A-Musing

 

So my friend Abby totally rocks and she signed the 3 of us (me, her, and Em) up for the soft opening of a new paint bar on Commercial Street in Portland; Muse (do you get the sweet play on words I did in the title now?!...I know I'm so creative.)  

Anyway, I’ll be honest, I was excited but a bit anxious about painting in a group setting with people looking over my shoulder and with people who are far better painters than I. But ya know what? It was freakin’ awesome. It was completely inspring and carefree and fun. There were people there who had never picked up a paint brush before and people (like Abby) who are naturally artistic. No one judged. It felt like a safe place to make ‘mistakes’…if that’s even a thing when we’re discussing art. It was a place to enjoy a glass of wine, learn some a few techniques, and do something new with my girlfriends. Plus the decor was rad and made me so happy. (loving me some marquee sis gns!)

The instructor was super bubbly and lovely. Exactly what you’d expect and art instructor to be like. You could tell she was so pumped to teach us and to see our creative juices flowing. We were given basic instructions (type of brushses, what they do, how to mix paint colors, basic brush strokes) and overall guidelines on what to paint. We were encouraged to change it up how we wanted though; leave things out, add things in, choose different colors, etc. My favorite part (besides the wine!) was seeing how different our paintings came out. Em chose to paint closer to the example, mine was similiar but I added warmer colors, and Abby had a slight artistic crisis halfway through and completely painted something different while still keep in some of the elements. It was also pretty sweet that we were part of the 1st group of “painters” to try out the studio. Abby may or may not have branded the table with our initials to commemorate the occassion…

Nights like last night remind me how healthy and refreshing it is to get out of my comfort zone and try something new; something that makes me nervous. Sometimes I fall victim to my anxieties. I generally worry and have intense anxiety most of the time. Instead of letting that take over my mind; I need to push myself to work through those burdening thoughts because 9 times out of 10 what I am sweating over ends up being something I really loved. Plus I just have the craziest, loveliest friends.