Strokes

I was feeling sad before painting this one but when I finally started off with the green strokes, I actually smiled. I would paint from time to time in the past but this time it’s different. I’m a bit like on a mission. My 22nd birthday is coming up soon and I had wanted to paint the 22 cities I went to last year for my trip abroad. I doubt that I’ll be able to paint one city per painting in two months’ time, what with my last semester in college and also other responsibilities at home, in my organization, and other things and also I spend my weekends in other places haha! I do have a life :p So breathe, not all my paintings will be “sad.”

I’m naming this painting Distorted Dreams. The image came to me while I was in art class today. It’s inspired by so many things and I will try to guide you through it. Note that all the paintings I will be doing are open to your own interpretation and I bet that they may be more farout than mine. So be careful with reading my texts haha!

A lot of people, especially girls, dream of going to Paris. No doubt that there IS something about the City of Lights that no other city can match. New York has its own charm and I love it, too, but that’s a different story. I have a coffee book called, Paris Sketchbook, and I think Graham Byfield and Mary Kelly captured Paris really well. I would try, but may I just wrap it all up by saying that this city has a character of its own. The monuments, the Metro stops, the River Seine, the Tour Eiffel, les rues, and many others have stories that you yourself will figure out. I used to hate how the Metro smelled like piss but I loveeeddd traveling around Paris because each stop lands exactly where you want to go.

Those who have gone there will never tire of it. And as they say, “everyone goes back to Paris.” Ever since I was a little girl I had always dreamt of going to France (Call me crazy but I’ve always felt a connection since one of my names is Michelle) and I had the opportunity of doing so last year. C’etait magnifique! It’s been a year since and yes, I do have dreams of going back.

My experience though was not purely great. I won’t go into details but if you are already part of my life I am sure you know. I will share as much: I made mistakes that made big ripples that affected more than one person in my life. Even a year later I feel the consequences.

Anyway, so I had really planned to paint the Eiffel Tower inverted and bending as such. I didn’t bother to make the crisscrosses perfect. I really want it to look weird and as if it’s just a vague memory or a misconstrued dream. Sometimes we think certain things are so great only to find out in the end that what we had was what we needed and also wanted.

I meant to have a normal background of the grass and sky to capture the scene on Champs du Mars and with only the Eiffel Tower different. However, I felt that I wanted to have a red part in between. It represents both love and anger that disrupt the normalcy of the green grass and blue sky.

It’s inverted because sometimes, the Eiffel Tower isn’t ALL THAT. Haha! In all my travels that was one of the things I realized - the best place remains to be where the heart is.