Day 76: Inner Child

I have been channeling my inner child the last two days.  As mentioned in an earlier post, part of the curriculum this year is trying different self-care activities.  August was art therapy, and I have carried the techniques into my life away from the hospital.  I will have to post some of the more recent acrylic paintings later due to the recent paintings being presents.  What I can show is that I have finally mastered the "shaving cream art" technique.  I feel like it's the adult version of finger-painting wherein you don't actually use your fingers.  You start by spraying shaving cream onto a flat surface (I purchased cheap lunch trays like from elementary school).  You then use a ruler or some other flat edge (I use a large plastic putty knife) to flatten out the shaving cream and make your medium.  Then put drops of color into the shaving cream (gel food coloring for me) and swirl it around with a skewer.  Once the colors are swirled to your satisfaction, you firmly press a piece of cardstock or watercolor paper (must be heavy paper) into the shaving cream and let it sit for about 30 seconds.  Flip it over and scrape the excess shaving cream off the paper.  I also blot the paper to remove any residual shaving cream and wet food coloring before letting it air dry overnight.  What you get is something that looks like this:

  

There were others that I did that weren't as good as these, and there is still room to improve.  It definitely lends itself to more abstract art, but it is so soothing to swirl the colors in the shaving cream to create the images.  Each one is different from the next.  I am enjoying this little piece of relaxation along with the writing and occasionally reading.