While waking up Monday morning, I wanted to explore my being unsettled in my home. It’s been a year since my last move and I am still uncomfortable. Maybe a lack of good organization is affecting me. Maybe it’s because this is my 18th residence. Painting could help. With thinned out cerulean blue, I painted eighteen ovals; each one representing a residence; the longest was nine years, the shortest was six weeks. Raw umber and Dioxazine purple were also added for darker areas. In Sylvia’s class, she had us consider value. She suggested we cluster light colors together; squinting to see where these values connect. She encouraged me to make some of the ovals blend with the darker background so they were not all the same value. Being in a class with eighteen other women, I wrote very little about this painting. It did guide me to further organize my kitchen. But I want to feel settled inside no matter where I am.

Do you feel unsettled in any way? Explore your feelings in an abstract painting.

Exercise:
1. Write about what is making you feel unsettled for about ten minutes.
2. Select three colors, whatever colors first come to mind.
3. Thin one color with a lot of water for your lightest value.
4. Paint a shape or shapes to represent the area that unsettles you.
5. Add a darker value, thinned with less water, around the light color, merging edges.
6. As you paint, consider what small thing you can do to feel more settled.
7. Set aside one hour of your day to do what your inner wisdom guided you to do.