Jenny Messerle

Daily, I post my art on Instagram. See www.instagram.com/jennymesserle.

Below are some of my favorite, recent pieces, as of 12/16/18.

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Sometimes things don’t turn out the way you want, they turn out better.⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ At the 20-minute mark, I thought, “Oh no! What am I going to do? This isn’t working. How am I going to pull together this character? I have 10 minutes left.”⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ Then, I decided to spray, scrape, & smear: I sprayed my painting with water to make the paint wet. I scraped into the damp paint with a skewer. I pressed this wet painting onto another piece of paper & moved this painting around in circles to smear the excess paint.⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ Then, I glued googly eyes to the face. Voila! I saw a character!⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ I tore a piece of pink paper into a trunk-like nose & cut a pink crown for his head.⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ What had started out as a partial blind contour drawing of an owl now looks like a whimsical long-nosed bat.⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ I finished this piece in 25 minutes. Yay! ⁣ ⁣ ❤️⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ This piece reminds me of this advice “Let the arc of life unfold.” ⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ This advice is from the documentary My kid could paint that. This advice talks about how in the moment, things may not be working out the way you want them to, but if you let the story arc of your life unfold, things will work out in the end. ⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ Maybe the future will be a different result because of that undesirable moment. ⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ Or, maybe you will be a different person because of that undesirable moment.⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ ❤️⁣⁣⁣ ⁣ From 2010 - 2012, I had tendonitis in my right elbow. During this time, I thought of the advice “let the arc of your life unfold.” I refused to wear a wrist guard. Instead, I stopped using my right hand for over a month. This meant brushing my teeth & combing my hair with my left hand. I also wrote with my left hand which was challenging because I interview clients for my job & sometimes I take 20 pages of notes for an hour-long meeting. But, my persistent non-use of my right hand & use of my left hand have made me ambidextrous. Most of my drawings are done with my left hand. When I draw or write with my left hand, I can’t control the pencil as well which makes the outcome less contrived-looking.⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ ❤️⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Sometimes things don’t turn out the way you want, they turn out better. ⁣⁣⁣

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ART

To see over 365 more of my happy art pieces and to read their inspiring titles, visit Instagram.

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Imagine each person you encounter has a ball of thread up their sleeve. When you connect with the person, such as through a conversation in person or over the internet, the end of the thread slips off that person’s ball of thread into your hands.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ You can take that thread and follow it. Or, you can drop it.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ If you take that thread, it disconnects from the giver. You are now holding one end of the thread and the other end is somewhere in the distance, sometimes you cannot see the end as if you are looking into a fog.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ One of those thread ends is @munenoritatamagawa. And the giver is my friend, Nancy.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ When I saw on my Facebook event that Nancy was interested in going to my art show, I sent her a FB message telling her that I was excited at the possibility of seeing her. She responded by telling me about Munenori Tamagawa & wrote “his work reminds me of yours.”⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Immediately, I fell in love with Munenori’s work. I love his vibrant colors & playful energy. But, it wasn’t until recently that I got over my shyness & started to “like” & comment on his page.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ When I started my 30-minute painting series, I had some of Munenori’s paintings displayed on my laptop to energize me. His colorful backgrounds & his black-outlined characters inspired & influenced my approach.⁣⁣ ⁣ When I think of Munenori’s work, I think, “I’m so glad that I had FB messaged Nancy. Because if I hadn’t initiated that FB conversation, I may not have received the thread that led to Munenori’s work.”⁣ ⁣ I know that there are lots of things I want to tell each of my friends in which each item is a potential thread for them. But life gets busy, & I don’t start those conversations, & I don’t pass along as many threads to my friends as I like. ⁣ ⁣ ❤️⁣⁣ ⁣ This piece is one of my 30-minute paintings. This particular painting took 25 minutes.⁣⁣

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