Make it Willy Nilly: Palmistry Painting

It’s like I’m a badly made fourth–grade-science-class-potato-battery—the electricity between my brain and my fingers is shorting out! My grey matter knows what it wants to see and my digits are just being difficult. For the last two days I’ve been making really silly mistakes and struggling in my studio. Something was out of whack. I decided to light some black candles, get barefoot, anchor down at my drawing table and get work finished. I thought that maybe I should do a “work out” piece to get the kinks out and see if that helped get my electricity skipping about. This is the result:

Book making and jewelry smithing have eaten up my creative thought for the entire semester. I appreciate the methodical, cerebral, meditative nature of these things but I’m craving something more visceral—a little wild—maybe a little willy nilly! The last few weeks I’ve been trying to make something intuitive everyday: something separate from my commissions or academic work. Something that blatantly ignores composition rules, proper technique and traditionally scholastic subject matter, but speaks solely to my tactile and vital curiosities through just the simple joy of making and exploring personal iconography. No, these works are not "properly planned", "polished" or "aptly made", but that's not the point. These are pieces that are of the moment! These are pieces that speak to my juices.

"Gods Graves and Scholars" by Molly Roberts Acrylic, ink, oil pastel, water color and found papers on wood.