I have been diving into childhood joy and finding inspiration despite grief. My Grandpa recently passed and I've been holding memories of him and my Grandma in my heart lately. I was on a bit of a studio break because of travel, art shows, and life stuff and I am so ready to be back in the studio. I just wanted to experiment and let it take me to new places. No pressure, just play.
I have been playing more with new materials and it feels really good! There has been a shift in the way I use color that I'm really feeling lately. It makes me think of my Grandma who would always ask, "What colors are you using right now?" Another thing that is inspiring me sort of indirectly is Disney's Fantasia. If you aren't familiar with it, Disney's animators were given free rein and collaborated to create visuals set to classical music. First in 1940, and again in 1999. (And by the way, things get kinda trippy which is always fun). I just rewatched it recently and this is also connected to my paternal grandparents. (It's making me think a lot about artistic collaboration, something that is exciting to me and I look forward to bringing more of that into my practice).
Whenever my sister and I would sleep over at my Grandparent's house they would play a VHS tape with both the original Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 for us to watch in bed. We would fight off sleep until we had watched it all the way through. I didn't realize it then, but my grandparents were making their love of music more accessible to us in a medium they knew we could enjoy. And that bridge between their love of classical music and my love of art is something I really appreciate now as an adult. I look back on this ritual as one of my favorites from childhood. Watching Fantasia really brings on the nostalgia and sensory memories!
Watching it always inspires me and it's a sweet way to connect to my Grandparents now that they are ancestors. This movie brings me back to that warm and safe place of "fishy crackers" (goldfish), sifting through stories and coins with Grandpa, eating crepes and berries, playing dress-up with Grandma's scarves, and being huddled under covers with my sister, fighting off sleep in the glow of the tv.
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