Legitimacy

Last week was a week of indecision. I knew that would come eventually...a week when I would jump from idea to idea, just to reject each one about 7 minutes into brainstorming because I wanted to use that fabric for something else, or I didn't have this tool that I needed...you get the point. So it came down to Saturday. And I hadn't done much of anything...and Twilight came out on DVD...so I was a little stuck. Give into my obsession of the past 4 months and watch Twilight, or follow through on my promise to myself that I would make something? In the end, I decided to do both.

Every day, I go on Etsy for a little bit of inspiration. The other day I found this:
Love love love it. I love the thickness of the paint, the contrasting colors, the simplicity of the design. What I did not love was that it was being sold in the $200+ range. And it's been sold since I found it less than a week ago. (Do you see this, Megan? This would probably take you what...an hour or so? You should never ever worry about money, dearest. Pick up a paintbrush!) Anyway, I decided that I didn't need to spend that much money and that I wouldn't like to have a 4 painting series anyway, so I set out to make my own triptych.

By the time I decided to do this, I was already home for the night, having gone out and bought Twilight. Now that the movie was in my possession, I was not willing to head back out for canvases and oil paint. So I improvised. I popped the movie into the DVD player, sent Jason into the other room to work on his sermon for the next morning, and sat down in front of the TV with a sketchbook and a big 120 count box of crayons. I picked my palette and started drawing circles. I covered every exposed bit of white. I spent about an hour on each one, which sounds like a lot of time, but it didn't feel like it when I was keeping company with vampires. Here was the result:
(Disclaimer: I apologize for the poor quality of this picture...the glass of the frames is really reflective, so it posed a challenge. You get the idea.)
I now have them hanging in my office, a little splash of color on the wall that shares the door. I put them there so I wouldn't have to explain them to my passing coworkers. I feel like they're kind of silly. I love crayons because I have them and because I don't have the slightest hesitation about using them. Fabric runs out, and then what if I can't find that pattern again? I hoard it until I can find a project that is just right for it, and even then, I cut it with just a bit of sadness and regret. Paint is kind of expensive. And I don't know what to do with it really, so I feel like it's always a waste. But crayons...they are a cheap and unlimited resource. And I feel absolutely no guilt of spending three hours worth of crayon on a silly little triptych. But when it comes to the end result, it's hard for me to give it credibility. It's hard for me to consider crayons as a legitimate medium for "art." Doodles? Yes. Sketches for planning projects? Absolutely. But Art? To be framed and hung on a wall? To masquerade in place of works done by legitimate artists with legitimate media?

But in the end, I'm pretty sure that how I feel with a crayon in my hand is what this little venture is all about. Freedom, empowerment, license to create, to loose the shackles of legitimacy and simply to make. So there it is, my little triptych, and my little challenge to you to make something silly, to take joy in picking up a box of crayons or some popsicle sticks or whatever other medium you have abandoned to the hands of children. And remember how it feels to create something and to have it hung on the refrigerator and to know that you are an artist.