This piece was a looonnnng time coming because I had this background in my closet for at least a year before I put a girl on it.  I couldn’t decide if I wanted to keep it as is or if I wanted to layer on top of it.  I fell in love with the colors as I was creating it and I just never wanted to cover it up, until recently.  I firmly believe that works evolve over time to what they’re meant to be!  This one needed a little more resting time before I was ready to change it.

Here was the background I started with, it was just a fun experiment of colors and boldness:

It was a fun colorful piece that I loved to look at so you can understand my hesitance in changing it (or messing it up!)  But one of the things I’ve learned about growing as an artist is not to get too attached to anything I create.  If I hold too tightly to particular pieces or elements of my work, it stops me from expanding my skills and growing.  And actually that’s pretty good advice for me to follow in my life too!  I always think I’m just painting, but being creative always teaches me about life as well.

Anyway, since I loved the colors I used so much, I knew the sentiment “Choose Happiness” would go perfectly with this background.  I started the transformation by putting a girl on top and I gave her a dress pattern to compliment the colors.  I like to name each of my girls too, so she’s appropriately named: Joy.

Then I stamped the sentiment in, as well as added some more details.  The little pieces are my favorite–my art teacher always tells me not to get too lost in the minutiae, but I feel like the details are part of what make my paintings special to me.  I love looking up close and seeing what is hidden, in both my work and other people’s creations.

And here’s the final image below.  I feel like it was worth it to wait for this to emerge!  I’m so happy with how she came out–vibrant but simple.  I hope you enjoy her as much as I do!

Buy Choose Happiness (Joy) on Etsy Here