"Health"

It has taken forever to paint this latest canvas.  Actually, I started it and ignored the fact it was propped in a corner, but I think actively ignoring something takes a lot of energy and should count towards actual painting time.  Painting over stuff should count for at least triple time, not forgetting time spent painting the original images in the first place.

This is the most recent of my mental health paintings.  I'm not really complaining about the time I spent on it.  I enjoy doing them.  The hardest part isn't the painting, it's thinking through an issue and deciding what to paint.  Another self-imposed difficulty is that I start painting without a plan.  The painting grows as I sort my thoughts.  That makes it hard at later stages when I can't figure out how to make everything fit and work together.

When I quit ignoring this canvas in the corner, I started carrying it around the house with me.  I took it out for drinks with my girlfriends the other day.  It was almost like having another person at the table.  My friends ask me to bring my latest when we get together, but this painting got a mixed response.  I'm curious what do you think of it?

Bro2 came over and took a new jar of pickled okra because he liked the first jar.  (I couldn't even get my friends to try them.)  He saw my painting and said, "Hey!  I know that box!"  We talked about the box and other things.  I think the painting is a conversation starter.

Since I've had this piece around in the active stage for so long it feels strange to let it go and move on to the next project.  I'm kind of used to being annoyed about its incomplete, nagging presence, but I'm pretty sure I'll get over that pretty quickly as the next painting traps my interest.

In other health thoughts, I'd like to say I'm sick of avocados, but I'm really not.  There were a quite a few left over at the last food giveaway and I took some home.  Now I'm down to my last half of an avocado and really hoping we'll have more this week.  Sure beats okra at any rate.

My food volunteering has improved my diet, as I keep getting organic produce from Trader Joe's.  I appreciate their donations and recommend you shop there since they have a giving ethic.  The only problem for me is they donate big quantities of certain things like okra.  Or, they give us a lot of snow peas and snap peas, both of which are great, but there's only so many peas a person can eat.  There's a young girl who comes who loves both kinds of peas though, and there's an old guy who loves okra, so maybe it's all good.

My library is giving away seeds from a seed bank.  I'm going to start my garden inside for even more vegetables.  Maybe the groundhog and deer will even let me eat some of them?  I can't garden outside yet even though the temp was 60F yesterday.  They're predicting snow for Sunday.  But I killed another mosquito this week!

I could go on another rant about climate change and politics, but I just don't feel like it.  Maybe finishing my mental health painting has helped me achieve a new, blissed-out state of being?  Or maybe it's the avocados :)