Paint Crazy

In my quest of all things creative, I discovered this wonderful wonderful new local business called The Loaded Brush.  It a BYOB painting class.  Folks can have a glass of wine or beer or two or three and learn to paint a copy of a famous painting. I got a deal on Living Social and invited my friend Marilee to join me for an afternoon of creative fun.  It was a great time. The owner, Aaron is laid back, informative, and funny.  The studio is light and bright.  What I really appreciated about Aaron is that he honestly believes anyone can paint, create and have a ton of fun in the process.  We painted copies of The Chat Noir.  We didn't have wine or beer, but had a relaxing enjoyable afternoon.  I danced out of there feeling like I was a painter in Paris 1920's. As much creating  I do, I don't think of myself as a painter. (Well, I paint rooms in my house, but not an art painter.) I amaze myself every time I create a painting. As we were painting Aaron mentioned a term he calls "Paint Crazy".  That's when our negative voice rises up and says all sort of nasty blocking things.  Aaron suggested we step back, walk away, take a break in order to shut the voice down.  I was so in love with the moment and process, I didn't experience "Paint Crazy", until later in the week, when I was creating a costume for a show and suddenly everything I was putting together was wrong I felt like scrapping the entire show.  There it was "Paint Crazy".  Dang.  I stopped what I was doing.  Went for a walk. Did some yoga and made some dinner.  The craziness got so bad, it was making me cranky and bitchy. I picked a fight and yelled at poor Broadside. It took me a good night sleep and two more long walks, and I think I shook it.  This morning the costume that triggered this, looked good to me.  Finally!
My copy of The Chat Noir, looks awesome to me.  I want to paint more and will.
So, to Aaron at The Loaded Brush in SE Portland, I thank you for a fantastic afternoon, lessons on painting, making it easy for me to create something I'm proud of, and helping me realize the depths of "Paint Crazy."

Folks and Followers, if you live in Portland...check out The Loaded Brush.  I can not imagine you not having a great time and loving what you paint.  It might be a great way to put that "I'm just not creative" chatter to rest (which by the way is close friend of "Paint Crazy".)
Have you ever experienced "Paint Crazy"?  How do you shake it off?

Until next week...Create to feel great!
29 projects complete 23 to go!

And this blog post would not be complete without showing off my version of The Chat Noir!