The Color of Memory

I was surfing Pinterest today and I saw this picture from the blog A Beautiful Mess. It made me smile. You see, I wanted to be an artist when I was young. I took took art classes and spent my pocket change on sketchbooks and art supplies.

After I had used a few different kinds of mediums, I fell madly in love with oil pastels. They were easy to use and so much fun to work with. I loved the colors! But the best part was how tactile it was. Using pastels is like fingerpainting. I would have pigment all over me, not just on my paper! I didn’t care though. I thought the mess was as cool as the rest of it.

I think reason why I enjoy interiors so much is because it reminds me quite a bit of using pastels. It can be vibrant or muted, tactile, and messy… But the end result? Yeah, that makes me smile.

Once you start…

I haven’t done any crafting of any kind in some time but at one time or another I’ve drawn, painted, crocheted, knitted (or attempted to anyway), made bead jewelry, made cards, and sewed. I stopped doing anything a few years ago. Just hung up my crafting ways and concentrated on nothing but work, work, work all the time.

The sad part of all that was that I had this pent up creative energy that I desperately wanted to do something with and I was effectively denying a part of my essential nature by laying aside my favorite pastimes. I spent the greater part of the last two years pretty much in an mode of complete creative misery. Then a few weeks ago a friend of mine sent me a message on Facebook, saying “I just learned how to crochet!” and something in me clicked over. I felt like a light bulb got switched on in a room that’s always been in my house but that I didn’t use because the rest of the family thought it was a waste of the space.

Because of that moment I decided to go all out in the opposite direction. Not just picking up one of my old pastimes but also inviting my friends and neighbors into the mix and actively looking for ways to extend that excitement and desire for conscious community. I started this blog, set up a Facebook Page, invited people, started looking for projects and materials, and signed for an invite to Ravelry.

I got my Ravelry invite today and I started surfing, not hoping for much, more because I didn’t know what to expect than any sense of it not being all it was cracked up to be. I haven’t been disappointed. I’ve pretty much been surfing the site since I logged on a few hours ago. There is a wealth of information on the site and it’s very encouraging to see that I’m not the only gung-ho creative type out there.

So, I’m looking at my project with a little bit less apprehension and a little more enthusiasm. I’m looking forward to the upcoming meeting that much more. I’m excited to try out and find new yarn and new patterns. Now that I’ve started… well, I’m not gonna stop.