i’m an artist, not an athlete
Posted: May 8, 2011 Filed under: random | Tags: marathon, nashville, running 1 Comment
ok, i don’t really consider myself an artist either, but i’m definitely not an athlete. this post doesn’t really have anything to do with being especially creative, but it does have everything to do with saving artist ryan. that’s what’s important, right? i completed my first 1/2 marathon on april 30- the country music 1/2 in nashville! i started training to run/walk it in january. i hadn’t exercised much at all for a while (oops), so training was quite the uphill battle for me. despite my periodic frustration with the training, the race was AWESOME. i still walked some of it (that was what i was training to do. wasn’t expecting a miracle), but i felt so good the whole time (except for a little struggle at mile 11)! and i got a medal! maybe everyone else got a medal, too, but i’m going to ignore that fact. now, i need to motivate myself to train for another one! maybe i’ll even train for speed!
i know i probably should have done this BEFORE the 1/2 marathon, but i’m running my first 5k on may 21- ellie’s run for africa in nashville. join me and support a great cause!
Miles 25 & 26: Emphasis. Change. We Are Nashville
Posted: May 5, 2010 Filed under: Creatively Fit Marathon Miles | Tags: art, change, Creatively Fit, emphasis, finish line, flood, marathon, nashville Leave a comment
Well, I know this looks an awful lot like Mile 24, but I just couldn’t bring myself to paint over it. Maybe there was a reason I haven’t painted the last two miles in the past few weeks (I thought I was just being lazy. or was scared to finish). It hit me today that I should combine miles 24, 25, and 26 as a tribute to my flooded Nashville.
The design principle for Mile 25 was EMPHASIS. The assignment was to paint a word or phrase that reflected something that needed more emphasis in my life. Since the floods of the past weekend, I think we are all realizing we need to emphasize each other right now. We need to provide money and time to those who lost everything to the waters. We need to stand up together to rebuild this great city of ours. We are Nashville. So that’s my phrase for the emphasis mile. The letters were cut out of cardboard that was soaked from the floodwaters in my basement. What was wet and ruined is now dry and beautiful. We can do the same for our city.
In Mile 26, the finish line mile, we were to paint the change we wish to create. I want to change this city into what it was last week, but with stronger, more unified citizens. I want Nashville to be like the one in my painting. So I couldn’t paint over it. My mile 24 IS my mile 26. Some tragic things happened in between the two, but we’ll come back strong. We Are Nashville.
Mile 24: Rhythm. Nashville.
Posted: April 14, 2010 Filed under: Creatively Fit Marathon Miles | Tags: Creatively Fit, marathon, nashville, rhythm 1 Comment
The principle of design for this mile is RHYTHM. At this point in the marathon I’ve gotten into the rhythm of painting regularly. It’s a natural part of my week. Now that I’ve gotten into this life rhythm, I should be able to continue painting and becoming more creatively fit when the marathon is over (two more paintings to go!).
In this mile we were supposed to paint what makes us happy. I actually postponed this one for quite a while until the right idea finally hit me. I love the city of Nashville. It really feels like home to me- every time I take a walk on Belmont Boulevard with my dog I feel so grateful to be a part of the city. I’m not sure I’m totally settled here yet, but I’m working on it. So, I chose to paint the Nashville skyline (or my interpretation of it). Plus, the ups and downs of the buildings and the lines of windows create nice rhythm. I could have spent hours and hours on this one adding more detail, but I sort of like it the way it is. I’ll miss this one when it’s gone!
Mile 23: Negative Space
Posted: April 11, 2010 Filed under: Creatively Fit Marathon Miles | Tags: Creatively Fit, flowers, marathon, negative space 1 Comment
Well, I completed this mile in about twenty minutes. The assignment was to draw shapes right over the previous mile and paint the negative space around them. I wasn’t anticipating having to keep the finger painting- had I known I might have done it a bit differently! I don’t love how this turned out, but there wasn’t much I could do once I had painted over most of the previous mile. So, I just got my workout in and am ready to move on! Only three more miles to go!
Mile 22: Repetition. Finger painting!
Posted: April 11, 2010 Filed under: Creatively Fit Marathon Miles | Tags: color, Creatively Fit, fingerpainting, inner child, marathon, repetition Leave a comment
The design principle for this mile was REPETITION. We were to create this repetition while painting with our fingers!
This one really required me to find my inner child. Kids love finger painting, but I, as an adult, had a little trouble getting my fingers dirty! I started feeling a little more comfortable with the process by the end. As I was finishing up I felt a great need to just run my hand over the whole thing, so I just let go and did it! I think the smearing added a nice finishing touch. This is definitely not my favorite mile, but I did enjoy doing it!
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