Healthy Habits

While attending a Maker’s Market at the DIY cave in early December, I was thinking about what would be the inspiration for the next contribution canvas. I share with many, “it’s art with intention…embedded with meaning.” That starts from the beginning with the inspiration before I ever pick up a brush.

Inspiration comes from so many places in life. This inspiration came on the heels of my 5th Paint with the Artist event where the theme was “goals for the new year” as 2022 was winding to a close. Christie, a girl I began seeing, and I were talking about the inspiration for the work and she shared why don’t you make this one about “healthy habits?”

It’s never too early to begin new healthy habits and so I invited people to think about healthy habits they wanted to begin in the new year. As I talked with guests at the event, I loved seeing the intentional thought about what each person wanted to do for the new year. It was fun talking with a couple that had a new baby who added the word “sleep.” Another mom was talking with her daughter about the importance of “brushing her teeth” (which made it to the canvas.) Self care and mental health were among other items that showed on the canvas. Over the 2 days, winter weather was upon us and I drove through the snow to arrive at the show. A beautiful blanket of white was covering the roads as I headed home, something that would eventually inspire the colors used in the final piece.‌

I enjoy having the community contribute to a canvas and see young and old alike get excited to either draw on the canvas or add something that is important to them. Bringing awareness and more intention with the meaning of what they added was fun to read after the event when so many of the “healthy habits” were added.‌

Over the years, I have read some great books on habit including the books “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg and “Atomic Habits” by James Clear who built on where “The Power of Habit” left off. The idea (and, I’m simplifying the books) is to make the new habits you want to accomplish easier and the older habits you want to eliminate harder to accomplish. After the contributions, I hoped the intentions that were contributed to the canvas would find their way into the lives in some way, shape, or form.‌

After the winter came and went, and 50 days on the mountain came and went for me, I set up time in June to paint and that is when I began painting Healthy Habits. It started with colors to make sure certain words would show through. As I kept painting, the more the words were covered the more paint I added. I included a bunch of texture tools to add different dimensions to the paint I was using. I got to a certain point with the many colors I added that was darker than I hoped and I decided to experiment and used white to paint over the whole canvas and took a wet paper towel to level out the paint on the canvas and reveal some of the other colors. As I began wiping away the white while seeing the other layers of colors remain I waited to see what else needed to be done. Since the canvas was “wet” with the paper towels I knew I would need to let it dry before applying other colors.‌

I state in my book “Look at What’s Inside” that there are 3 stages of done: 1. It’s done. 2. It’s not done and needs more and 3. It’s not done, (over time) it is done. This work came into the 3rd stage. After finishing, I hung in my living room.‌

The layers of “fresh new habits” overlay existing habits on this canvas and am happy with how the Healthy Habit portrays a metaphor of a fresh new snowfall (that was falling over the 2 days) over existing habits as I met guests as they were shopping for gifts for themselves or friends/family. For those that contributed, how are your healthy habits going? For those that connect to the work, what healthy habits would you like to start…today? Without further ado, enjoy the work “Healthy Habits” and continuing “Healthy Habits.”