“Values:” Musings From the Model’s Chair

This week has been a roller coaster of amazing life. I modeled for a friend of mine who was hosting a workshop with an out of state {amazing} artist. [Side note: I realized this past week how many amazing artist friends I have in my life. Ummmm one word for you: Blessed. I love them and their spastic, creative energy so much. It is soothing to my own spastic soul.]

This week I played model…amongst my many other hats that I love to juggle. 

Casey Baugh was in town {you can admire his talents here} and for six hours one day I sat and listened as he instructed, inspired, critiqued, and motivated the 15 artists surrounding me to find something uniquely special and beautiful about what was in front of them and translate it onto their canvas. 

He spoke a lot about Values. And before I dig myself in too much of a hole…allow me to remind you these are thoughts from my chair. No one else’s. I claim artistry in the world of words, not colors and paints. He may scoff at my lack of knowledge of his world…but we shall we. 

Before pinpointing and getting swept away in colors and hues he asked them to look at the lighting and translate it first. To see the lighting, the contrast, highlights, and shadows. Black and white. 

It’s always so interesting to me when I do these events with different artists or I sit around a table with beautifully inspired people all of differing opinions, creative ideas, and general awesomeness. The creative mind is it’s own uniquely beautiful beast. 

Here’s what I’ve concluded. The mark of a good artist is our ability to feel, see, notice something that many others do not and even more than that is to translate that into a movement, a word, a brush stroke, a photograph, a portrait, etc. that elicits an emotional response from you. Not necessarily the emotion that we pinpointed, but an emotion that lands on the emotional spectrum none the less. Because whether you hate it or love it or are angry at it…at least we have moved you enough for you to take notice.

Later in the week, I watched Casey do a charcoal portrait and, well, my mind was blown again. I’ve seen many friends paint and draw and the magic of their creating something out of nothing never ceases to astound me. He began with a blank slate. Thirty minutes later, she emerged. This beautiful, whimsical creature that I just could not decide if she was pouting because her world was not as she wanted it to be or if she had dark, hidden secrets that she would die to keep hidden. For the moment it did not matter, she was lovely. 

Values…light…dark…gray…darker…lighter…before red, yellow, blue, or lines that define. 

I couldn’t help but wonder…isn’t that kind of like life? We would like it to be a beautiful portrait. [Isn’t that why Facebook was created? So with every brushstroke of our lives or click of our keyboards we could become more perfect?] We would like to just be that finished, completed work of art without the jumbled and sometimes ugly process that is before it.

There was one day this week in particular in which I had some of the happiest moments that I have experienced within the past year. I laughed until I cried for hours. I sat in moments of nothingness with friends and felt the palpable energy of enjoying each other’s company. Then I left. I got in my car…and sobbed. [To explain why would be laborious and would not add anything to my point. Check back with me later for that one.]

Great emotion elicits great emotion. Happy and sad. Light and dark. You must have both. And all that  is in between. Life is a great composition of black, white, and every shade of grey in between. To hide from the dark or use only the light would (generally) not compose the optimal piece of work. That which is your life…in the current metaphorical use of words. 

So…for today…I choose to not hide from either. With the light/the good comes the risk, the fear of pain. And in the darkness there is pain, maybe pain or discomfort we’re used to but pain nonetheless. 

This morning I told a friend, “I don’t want to give my heart away again.” Not to a friend, not to a girl, a man, a cat, or even a work of art. In that moment it seemed it would be easier to hide my heart, cover it up, tuck it away in a box, sit it on a high shelf, and ensure it is completely out of harms way. 

And completely hidden. In the dark.

No…there is no beauty in that. 

So…for today…I choose to hide from neither.

Cheers to Friday. Cheers to beauty, to love, and to living well. Cheers to not hiding…because you are lovely and worthy of being seen. 

Step into the light. 

Happy Friday, loves.

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