have your way

This is a series I just completed titled "have your way". Each piece is 24x30(ish) size. I painted on cardboard cut from a box, so the edges aren't straight & are a bit ragged. I primed the cardboard and then used the combination of latex house paints & images printed on paper to create these mixed media abstracts.

The first painting is titled: "fill me up". The second painting is titled: "sing over me". The third painting is titled: "rain down on me".

I had worked these paintings out on my computer first (as I often do with my abstracts). So I had a plan and a direction in my head as to what the paintings were going to look like. But as I painted the first one, I found out that even though it was primed on all sides, the cardboard reacted differently to the paint than canvas usually does. My normal painting techniques weren't getting my desired effect. So midstream I had to readjust what I was doing & allow the unexpected difference to take me to a place that I had not planned. It was a fun process as I let go of my expectations on the pieces and let them be what they needed to be.

I didn't have an overall title for the series until after it was finished. Once I stepped back and was able to view all 3 paintings together, I knew it needed to be called "have your way". As I had just experienced that working release in my creative process, I could then see that it was a tangible example of how my heart needs to be pliable for God to work in my life. I sometimes have expectations as to how and what and where my life should be...but if I were to only let go and allow God to paint me as He sees me, then I would be able to become who I really am.