Weight Loss Surgery - I was reading back a bit & nanj, you should do it! I say everyone should try it!

Ok, here's me talking again! :D

I was reading back a few pages to see if I missed anyone and I did!

Nanj, you said you were thinking of starting up acrylic painting??? Oh love, you should so do it! If you were anywhere near Idaho, I would give you a free class!

I would encourage anyone with the desire to paint, or just a need to express yourself or something you are going through, to find an art class!

If you want to make something pretty, go to a craft store in your area, there are many that teach painting. If you have been through something traumatic, go find an Art Therapy class most larger cities have them...there is nothing like creating on canvas the colors of a feeling...what the traumatic feeling looked like...that sort of thing.

I remember one painting in particular...I had just broken up with a man...now, I broke it off with him, it was my first relationship that I actually saw that he was a jerk, that he wasn't good enough for me...not the other was around. Well, I was angry...(to use a word that won't get me kicked off here! LOL) and it felt so good, was so cathartic to just beat the living daylights out of the canvas! It was all blacks and purples.

Well, my brother Joe, who I look up to very much as a brilliant artist, saw the finished piece and bought it from me. "It's so emotional!" It still hangs in his house. LOL

I have said for years that painting has change my life, changed the course of my life, been as good for me as therapy any day. I would encourage everyone to give it a try!

Thanks,

Angela

oh angela, i've always wanted to draw, but it's just not for me. i can't think in two dimensions. but once i found pottery, oh MAN!!! that was it. for whatever reason, i can do ART if it's three-dimensional!

but i have such absolute admiration for painters and others who can draw, sketch, whatever. it's just not in my brain!

oh, jiffy...that sounds like a challenge! LOL There hasn't been a man, woman or child that came to my drawing class that at least get better at it. AND thouroughly enjoy it while they were at it...if I may say so myself! And I have been at this for a while! If YOU were in idaho I would give YOU a free class and put my money where my mouth is! LOL

Besides, pottery it a great form of ART!

Never said that it was only painting that could make a difference to one's emotional state!

I would love to see your work!

Angela

Angela: Thank you for the offer of the art class! Idaho, uh! Maybe next year!

I took a watercolor class when I turned fifty, just for the fun of it, and found out that I actually had a little talent. I love watercolors. I just saw an article in the newspaper about my instructor, Patty Brown. She is so talented. One of my favorites of hers is a picture of a feather, a penny on a rocky beach. It sounds like a dumb grouping, but it was so simple when you first looked at it but the details, colors, and textures that she was able to pick up were amazing. It has browns, grays, blues, tans and then there is this copper penny. She does great birds. In our little podunk town, they have actually converted an old business, into a showroom on the lower level and a bunch of studios on the second and third level. It features local artists, who do all kinds of different types of mediums. I met a little lady this year at the art festival who didn't start painting until she was 70 y/o old! She does mostly flowers, birds and insects! I was over at my sister's the other day and she was working on a landscape with acrylics. It was really pretty and she told me that you can work from dark to light with acrylics, which I liked. They remodeled this old house and her touch is all over that house. She has a beautiful mural over her kitchen sink that is amazing. It is a landscape that features the Amish that are so prevalent in our area. I haven't done much painting in the past few years because of my inability to sit or stand or bend over for prolonged periods of time, but with my weight loss, I'm hoping I will be able to get back into it. I have two very talented grandsons and I'm constantly buying them supplies to keep up their interest. My dad is 77 y/o and is very talented in doing wood whittling, baskets, clocks, animals, etc. He paints. One year he made us all these really ugly cow; we hated them and he knew it. So the next year, we wrapped them all up and gave them back. He has made something for everyone of his grandchildren and the greats. I have a scrolled chest that is so intricate that I'm afraid to dust it!

Jiffypop: Pottery! I love to watch people do it and the results, but when I took it in HS, I don't think they failed me that quarter, but..... I love the feel of the clay in my hands.

Now that you have put the dancing thing in my head, my girls and I are talking about doing some kind of dance thing on Saturday mornings. I don't know how my artificial knee will take it. I have to go to ortho this month because when they realigned my new knee, it threw my ankle and foot off and I'm walking on the inside part of my ankle. I'm having a lot of trouble with it since weightloss, just because I'm more active. I was actually able to run down my little 3 y/o GD and give her a nuggie! I played ping-pong on New Years Eve and it was wonderful to be able to do that again. Just to join in and not sit and watch!!!

Now you talk about a rambler!!!