My office badly needed art. There was this giant 1-inch hole smack dab in the middle of the wall that looked horrible, it did nothing for the paneling from 1977. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what the giant hole was from. A flat screen tv?

No, my mom never had one and before that my grandparents lived here. They certainly wouldn’t be hanging any flat screen tv’s back in 1989. It was probably from some invention my Grandpa tinkered up. He’s got wires and holes all over this place. Christmas lights in the pantry? Check. Indoor/Outdoor thermometer wired up between the two front windows? Check. Handy dandy gadget that ding dongs every time there is mail in the mailbox? Check. My Grandpa was an undiscovered genius.

Anyway, I’ve been desperately wanting to put up something big on this office wall since I moved in. Only one problem: big art usually comes with a BIG price tag. Even just buying a large canvas can set you back a couple of hundred dollars. I did find a giant canvas at a thrift store but it had this horrible peach south-western motif on it in three inch relief. I suppose I could have sanded the crud down but I had another idea.

Why not paint the four canvases I already have on hand! (My mom is the best. Whenever she sees canvasses on sale, she buys them for me.) The end result is not quite as big as I had in mind but it’s certainly better than the old white paneling with it’s ever-mocking 1-inch hole. It was screaming at me. I had to take care of it.

So late one evening after I’d just enjoyed a cup of coffee a little too late and Bug was whining to go to bed two hours too early (Yes, my kid begs to go to bed as soon as it gets dark. She’s insane.) I decided we’d whip up a masterpiece. Nothing too daunting. Just some stripes.

Some really loud and exciting stripes! I do like drab normal colors too but, I don’t know, I just wanted something fun and exciting in my office. Something to offset the miles and miles of sand-gray paneling. Also, this didn’t feel like too big of a commitment. Painting stripes doesn’t take too terribly long and I could always paint over it if I didn’t like it. I love my paintings to have lots of texture and I figured maybe someday I’d paint some funny cartoon characters on top of the stripes and sell them in my shop if I get tired of them.

AND! Stripes are something Bug could help me with. Her stripes are not perfect, of course. She’s only almost five. But I wasn’t going for perfect. Her little touches make it special. Perfect would have taken forever. I would have had to tape each stripe and then waited the hour or two it takes for the paint to dry in between each stripe. I have no patience for that! I wanted this art done now. Besides I love extra texture. Bring on the blobs and drips. That’s what makes it fun.

Wham bam done!

Then as I was washing the paint off our glass plates (that I used as last ditch palettes since I’m fresh out of paper plates) I sort of felt sad for all the perfectly good paint going down the drain. It was so pretty as it swirled in the sink. There must be some way I could save all this beautiful pigment.

I decided to grab the two other canvases that I was going to paint with stripes too and create large dripping swatches of stripes instead. My friend Deb paints with watered down acrylic paint all the time, so why couldn’t I? I have to say I was so pleasantly surprised! A painting this pretty should not be this easy!!! It’s like I cheated. Three or four swooshes and I was done. I mean, I could have hemmed and hawed for a few hours and thought long and hard about what color would drip into what color but why? These crazy sink impromtu pieces look great to me! What do you think?

I could shellac it with a few coats of resin, call it “Desert Sunrise,” hang it in a fancy gallery and charge $5000. OR I could just admit that it took me five minutes and sell it for five bucks. Five cents? Art is so weird. Anyway, it makes me incredibly happy and I’m hanging it on my wall, so that’s all that matters.

Wham bam, thank you ma’am.

I call it: Office Wall DONE.

That is until I get tired of it in about 2.5 weeks. Which is totally fine since I’ll probably be itching to paint again by then anyway.