As a full-time college student, with a part-time job, full-time mommy duties to my newborn (kitten), and the occasional social life when my schedule permits, it’s rare that I get a second to rest. Last week’s artist experience consisted of sketching in the Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden. I found that, through this project, I was able to relax- which was much needed throughout my busy schedule. For this reason, when Glenn announced this week that we would have the liberty to choose our artist experience, I knew exactly what I would be doing.
I walked by myself into the garden and took a seat by the koi pond. For the first few minutes, I had just sat there. Sat there, and looked out into the little things such as the variety of flowers grown to decorate the bushes, the crescendo of ripples amongst the water, and a pelican hunting for koi fish. It stood up in the water, carefully scoping out its next victim. His eyes dilated as a school of ten koi fish swam by. The first, too big to swallow whole. The second, too fast for him to take a nip. On the other hand, the next must’ve looked to him like the perfect meal. He struck down and then came up again with a gulp, as the fish attempted to swim up the pelicans throat to avoid being swallowed. In that moment, I took out my phone and was able to capture the pelican as it successfully consumed the koi. In its memory, I decided to take out my art supplies and draw a koi fish. I hadn’t laid hands on a crayon since preschool; so in some weird way, the gesture was somewhat nostalgic.
After I drew the portrait, I wanted to keep going. I’m not much of an artist, but I found myself actually having fun with the process. I grabbed my canvas wanting to paint, but I still had yet to settle on an idea. Therefore, I began with the paints I brought. I squeezed a bit of everything- yellow, brown, blue, orange- all of it, onto a palette. The hue presented in the blue paint resembled that of the sky. I dipped my paintbrush into it and then covered the whole canvas in baby blue. After taking some time to find inspiration, I decided I wanted to paint a flower. I didn’t want to go for anything complex for two reasons. The first being that my art skills are about as good as a three year-old in preschool. The next being that the whole point of this was to take a break from the influx of stress that I encounter throughout my life. Therefore, the simplicity found in painting a single flower was therapeutic.
My goal for this project was simple and to the point. I strived to obtain peace. In total, I probably spent about an hour working on both drawings. For the first time in awhile, I was able to rejoice in how calm things were. At times, I did find it hard to focus on what I was doing in the present due to my anxiety constantly reminding me of the unfinished business on my agenda. Even so, I was happy. Ultimately, I was able to utilize this space as my sanctuary; even if it was for only a few minutes, and even if it was for the purpose of an assignment, I was grateful to have had the opportunity to take some time for myself to relax.
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