture around the time I was in 4th grade (I think--it's not dated which reminds me I need to remember to date my artwork)! My idea for the prompt growth was to draw this same picture again using the same mediums, 30 years later! I'm going to try to keep it as close to the original as possible. I'm still working on it--I've been having a little bit of a perfectionism block where I'm worried the result won't be what I imagine and it's making me procrastinate. But I'm going to move forward, knowing that my best is good enough and have fun with it! It's also only by doing that I can ever get better.

I wanted to wrap this email up with some more inspiration in the form of environmental artist Edith Meusnier's artwork! Edith is a textile artist whose large public installations address themes of sustainability in today's world. Her works are placed in the outdoors to be weathered by the seasons, ultimately commenting on man's place in the larger environment. I included one of her pieces in the last email and wanted to show you more--I am really drawn to the materials, colors, and shapes in her work!

I hope you'll find some time to create this weekend, maybe go outside for a moment,   arrange some rocks and leaves, and see where that leads you! And if you're also procrastinating because of perfectionism, let's take one small action towards what it is we're holding back on, then another, and another. 

 

Talk to you soon,