What Does This Remind You Of? #9

August 19, 2014

Below is part of a monthly series called What Does This Remind You Of? If you’re a blogger, learn how you can participate at the bottom of this post!

I had Sarah McLachlan’s World On Fire on when I sat down to be drawn into this picture. It was the picture that inspired the song.

With madness all around us, the world on fire with killing, disease, and madness, it’s nice to know there can still be peace found in art. Paint-stained linoleum floor. A vision in your head, a paintbrush to breathe life into it. A colorful, creative mess. Nothing but color for your future minutes, and warm sunlight. Creating worlds through the brush, and feelings. Painting all of the beauty you see in your head

I crave the peace I see in this picture, but most of all I crave the color. Sometimes my days are mute of color. Blue and gray buildings and sad, dark green trees, some half dead and hunched over. Deep grey pavement. Black office chair. Black car, grey and black interior. Greyscale days. I find myself searching for color in a digital billboard. Something to explode in front of me, so I can feel the bright red and yellow.

The color must be written in, I suppose. If I don’t write color into my days, I won’t see it. If I don’t paint a picture of the pinks or the lilacs in my head, I simply won’t see them. I crave to pick up a paintbrush sometimes. But I don’t want to do it if I can’t be dirty about it. If I can’t be grimy, if I can’t be raw. The last thing I want to do is be neat about it. I want to be messy, so incredibly messy. I feel like the good stuff always comes through mess. Oh god, I feel like that sentence alone is symbolic of life making sense only through mess and mess alone. Which I guess is pretty much true but sometimes I get annoyed at myself for saying that because I say it so often.

This picture reminds me of the color that exists only when we make ourselves see it, and the healing power of art. The woman in this picture may not be in pain, but somehow she looks at peace with her creation. She looks like the world on fire has fallen away, and it’s only her, and this room, and this beautiful image she is bringing to life. It makes me love her talent, and the ease with which she sits there, almost careless with her final touches. It reminds me of a lazy Saturday morning, of coffee cooling in a large porcelain mug, of a life less frenzied.

Here’s What You Do Now

1. Write a post with this week’s picture and what it reminds you of. Be sure to add photo credits to Charmaine Olivia, and a link back to this site with the button below so your readers can get involved too!

<div align="center"><a href="http://anovelquest.com/what-does-this-remind-you-of-1/" title="A Novel Quest" target="_blank"><img src="http://anovelquest.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/What-Does-This-Remind-You-Of_New.jpg" alt="A Novel Quest" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

2. Link to your blog post using the blue ‘ADD YOUR LINK’ button below. Let me know if you don’t see it… (Note: All irrelevant posts will be deleted).

3. Visit the person’s blog who posted before you in the link-up. Let them know what you thought of their post! This is a pretty crucial part of this project, because it gives us the opportunity to build a community. Please, please, please make sure to encourage one another in their writing endeavors!