This was a complete experiment, which is why I called it Curiosity. I was experimenting with a whole new strategy with pours and didn’t think it would turn out as something that I would display.

I watched a video on how to do a pour, thanks to my friend Cathy who was a fellow artist and shared the pouring videos. I added the pouring gel on the canvas and then poured the paint over the pouring medium. I began using some of the strategies that they showed in the videos, blowing on the paint to spread it, then I pulled out the hairdryer…nothing was working. After I saw the same strategies they were using, I realized the videos I watched all started at step 2, AFTER the paints had been mixed. I skipped step 1 and didn’t mix the paints WITH the pouring gel. I added them separately and tried to get the same result. I had already started so I needed to ad-lib. I decided to add more paint and use my paintbrush to spread the paint around to cover the canvas. As I kept working the colors, the texture and colors came together in a way I hadn’t quite imagined. There are even a couple parts that are purple and I don’t even remember using that color at all, the colors that came together must have met in a way to create the beautiful different highlights. For the being an experiment and after making my “mistake” I think the colors turned out well together and I love the texture formed. I decided I would display this even though I normally tell a story underneath. This was before I really started making sure every piece of art had a story underneath it that I could explain that informed the piece. In this case the mixed colors poured out tell the story of how I had my “wires crossed” in terms of how to do a pour. It is a great lesson though. Stick with it and even our seeming mistakes can turn into something different and better than we imagined. One friend even said “you simply created a new way of using it (the mixed media.)”

Here’s to curiosity and learning and building off our “mistakes.”

In joy,