Yesterday turned out to be a better day after all. I finished the collaborative gouache that Niki started, and they came to my studio to see it.

Whenever I finish a painting, I always need time. I don’t know if I like it. I often doubt that I do. It’s just that I’ve already spent entirely too much time with it, and it’s hard to be objective.

Sometimes I need a day. Fresh eyes, as it were. But Niki came over just hours after it was finished and began picking out aspects of it that were cool and interesting. Then they shot a picture of it with their iPhone and showed it to me. It gave me a very different perspective of it, and I could see that it was an exciting piece in the end. Pictures can do that.

I took one myself this morning, and I’ve been staring at it on and off today.

So, now I like it. Who knew? And I still learned a lot. Maybe I would do things a little differently next time, but I don’t feel full of regret anymore. I’m glad it progressed the way it did.

Now it’s time for me to start one and hand it off to Niki. We’ll see where they’ll take it. I’m excited to see where it goes. They owe me another one that’s begun as well. We are trading these off while doing a lot of talking and writing between each trade, laying a few ground rules along the way.

It’s been a little bit of a shaky start. Not overly rocky, but I had a rough time figuring out how to meet their approach with mine. Thankfully, and woopie for me and us! It’s finally coming together.