February 2, 2012 - Groundhog Day

First Painting.  Admittedly, it's more of a mixed media drawing painting combo.  As I started working on this piece I realized that I'm much better at drawing than painting.  But really, I knew that before I started this one.  When you do something every single day you inevitably get better at it.  And painting is a bit awkward for me after working so tiny with pencils and ballpoint pens.  So it's a transitional piece really- it combines both mediums and it's not very big- 11" x 14".

I'm really happy that I decided to start this project on Groundhog Day.  I was talking about this with a friend and we started talking about the movie Groundhog Day.  She told me something I never knew about this movie which is that the film is a favorite of the Budddhists.  The film is considered to be one which addresses the idea of self-improvement with an emphasis on the importance of looking inside oneself.   The theory is that true satisfaction in life then comes from turning outward and focusing on others instead of solely on one's own wants and desires.   Also, some Catholics see the movie as a representation of Purgatory.  The movie has even been referred to by some religious leaders as one of the most spiritual films of our time.   If you haven't seen it, it's a movie about a bitter, cynical, egocentric newscaster named Phil Connors who during a hated assignment covering the annual Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney finds himself doomed to repeat the same crappy day over and over again.  It's a hilarious movie.   After indulging in hedonistic, destructive behavior and numerous suicide attempts, he begins to re-examine his life and priorities and realizes that he needs to do things differently.  It's a classic.  If you've never seen it, I can't recommend it enough.

I've written about this kind of thing in my daily drawing project that I just finished, and that is the idea of self-improvement.  I don't mean self-improvement in the kind of way where nothing is ever good enough, but more so as an understanding that there is never an end point to trying to better oneself.  It's kind of like this rich life flow- there's never a point where we cease to evolve.  And I really like that.

Painting #1