Day 29, 6 x 6 acrylic on gessoed 140 lb. Arches cold pressed paper. © 2017 Sheila Delgado

Today I challenged myself to paint without expectation. I grabbed a recycled sheet of paper, paint and a palette knife. At first I was placing tiny patches of color, calculating even spacing and distribution of each color. Blue, Shiraz, kiwi, natural buff and sun-kissed peach.

I caught myself, and started again. Smearing paint and then scratching into it. Smear, scratch, repeat. I used texture sheets, and scribbled with pastels once the paint was dry. Pink, bright blue, dark blue, orange, white. Still going for loose and “thoughtless”. But hoping to somehow bring it together. So, not carefree and abandoned at that point.

I held up the finished piece for inspection. My first thought was, “Looks like the Easter bunny barfed up his jelly beans.” Best to call it a work in progress.

Day 28. 8 x 8 mixed media on paper. © 2017 Sheila Delgado

Then I remembered Dotty’s thoughts on Day 28.
“It feels like an optical illusion that lets me see the same scene from multiple perspectives. The one that keeps catching me even though I can’t hold the perspective long enough to explore it is of my looking into the endlessness of the universe to discover that what I thought were planets and stars all these years are in fact flowers.

If Day 28 is the universe, Day 29 is the Big Bang.