Painting!!

     When I first heard we had to paint in this literature class I did not know what to expect. Were we going to have to paint a picture from a scene in a story or play? Were we going to have to paint a masterpiece for a grade? But when the time came to paint, I was delighted to hear that we were going to paint what we visualized from passages in the book of Joel. The foundation of the painting exercise started when I shouted some passages to the lake out in front of campus. Though it was an awkward "conversation" with the water, after I we finished images popped in my head immediately. I could almost see the lake being drained in front of my eyes and the tall weeds around it being burnt up by flames. This is the line that stuck out the most to me.
     "For the water brooks are dried up and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness."

During the painting process, the reminders that Professor Corrigan wrote on the board helped keep me focus. I was so focused that I got lost in my work, and for the time being was in my own world imagining what it would be like if I lived in the time of Joel. The process took this passage and made it come alive. I knew from a previous art class I took in high school that it was impossible to mess up, or so my teacher told me. I actually messed up on the dried up brook, but created a visual effect from it. To further reinforce what my art teacher said about it being impossible to mess up, once our allotted time to paint ended I foolishly put a scrap sheet of paper on top of the still wet paint! When I removed it, some of the paper stuck to the paint. Trying to scrape of the paper was a nuisance, not all of it came off. It turned out okay though; I look at it and see the paper as little pieces of ash from the fire that is devouring the wilderness. Take a look at it yourself, what do you think?