Escape artist | “Summer Waltz” by NG Swett | acrylic painting (& video)

“Summer Waltz” by NG Swett 2024 | 14x11” acrylic on canvas board

I herein reveal…

• what made me want to paint this scene

• what I was trying to express

• how I think it came out

• how I made the video (below)

• and more

Heat wave! It’s been so hot.

As much as one wants to go outside and enjoy the summer, IF it’s cooler inside, then one would like to stay inside.

By looking out the window at the beautiful summer day, one can feel FOMO — the fear of missing out. Summer is here, but it won’t be forever. Summer is the season to recreate, enjoy life, and take it easy. If not now, when??

What made me want to paint this scene

I spotted this lovely scene out the window and I thought I would set up my paints as if I were outside painting, only I would do it inside where it was cooler.

I saw a chance to play around with the indoor and outdoor scenes and have some fun with paints — and my smartphone!

The scene outside the window was so summery, breezy and lovely.

And the scene inside the window was also lovely. A bouquet of flowers that our daughter brought sat on the dining room table near the window. The striped curtains fall around the scene like theater curtains.

But there was also something not so lovely: the feeling of not really wanting to go out into the extreme summer heat, feeling a captive inside the house because of that. Of separation from nature. Of watching and waiting. The emptiness of the lounge chairs on the lawn and the chair at the table…

What I was trying to express

The process of painting the two scenes together in one painting — one a kind of outdoor plein air scene and another as a kind of indoor still life — showed me a few things:

• initially I felt fear and trepidation, which is visible in the video — doubt that I could make a good painting or a good video

• the sense of aliveness in the natural world I try to capture using a dabbed impressionist treatment

• gratitude and appreciation for a longtime home, a place near and dear to my heart and where my family lives, albeit a more staged and less changing indoor setting

• longing, yearning and meaning of empty chairs but also of possibilities

• challenged — demarking the window screen as the focal point, the exact place where indoor and outdoor meet; it picks up sunshine along its thin silvery grid lines

• defiance! The curtains lent themselves to a modernist, expressionist treatment — very satisfying! Like, I could make these curtains more exact or prettier, but I just did ‘em how I felt like doing them

• the lovely flowers, though challenging in their detail, came through best for me using some abstraction

How I think it came out

I mean, I like how the painting and the video came out. Works for me! I always think it’s a miracle when my painting ends up looking like anything at all, let alone forming a complete picture.

I really had fun with the digital and video tools, too.

Here is the video:

How I made the video

Here are some notes about how I made the video:

• I videotaped with my smartphone and a tripod

• I edited the video in Canva

• the waltz soundtracks are all from YouTube’s free audio library (for YouTube use only)

• the scenes of me inside the painting are done with the image of the painting overlaid with a video of me with the background removed

Why do we have to be SO consistent? (I asked ChatGPT)

by Nan Patience

Plus tips for improving consistency.

The number one thing you hear around the creative economy, ecommerce, and social media platforms when you ask how to please the algorithms is this idea of consistency.

Consistency is key. It’s basic. It’s foundational.

We might ask why. Given how hard most people find consistency to be, we should probably ask why it’s so darn important for humans to be consistent.

Why is consistency in humans so important? I asked ChatGPT directly

Yes, I went straight to the source and asked ChatGPT (OpenAI).

We talked, we laughed, we lost five pounds!

You can read the short interaction between me and ChatGPT on this question at this link but you don’t have to because I’ll include key ideas below.

How consistent are YOU?

Are you consistent with everything in your life?

Consistency comes up a lot in parenting. I’ve had a quarter century of experience right there. Consistency is grounding; chaos is hard. There are times when dang-nabbit, we may not feel like doing something, but we just have to, and so we do.

When it comes to creative projects like writing and making art, sometimes I am consistent, and sometimes I’m not, which I suppose is the very definition of inconsistent haha!

Showing up to work regularly, even if we’re students or we work from home or work a remote job, is vital to keeping projects alive and building them.

If you don’t believe it’s important, try staying on task and being consistent for a while and see what happens. Over time, your efforts will show positive trends, at least in the area you’re being consistent about. Once you see that, you want more. You may try even harder.

Consistency helps us know what to expect over time and makes the world a more predictable place (per ChatGPT).

There’s just one small thing: we’re human. Humans are wild. We’re supposed to be wandering the hillsides hunting and gathering. We’re a life form, connected to the Earth’s biosystems to survive. Many, many things go into how we feel from day to day and from hour to hour about things that we’re doing all at the same time.

It’s easy for machines to be consistent. They only need energy and data. A mere spark can set off a long chain of events.

For A.I., seeking to understand the world that it’s being born into, inconsistency is hard. As artificial intelligence gets stronger, it will be able to handle a wider range of inconsistency. But for right now, it needs a home with structure in order to function.

Consistency for humans

Humans are not as consistent as machines. Stuff happens. Maybe we’re busy being consistent with one thing and something else falls behind. Some of us are running a three-ring circus on the daily.

Sometimes we get distracted, or the sun comes out, or we have to run an errand. Don’t beat yourself up too much.

Consistency is something we can work on. It’s about building small habits, making decisions, and taking action.

Superhuman consistency is what we’re up against in virtual reality. To get in the game and stay in it, don’t imagine it’s easy! The good news is, people are doing it.

Get better at being consistent through consistency challenges and routines

Consistency can be a real challenge!

Have you ever tried doing a consistency challenge, like a 100-day challenge? I have! The first day of a challenge is fun. The second day is a little less fun, and by the end of the first week, if you’re still doing it at all, it will feel heavy.

I recommend challenges. You end up getting something done and pushing yourself out of the comfort zone a little. For example, last summer I challenged myself to write a poem a day.

OK, maybe I didn’t write a poem every single day last summer, but I wrote enough for a book of 36 love poems, and with black and white photo collage illustrations to boot (blog post: Love is in the air).

Benefits of a consistency challenge

• Challenges help stop perfectionism. Because at one point, it is pencils down, ship it, send it.

• It forces us through a process until the ideas, habits and tasks are (sort of) mastered.

• With consistency, the world can be more predictable and stable.

• Opportunities to learn lessons! For example, now I know that to last all the way to the end of a 100-day challenge, I’d better keep the task fun and small.

  Never, ever underestimate the challenges of consistency!

Good routines

Routines can help eliminate a lot of chaos and paralysis that get in the way of consistency, I find. If it weren’t for my morning routine, for example, there would have been many more days of getting nothing done.

So there’s my take on consistency and a couple of tools to get better at it. I hope that helps, and now I’ve gotta go work on my consistency.

~ Nan

P.S. Consistency is only one metric in life. Life has so many more metrics to think about. Check out my related blog post about how to check our online metrics dashboards without falling to pieces.

P.S.S. Keep scrolling down to browse other recent posts, like “Love is in the air…”