The Six Phases of Art-Making.

The finished painting.  I took so many pictures along the way.  Photos of all the many many many stages...  You know what they say:  The painting leads the painter.  Well, this one lead me around the world several times.

Stage one, gesso, maps, vintage book pages, paint.

A figure started to emerge.  She seemed to be a mermaid.

This was the first of the six phases of artmaking.  The "this is awesome" phase.

For those of you who are not familiar with the six phases of artmaking, they are as follows:
     1.  This is awesome
     2.  This is tricky
     3.  This is sh#*
     4.  I am sh#*
     5.  This might be ok
     6.  This is awesome


  I learned all this on google. 

I was still having fun here.

I got stuck at stage 2. the "This is tricky" stage.  So I gave it to JAH to work some of her magic.  We like to call this a "cameo appearance", you know, like in the movies. Another artist friend does a "walk on".   It was so lovely after she got a hold of it.  But, it was still tricky.

Then I did this and it led me straight to stage 3.  Ut oh, that's no fun at all.  We all know the stage 3 phase where it is sh#* leads straight to the awful phase 4 stage...

and I stayed in the awful stage 4 phase for waaay too long.  I sat and I stared and I stared and I sat and I sipped tea and stared some more.  But still,  I. WAS. SH#*.  I  stared at the photos too, my heavy artillery for figuring out what to do next.

And then, this happened.  This was the magic moment for me, the moment where it showed me what it was.

From there on out it was just a matter of defining the goat/pony.  My husband and I play this game,  its called "Three People Had A Baby".  Its a variation on the thing people do where they see somebody and guess who their celebrity parents are.  Well let me tell you what, its waaay more fun when you do three parents.  You can hone in with ruthless accuracy.  This animal, for instance, is the child of a goat, a calf, and a My Little Pony.  Someday I will dedicate an entire blog post to it because I'll admit, this was a terrible example of of wonderfully silly and very addictive game that once you play, you can never really stop.  Ever.  Yes, more on this later...

I was now at the "this might be ok" stage.  It needed some areas covered up.  Collage papers to the rescue.

It still needed even more definition...

Almost there...

Darker darks, more ear definition, more mane definition.  I made it full circle, back to the "this is awesome" phase.   It's just too big and drippy for me to take it home and hug it and kiss it and sleep with it cradled in my bosom, but I would if I could.

My Pretty Little Goat/Pony.

I spruced up the eye...

and this happened.  So I left it.

What an eventful day in the Dreamery.  I was mentally exhausted from the struggle.  Painting is hard.  Some days it just kills you dead.  In fact, I turned.  (this is a Walking Dead reference).  I turned, and then kept going so far I turned back.  So I'm good.

details...