What I learned from painting Dr.Seuss
If you’ve been to my house, you would know how much I love Dr.Seuss because you would see 4 of his book covers that I’ve painted, all around my living room.
If you gazed upwards you’d see a painting that is over 5 feet tall with Conrad and Sally at the top of the stairs. There is “Did I ever tell you how lucky you are?” in the bathroom, and “The Sleep Book” cover in the bedroom with a large “This book is to be read in bed” painting over the bed.
When I first started painting I replicated the things I loved, without doing this I’m not sure I would have had the courage to try painting because the pressure to come up with an original idea was just too great.
As I was finishing this latest book cover “The Cat in the Hat”, I wasn’t feeling as enthusiastic. Some of the joy was gone from this process that I had once loved.
What was going on????
I thought about it and then I realized that I was feeling somewhat bored and uninspired. How could this be? I mean, hello, it’s Dr.Seuss!
Don’t get me wrong, I still love him and his work (I always will). I think he’s amazing. I just wasn’t feeling that same excitement replicating his work – here’s why….
I’ve grown.
All the while I was working on this painting I was thinking about this other style of art I’ve been enjoying and how I wish I was doing that instead. You see I’ve been taking online classes here and there with talented artists like Kelly Rae Roberts and Juliette Crane. These two ladies especially have taught me how fun it is to paint with your fingers, collage with napkins, dribble, smudge, smear. And I LOVE it! It’s so fun and so freeing. That is what is calling to my soul these days and I need to do more of that.
I also find so much more pride in my own work and my own creations. I find that I’m in awe of a painting that just showed up without any sort of plan… just from playing! And you know, my Dr.Seuss influence still shows up from time to time – here’s an example…
The best of both worlds combined.
My Seussy Boat can be purchased here on my Society 6 site if you love it too.
So the moral of this post is, paint what you love. Paint the heck out of it! And when you’re feeling some of the zest is gone then try new things and see what emerges. It’s okay to switch gears, in fact it’s healthy. It makes you well rounded.
Watch this space for some new works filled with JOY and PLAY. I promise to keep sharing my discoveries here.
Keep Creating!
