Yellow and Orange, 60 x 60 inches, Acrylic on Canvas.

June 16, 2021. It was 10:30 pm on the first full official day back to my birth name of Mary Alice Rush. It was late. I just wanted to paint before I woke up to the second full day as Mary Alice Rush. This day, the first full day back to my birth name, felt like a sacred day to paint, like I was honoring myself on a new artist hood journey.

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I unrolled my big roll of natural color cotton duck canvas from the king-sized red cotton bed sheet protecting it from Sir Kitty’s black cat hair and accumulated dust from the floor on which it sat. I lifted the heavy roll and lay it on the brown plaid patterned linoleum floor next to my sheet of plastic. I unrolled it and measured a piece to 60 inches. The roll is 60 inches wide so this made a square, which is the shape I visualized while contemplating what I would paint.

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I looked over my paints spread out on the floor next to my sheet of plastic. Some were sitting cuddled next to each other in a lime green tub. Others were strewn from the busyness of working on the last painting. There were also stacks of plastic containers that I’ve saved from purchasing peanut and almond butter in bulk at Natural Grocers in Sedona, Arizona. These contained mixed paints from various previous paintings.

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I opted to just grab all those peanut butter containers with already mixed paints as my beginning colors. Read more on my blog, link in bio.