The Art & Poetry of Mary Coleman

Yesterday I drew the figure onto my paper and outlined the pencil lines in acrylic pen. Then I did the background. Today I worked on the glove and put a second layer on the background. The glove was really tricky because the way it looked in the picture just didn’t work in paint. I had to alter the hand so that it looked okay when rendered in paint. I’m still not entirely happy with it, but I’ll give it a day to think on and figure out what I want to do tomorrow. It might be a good idea to work on the rest of the painting and come back to the glove when I’m finished with the surrounding areas.

I haven’t exercised in awhile. Well, I did one workout on the elliptical on Wednesday, but other than that I haven’t done anything. I’m just trying to focus on getting back to healthier eating (and intermitent fasting) this week and so far I’ve been successful at doing that. Next week I’ll start exercising again. I know I can do it, exercise isn’t hard for me once I’ve established it as a habit (I mean I ran 13 half marathons last year so it’s something I am good at keeping up with).

My anxiety has been much better since I’ve been focusing on balanced, nutritious meals this week (and I haven’t had any dessert since the 27th of December). Eating crappy food really affects my mental health, especially overconsumption of sugar. I’m not a stickler about having sugar as an ingredient in something (so long as it’s not the top ingredient and the main flavor) because that’s sort of hard to avoid, but I try to not have any desserts. I did buy sugar-free peanut butter and my yogurts and whole grain bread are low in sugar as well. I do eat a lot of fruit, but that doesn’t affect my mood.

Portland Community College for awhile after high school, then Lewis and Clark for 2 years. I dropped out when I got ill and couldn’t keep up anymore. Then I moved to New Zealand and two years after I got my residency I enrolled in Elam School of Fine Arts and completed my bachelors there. Unfortunately none of my credits transferred from Lewis and Clark so I had to start all over again.

Two years after I completed Elam I enrolled in Auckland University of Technology’s art program and did my masters. I could have gone to Elam but I wasn’t very happy at that school so I wanted to try somewhere different. Auckland University of Technology had nicer facilities and was better funded (Elam’s buildings were aging and the entire art department was ailing under budget cuts).