Day 6 - MAKE

What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it?

(Author: Gretchen Rubin)

Sidenote about the author: I love Gretchen... my parallel and I followed her very closely for quite a while trying to master "The Happiness Project" before realizing we just weren't that good at it. :)

The last thing I made is actually KIND of easy for me because I make things all the time... but the last thing I made FOR ME... that didn't involve a trip to a hardware store... is probably my ginormous painting in my dining room. 

 Additional sidenote: going through old pictures really drives home how many projects I idiotically start at once... probably explains all the NOT FINISHED projects hanging around...

I had a ginormous canvas that I bought for a commission for a restaurant that fell through. I've been told the photos are deceiving, so to be clear the canvas is about 6ft tall and 8ft wide... the largest painting I'd ever made was 18"x24"... and that was in college... so this was just, insane. But the thing cost me $80 and I had no where to put it, so I dove in sort of just to clear up some of the clutter... I figured if I painted something I could hang it and it'd be one less thing without a home.
Looking back if I'd put more thought into it I probably would have panicked and been paralyzed by the fear of screwing up such a huge and expensive canvas, and never started. But a snapshot into where we were at at this time: our mortgage application had just fallen through, 3 months after our scheduled closing date, for the house we'd already moved into after being told it was a "done deal." It was October, starting to get cold, and we had no working furnace...


I just realized... just this moment... this painting was an escape, a release... everything was going wrong... terribly, horribly wrong (someone actually brought up the point, "What if you just packed up and left? You could just leave, like in the middle of the night without telling anyone, companies and restaurants do that sometimes...") so I chose to do the one thing that I knew I could do right.

Hm. Wow. Yup. This is my painting. It's not perfect, but I like it. And I'm really proud of it. And now I'll think of it way differently every time I see it. 

I'll make something new in 2011. It's going to be a big year, but if I start to feel like I'm losing my grasp on it, I think I'll start a huge, insane painting for the big blank wall on my second floor. :)