A few years ago, I read this book — The Talent Code — about how our brains work and what it takes for us to get really-eally good at certain things.
One of the chapters talked about a charter school that based almost everything they taught around the words “Work hard. Be nice.” For some reason that really stuck in my head. I think it’s pretty much the best advice ever. Last night I painted a little cardboard sign with those words to keep by my desk.
I made my sister a painting of her dog for her birthday. This isn’t a great picture of the painting (I know it’s kind of blurry), because I forgot to take a good photo or scan it before I mailed it to her. This is a photo I took with my phone to show someone else, but for now, it’s all I’ve got.
I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, considering that I don’t usually paint actual living things. I had a bunch of photos to look at for reference, and that helped a LOT.
A few years ago, I was going through a pretty big depression. Sometimes when there’s too much going on in my head, I paint, and it helps. Robots are sort of my default subject when I’m not sure what to paint, so I painted a lot of robots back then — but all of those robots turned out SO sad-looking that I can’t even bear to look at them.
I gave some of the sad robot paintings to my friend Meredith just to get them out of my apartment (she does props and thought she might have a use for them someday). They’re now being used on the set of the TV show Suburgatory, which I think is hilarious.
But anyway, one of those old robot paintings was so depressing that Meredith couldn’t bear to look at it either. It showed a hopeless-looking robot who was chained to the ground. I decided I would paint over that one, and today, I finally did.
I don’t have a before picture, but here’s a “during” shot that gives you a peek at what I was covering up.
And here’s the after:
I ended up deciding at the very end that the new version had too much pink space, so I gave it a blue border.
I’m so happy that I turned this painting (which is on a piece of cradled clayboard, and super-easy to hang) into something I can put on the wall of my apartment without making visitors cry!
p.s. The new version still looks a bit hesitant and cautious, but I think this robot at least believes things can get better.
Sometimes, when I’m really stressed out, or way too busy, a little voice in my head starts saying “You’re doing a great job, Lisa. You’re doing the best you can.” Maybe that sounds crazy, but whatevs. Stop judgin’!
This weekend, I spent some time with a friend, and she was more stressed out than I’d ever seen her (she’s in the middle of a move and a major job change). So I made this little postcard for her and put it in the mail. She knows about my encouraging inner voice, so I think she’ll appreciate it.
p.s. I mailed the actual painting to my friend, but I want to dedicate this post to EVERYONE who’s working hard and feeling unappreciated. You’re doing a great job. I am glad you exist.
A while back, I met YA author Cecil Castellucci (whose books I love, btw — her latest is First Day on Earth) at a book festival, and we talked about her Literary Diaspora project, “an experiment in sending words and images out into the wild.” I used to mail little postcard-sized paintings to people I thought were cool on a regular basis, so I thought her project sounded fun.
Cecil gave me a postcard-sized piece of art paper, and asked me to make a painting based on the words “Mountain View.” This is what I submitted:
After Cecil receives the art, she prints up postcards, mails them out to authors, and asks them to write something (on the postcard) inspired by the art and mail it back to her. I can’t wait to see what people write about this one.
p.s. I love macrame plant hangers. Maybe that’s because I’m a child of the ’70s? I have an orange one hanging in my window right now.
A little robot girl I painted the other day. She’s thinking big thoughts, I can tell. :)
I made this one as a Christmas gift for a friend who likes frogs. I don’t know how to paint a real frog, so I painted a robot pretending to be a frog. He’s wearing a frog costume that’s way too small for him.
Here’s a little robot I painted last night. I wanted it to look like the robot was sending waves of creative energy out into the universe from a calm, safe place, but I feel like the creative energy part of the painting looks a bit too crazed and frazzle-y. I wanted that part to feel nicer somehow. I still think it’s a cute painting, though.
I like that the little robot looks like it’s floating in a tiny swimming pool. That wasn’t intentional — i think it’s just because I used a pool-ish color for the middle.
One thing I love about swimming/floating is that it kind of allows people to escape gravity for a while. I think maybe being creative does the same thing for our souls (or brains or whatever). I like the idea that through creativity, we allow ourselves to float.
Sometimes things (paperback books, mostly) come in the mail with extra pieces of cardboard, and sometimes that cardboard looks up and me and says “Paint something on me, Lisa,” and sometimes I do.
I didn’t make any holiday cards last year (I bought supplies and then got too busy), but I did make a little drawing of my dog in a Santa hat. I picked up that same notebook this year to sketch out some holiday card ideas, and when I saw my little Stitch drawing, I thought “That’s perfect.”
I made two versions of the card. It’s kind of hard to tell in the pictures, but they were both stamped and then sprinkled with glitter while the ink was still wet, so they’re VERY sparkly. The red version is more traditionally Christmasy, but I think the blue version is a little bit prettier.
And here’s the stamp I carved for printing them. (I had to reverse which eye Stitch was missing, so it would come out right on the card.)
In conclusion, I love my dog, and I hope you all have a very lovely rest of December, whether you’re celebrating Christmas or not.
Previous holiday cards (the ones I’ve posted online, at least):
Snowing robots (2008)
Happy snowflake (2004)
Bundled-up robot (2003) – this is one of my all-time faves.
