Melissa Stephens Art

As the dust settled on my gallery show in October last year, my daughter-in-law asked if I would make a painting for her classroom. She recently graduated with her master’s degree in early childhood education and had just begun her first full time teaching position. She was hoping I could create a visual representation of her favorite quote, “In a world where you can be anything, be kind,” by Clare Pooley. Of course, I said yes! I was riding the wave of positivity from the gallery show and I thought, sure, I can do that!

I bought a big canvas (30” x 40”) and set to work. After 3 coats of gesso (primer), I “un-whited” the canvas by painting words onto the surface. Facing a big white canvas is intimidating! Therefore, mark-making of any kind helps it to feel a little less “precious.” I also wanted to “bake” happy thoughts and positive juju into the under layers of the painting (photo 1 in the gallery of images below). My vision was to create a bright, happy piece in a rainbow of hues appropriate for an elementary classroom, one that would make my 6-year-old, rainbow-loving, great niece smile! I searched the internet and found an illustration of the quote that featured a large central flower (photo 2). Flowers are my favorite subject material and so, with sky high confidence, I set to work.

To start, I applied dark blues, greens, and purples, leaving the center a pale yellow. However, when I stepped back and looked at that 2nd layer, I thought, “Oh, that’s terrible! That’s not what I envisioned at all.” (photo 3) I wish I could say that was the first time I’ve ever finished a long painting session only to realize I’ve made, as one of my favorite British artists says, “rubbish!” Yikes, so much for sky high confidence! It needed, in my opinion, a total makeover. They say you find your path by walking. Reframed for art, I would say you find your way to your finished work by moving your hands. For it is only in the moving of my hands that my creative path becomes clear. I love a good creative spark as well as the planning and organizing phases of a project that follow but, for better or worse, I cannot brainstorm or organize or scroll my way into a completed piece of art. The only way I find my path to a finished painting is by painting, by moving my hands. My first attempts might be rubbish but that’s ok, nothing another layer of paint can’t fix (that’s why I love acrylics!). This is one of the most important lessons I’ve learned in my art (and in my life): don’t give up, keep going, keep walking and, eventually, I’ll find my path. Do-over time! I covered those dark colors with white gesso and changed the light center to a dark one (photo 4).

Setting off in a completely different direction, I chose 3 primary colors (Golden’s Phthalo Blue, Diarylide Yellow, and Quinacridone Magenta) plus white. From these primaries, I mixed the greens, oranges, and purples I wanted to create a rainbow of 6 harmonious colors. On large sheets of rice paper, I painted 6 different patterns with those bright, happy colors, such fun! Though I like to use collage paper in my artwork, I’ve never used rice paper and never glued such large-scale pieces onto canvas. I played with the process on an old canvas, moving my hands, finding my path. When I was relatively sure my idea would work, I drew my design on graph paper (oh, how my left brain loves graph paper!) (photo 5) Then I cut and layered petal after petal after petal onto a large piece of whiteboard on the floor, tweaking the sizes and shapes and rearranging the colors until it was visually pleasing (photo 6). Using heaps of matte medium (glue), I adhered the large and small petals to the canvas (photos 7 & 8). On thin tracing paper, I wrote the words of the quote to scale for the other half of the flower (photo 9). When I was satisfied with that placement and spacing, I free-form cut the thin letters from the rice paper; painted the “O” in “World” to look like a (wonky) globe; and glued them onto the canvas (photos 10 & 11). I wanted to include 16 small flowers as well, each one representing one of the 16 students in my daughter-in-law’s first homeroom. I freehand cut the little flowers from the rice paper, then played with their placement in the design. Here I must give endless thanks to 2 friends from the Arboretum, one a former elementary school teacher, who were incredibly supportive and helpful, cheerfully offering feedback on the multiple “in-process” photos I sent them. They were unflaggingly encouraging until the day I sent them this version (photo 12). Their text responses came slowly and, after a painful half day of waiting, I heard from one of them who said, ever so gently, “I think you made it worse.” “Yep,” the other friend chimed in immediately, “too busy! These are elementary school kids, it needs to be simpler, easier to read.” OUCH, that hurt! I took a long walk, I stared at the canvas a bit longer, I wrung my hands and gnashed my teeth until I finally had to admit to myself, they’re right (and they’re very good friends for delivering that hard to hear news). I got back to work, moving my hands (and those 16 little flowers), searching for the path, until I finally stepped back and said to myself, YES, that’s it! Timidly, I sent them the final image. Thankfully, they agreed! Perhaps, by that point, they were just as tired of looking at it as I was and were secretly hoping I’d never send them another photo of my art in process again? No matter, bolstered by their approval, I glued the small flowers in place, signed the edge, varnished the canvas, and called it, finally, done! (photos 13-15)

The piece now lives in a 5^th grade classroom in Pittsburgh! Though I have gone into great detail above, reflecting back on the project, I am reminded again that art is not about the artist or the process or even the result. Art is about the “why” that sets you off on the path to creating in the first place. For my daughter-in-law, that “why” was to bring a message to her students about the choices they make every day; to give them, in the form of visual art, words to live by. For me, that “why” was my daughter-in-law (represented by the large half flower in this painting). I tell anyone who will listen I hit the jackpot when our son chose his wife, my daughter-in-law is generous, loving, and kind. She is beautiful in every sense of the word! Her job is not easy, I have heard some of the stories of the challenges she faces every day. I know she is a bright, caring presence in her students’ lives, and I know they are lucky to have her. Yes, she’s teaching them math but, far more importantly, she’s teaching them to be good people. She’s teaching them, encouraging them, and showing them that, in a world where you can truly be anything, you should, more than anything, be kind.