On flipping and flopping and other such things

Big Cedar Lodge. If you haven't heard of it, listen up. If you haven't seen it, look. If you haven't been, go. It's at times the scene of crazy beautiful weddings like my cousin Jennifer's this fall. Watch this video. It'll be good for your soul. But be careful. The Lord commands us not to covet. And covet this wedding you will. So promptly repent. (By the way, she married a professional bull rider. Who does that? Cool people, that's who.)

Luke + Jen from Something Blue Cinema on Vimeo.

At other times, in between the minivans full of Kanakuk families and cabin after cabin packed with vacationers, Big Cedar is the backdrop which becomes the foreground on a hundred artists' canvases. And on one such occasion - Plein Air Paint Out 2012 -  my mom and cousin Laura road tripped down to Tablerock Lake to watch them all break out their oils and acrylics. Needless to say, after a full weekend of watching art made, Laura was inspired to boldly paint some herself. 

Thus our enrollment in Artichoke's Abstract Acrylics workshop last month. 

And yes, if you are wondering, when a wedding video is as darling as the aforementioned and aforeshown, any good lady can find a way to weave it into an utterly unrelated post. BOOM. We're in the middle of my story's part 2 and you're still wondering how you can lure your husband into renewing his vows. Bam, thank you ma'am. 

Anyway, here we are. Following the Plein Air weekend, Laura invited me to do this class with her. And I'll be frank. We probably should have taken a happy hour first. The creativity was a little hard to squeeze out as we stared at our white canvases. A cocktail would have helped. Live and you learn. 

Let me tell you a secret. Each of our paintings are based off of the very same image. Huh, maybe one of the two of us did take a happy hour prior to class.

Moral of the story here is that anyone can paint. And everyone should paint.

I didn't think I'd hang mine. I usually throw things I make into the back of the closet until a few months later when I pull it out again only to paint something new over it. But this time I don't totally hate it. So I hung it on our nice new white wall.

The best part about abstract art is you can often turn it upside down and get a fresh new look. You can also pull a Kylie and turn NON-abstract art on its side, completely to the dismay of the artist, I'm sure. Sorry, Marjolyn van der Hart.

But, again, a little flip flop never hurt anyone. Except when it did and tonight Annie totally flipped over a big toy and smacked her bum to the ground. A flip and a flop and a huge rush of tears.

"Abstract" as it may be when I painted it, I've decided to name it Touch Down. Because I love the NFL. Who dat. Or, really, because upside down I think it looks like a red tornado touching down on a field in the middle of an electrifying storm. 

So there you have it. From a gorgeous wedding to slapping up some paint.