inspired by Kris

Kris blogged a couple of months ago about missing the sea. She included a poem by Walt Whitman in that blog. I also missed the sea, so I loved the poem.

The decoration theme in my bathroom is "the sea," thus I thought it fitting to post this poem in my bathroom sometime. Last night, I got inspired, pulled out my oil pastels, and created this to put in the bathroom:

 

I'm not really much of a draw-er, so I just tried to create the sea by layering blues and greens (which happen to be my bathroom colors). The first try, I filled the page with color, then tried to write on top of it, but that didn't work out so well. I really liked the way the colors all smudged into each other. But on the second try, I wrote first, then colored around it. Trying to preserve the writing, I didn't smudge the colors as much. Generally, I prefer my first try on artwork. Even on layout designs that I've done, usually my first try is more creative and good. When I try to create other options, it loses the randomness that the first try had, and never turns out well. But I'm ok with this second try.

Originally, I had all sailboat art in my bathroom. This one is a monoprint I made while in college:

 

Here is the hallway-type entrance to my bathroom, as it is now, with my new artwork, the old artwork, and one sailboat painting by Boudin:

 

You turn the corner there to get to the bathroom. When I take a shower and the bathroom gets steamy, that part doesn't get steamy, which is why I feel confident that my artwork won't get ruined by the humidity of the bathroom. I will frame them oneday. But for now, just don't touch them!

By the tub (you can see the shower curtain in the picture), I have my more favored sailboat painting, by Monet:

 

And above the medicine cabinet is a weird piece that I found at a surf shop on South Padre (I think) many years ago. It's about 3"x5" and layered. There are tiny wood blocks under the seagulls and the beach to give it a 3D look. Said wood blocks are constantly falling off and being glued back on: