Spring is beginning to dawn.
Birds are singing abundantly, spring peeper frogs are chirping in wild ponds, and the very first blooms are opening. What a relief!
I have a little pond off our front porch that I made years ago out of a mortar pan. Every summer, I put a goldfish in the pond to eat algae and mosquito larvae.
Last fall, as the first cold snap approached, I was catching the goldfish to put into deeper water for the winter, and was surprised when a frog kicked against my hand in the bitterly cold water.
I figured the frog knew what it was doing, and I left it there, but thought about him all winter long, especially when the temperatures bottomed out at -10 degrees F. I read that frogs can survive being frozen for a short time. Was he still alive?
From the little sketch above, you may guess the answer to that question!
I was scooping dead leaves out of the mortar pan pond the other day, and that frog surprised me again!
It inspired me to make art.
A friend gave us some very old photo printer paper designed to go to an outdated system. It's shiny and smooth like old photographs. I used a fountain pen to make some sketches, but it kept getting clogged by the shiny finish material on the paper. Colored pencil worked well, and watercolor worked surprisingly well!
Sometimes when you have upcycled materials, it frees up your creativity. Often the materials were headed for the trash can, and you are saving them. They may have properties you're unaware of, so it's natural that you'd experiment with them. You can take on an attitude of "I'm just testing this stuff out." No pressure.
That's a magical attitude to have, and you'll find it releases you to make free art.
Keep an eye out for materials that could be used for art in a thrift shop, yard sale or other second-hand source. Look for "trash" that could become art.
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