
For 2014, I was excited to pick another word-nudge, and 'deepen' emerged unbeckoned. I recognized a desire to anchor the unleashed creativity to a deeper part of myself.
The background for this piece came out of an amazing class I took at the "Call of the Wild Soul" retreat in Petaluma last November. The talented artist who taught it had been one of my art heroes: Tracy Verdugo . She is, in real life, as bright and beautiful as she appeared in her social media: but she is also humble and genuine. The process and the experience of the class were inspiring, but my painting itself was ... meh! Looking at in in the last couple of months, I realized that, although a good exercise, I needed to make the painting my own. I needed to go deeper if I wanted to bring it out. Even though I didn't love what I had, I was kind of afraid I would obliterate the play I had created at the retreat, so I hesitated. But the other day I got brave, and deepened, and this little personita came out to reward the risk I took.
I am now sure that 'deepen' is an excellent word to challenge myself in 2014. Scary-good.