Lush Foliage and Wild Rice

Without art, the earth would just be eh! Think about it.

That’s true . . . and also a little over dramatic. But still true . . . but anyway! If you couldn’t tell from that inspiring quote by Jo, today we’re going to be talking about art. Painting to be specific.

Ah, I’m sorry for the boring intro. I was looking through my brain files for an art joke. But I couldn’t find one. So I asked the interwebs. And I didn’t find anything so . . . you got that! But anyway! Painting! Can be one of the harder things depending on what you paint! Like people! And we’ll talk about people who paint too. You know what we call those? “Uh, painters?” Pfft *laughs* No, of course not little naive fictional person, *pats head*. We call them . . . disturbed people! No just kidding. But seriously. If you think about it, a lot of artists and writers and people from the past were troubled and sad and stuff. Like Poe. And Van Gogh. THAT RHYMES!  

*whispers* When fictional people talk, we make their quote thing orange. According to me. Anyway. So. Disturbed sad people. Yay! What a great topic! *turns to Jo* Oh thank you for fixing that. *turns back to fictional audience* So. Painting. Is fun. I don’t like watercolor. Or acrylic really. Acrylic is dangerous. It never washes out of clothes. But you know what I do like? Tempera. Tempera is fun and awesome and yeah. We didn’t get to work with oil paints in our painting class . . . because toxic fumes are a thing. And also, it takes six months for oil paint to dry in Utah where we live because elevation is a thing. So anyway.

Orange fictional people. Legos! Oh wait, those are yellow . . . anyway. Painting is a very fun thing to do. And watercolor is not forgiving like all the other paints out there. IF YOU MESS UP, YOU cannot FIX IT. But yeah. I like tempera. But I don’t like that it dries all chalky and you can practically take a wet towel and go WHOOSH *pretends to swipe towel across canvas* and your masterpiece is ruined. And acrylic is very dangerous. But I’m willing to take that risk all the time because I like acrylic. It lasts a long time, you don’t have to put it under glass, you can put it in direct sunlight and not worry about it, and it dries awesome AND . . . when you finish and you let it dry in the paint tray . . . YOU CAN PEEL IT OUT AND IT’S FUN TO PLAY WITH BECAUSE IT DRIES LIKE PLASTIC! That’s pretty much what it is . . . but yeah! I’ll gladly wear a white jacket and paint with acrylic. I don’t like white clothing. So then you paint it. And TADA.

Acrylic paint . . . or pain . . . but I meant paint. It’s mean. You have no idea how many times I’ve gotten it on my clothes. *glares at acrylic paint* And then I had some really thin acrylic paint on my paint tray lid thing. Galilean moons that was hard to get off. But anyway. Acrylic is okay to me. I like that you can buy all those different shades of the same color in those little tiny bottles. Like . . . what was that one? It was Lush Foliage and Wild Rice, yes? Or something like that?

That is correct! LUSH FOLIAGE. So anyway. Like how you take a French class, you don’t just learn the language, you learn about French speaking places. It’s the same in painting. When you take a painting class, you don’t just learn how to do it, you learn about it and the people who use it. If you catch my drift . . .

Of course I catch your drift, I’ve known you and your craziness for four years now. So painters. I personally really like Georgia O’Keefe. Because *cough cough* flower obsession *cough cough*.

And then it will be FIVE! FIVE YEARS MARIE! FIVE! That’s amazing. We should celebrate every five years. In the next five years, it’ll be a freaking DECADE. That’s awesome! Anyway. *Burst out laughing* Flower obsession! That was very subtle. But seriously. Georgia O’Keefe was really smart. She was like, “FLOWERS OH MY GOODNESS I SHOULD PAINT THEM REALLY CLOSE UP BECAUSE I WANT TO RUB THEM ALL OVER MY FACCCE!” No, she didn’t say that but that’s how I imagine it. Because she really liked flowers. Anyway. I really like . . . A LOT OF PAINTERS! All of my favorite are guys which makes me kind of sad, but all of them are amazing. Like I mentioned earlier, Van Gogh. And Da Vinci. And Picasso. And what’s his face . . . the man who painted the . . . the . . . comic panel things with oil paint! I’ll find him in a second. And I really like surrealists. Like Salvador Dali. He’s super awesome. And Edvard Much was pretty cool. I mean, mental breakdown on a bridge! No just kidding. But seriously. It’s not just their art, I mean, I always think about their stories. They’re so interesting and awesome and OH! Claude Monet too! OH! ROY LICHTENSTIEN! HIM! HE PAINTS COMIC PANELS!

Claude Monet. I like him too. And now, because Jo pretty much just listed all of those painters, I think we’ve covered favorite painters. And so now let’s talk about painting styles. Or, at least I will. I really like Impressionism. I kind of gave up on our last acrylic painting so I was just like, “Impressionism! Yeah! Let’s do that because I very obviously can’t paint like a normal person!” So yeah. That’s all I have to say. But Expressionism is cool too. I just haven’t tried it.

Yes. Impressionism is amazing! IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL. And amazing! And . . . STUFF. But I really love Expressionism. I mean, come on! Why wouldn’t anybody like painting out their feelings?! AND THE BEST PART, NO ONE WILL EVER HAVE TO KNOW WHY YOU FELT THOSE FEELINGS! Unless . . . you tell them . . . but seriously! Expressionism is so amazing and the sadest paintings are the most beautiful and stuff and I just really love expressionism! And non-objective is so awesome too! It’s hard but it’s so pretty, especially the cool colour schemed ones! And surrealism is so awesome too! Hm. Don’t you just love how I like all the painting styles that make you think the most? That go the deepest, I guess? Yeah! LIKE A FAT KID DOWN A HILL, THAT’S HOW I ROLL.

*raises eyebrows* Like a fat kid down a hill, huh?

*Nods vigorously* YEAH. Hey! It’s this song! Anyway!

Anyway. We need to make this asymmetrical now. Because there’s that huge paragraph right there, so now we must balance it out. Just kidding. I’m just nuts. Don’t listen to me. So anyway!

*Sighs* I think I’m done with my words. Because if we keep going . . . then this will become the longest post in history. Longer than the one when we talked about our charries.

Yeah, I can see that from your paragraphs. So anyway. I think that’s it for today! Goodbye fictional people!

Bye bye! WHOA DO I GET THE LAST WORD?! YEAH! FIRST TIME!

*smirks* Ha. Not happening.

~Marie and Jo