Today was not exactly a smooth sailing kinda day. The last February night and the first morning of March, although long anticipated, gave me almost no sleep.

As I was staring in the ceiling of my dark room, listening to my heartbeat, thousands of things were going through my head. Many of them were quite unpleasant, some even very dark, and none of them particularly interested me. But they were still coming in an unending stream of thoughts that tortured me until morning hours. An oracle once told my friend that my mind and sleep is so crazy because I'm downloading messages for new paintings from the Universe. Well, thank you very much. Can I get a solid night of sleep at least once a week please?

Anyways, when you get out of bed and you feel like a beaten dog, the day usually does not end up on the brightest note. But there are exceptions. As much as my mind is screwed up at night, I trained it vigorously in order to beat fatigue or bad humor during the day with tricks that I learned over years of living with it.

One of the most potent methods, besides good sweaty session of yoga while listening to Solfegio frequencies and then a round of pranayama and meditation (which I just finished doing before I started writing this), is to make my hands busy with something manual and physically strenuous, that needs to be done anyways so that the following day I can reap the fruits of my labor and use it to have a more artistically creative day.

The old wisdom of natives knew something that was very much forgotten these days: your hands have wisdom that leads straight to the heart. Your hands have the power to bypass the sabotaging noise of your head. So learn to listen to your hands, because they will bring you peace and joy, and feeling of accomplishment as a bonus.

Today I followed the call of my hands and stretched couple large canvases.
Being an artist is much more than picking up the brush and painting. It's a whole craft that comes with the package that you need to learn, if you really take your calling seriously.

Stretching an 8 footer with 12 duck canvas is a VERY PHYSICAL activity

The long side is easier

The smaller on of the two- Six footer

Making the cut off line

Pouring gesso. I only use a great quality one. It pays off

It looks fun I know, but it's tricky

Checking the finish surface of the first gesso layer of the 8 footer

Happy with the result. My hands and shoulders hurt a bit from the strain but I am super happy that the worst part is done. And most of all- my mind is calm finally!

Drying until tomorrow, when I will apply second layer of Gesso and by the evening I can start painting, if I will have any time of the day left! It will be Friday night, and I might take my girl out instead ;)

I hope you liked the process of the canvas stretching.

Remember, listen to your hands when your head is giving you hard time. Your hands will lead you to the peace and joy of your heart. Chinta mani

<3

Thank you for reading,

Much Love to all!

Jan
follow @jankasparec