I call this piece "Treehouse"

I still can't believe I lived 50 years without making art. I can't believe how incredibly fulfilling is the process. No matter how it turns out, the process is indescribable. The clay class I took at the Art Center a few years ago opened my eyes, but the collage class earlier this year unleashed something in me, meaning, an overwhelming need to make art, to create. I can't explain it; just that I have to do it. (Well, seems that after a week or so of not working on a piece, I just have to make time to do it.)

"Treehouse" by Krystyn Hartman. Alcohol ink on yupo paper.

This is a piece I finished yesterday. I call it "Treehouse." My favorite part of the process was painting the chili ristra. I started with three chilis then couldn't stop! Had I started with the chilis rather than finished with them, I likely would have filled the entire piece with them! I had no intention of adding chilis to the piece when I started; shoot, I didn't even think to add them until the very last! Oh, the moon is actually the top off a bottle of orange juice. I like incorporating "found objects" into my pieces.

I write my column on Wednesdays/Thursdays, so I'm going to try painting a lemon tree while thinking about my column for this week. I'm going to write about the Olympics and how it is the one event that brings the whole world together to celebrate the beauty and strength of human performance; an event of common ground. I so need that right now as I'm truly sick of the political venom and horrendous killings; just sick of it. I'm excited to write about the Olympics in my column for this week.

And, through the art process, I've realized that my brain calculates, ponders, organizes and all that while I paint. I know, how cool is that?