Flirting With the Sky

“Maybe we would be better as friends-with-benefits?”

—Ellyn Siftar (guest blog post)

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Guest Blog Post by Ellyn Siftar*

I’m a 45-year-old mother of four who has spent the past two decades of her life running a household, raising my kids, and trying to keep it all together.  I knew little of the contemporary artists and had no experience with artistic practices.  Tired of the repetitive nature of the work-home-work-home cycle, three years ago I quit my job and went back to school.  I felt old and stupid and overwhelmed by the workload.  The second semester I decided to “treat” myself to an art class as a way to combat the stress of my other classes. It was no cake walk.  In fact, I spent more time agonizing over my homework in that drawing class than any other class. 

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This summer, after realizing how intimidated I was by oil paints, I decided I was going to woo them into a loving relationship by making a daily rendezvous with them.  Each morning, afternoon, or evening, I selected a few colors and tried my hand at mixing a hue which seemed to match the sky at that moment.  In three colors or less, I painted with a brush or palette knife, on one small patch of canvas.  This color represented the spit of sky between the neighbors’ garages observable from my window. 

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By the end of the summer, I think my pursuit of paints has led me to regular trysts.  I wouldn’t say we are serious.  I think the world of her, but sometimes it feels like work trying to keep the passion hot. Maybe we would be better as friends-with-benefits?  

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*Author’s note: I’m grateful for the friend who clued me in to Byron Kim’s work, Sunday Painting,  (https://hyperallergic.com/421526/byron-kim-sunday-paintings-james-cohan-2018/

Ellyn is currently pursuing a major in Philosophy and minors in Art and Biology at Moravian College.