A while back I inherited a stack of 12×12 wood panels from another artist clearing out her studio. They were pre-textured, pre-lived-in, someone else's history already in the surface. I added my own colors and started working, and they looked better almost immediately. Not because the panels were magic, but because I was letting the work lead me.
Lately, I'd noticed that something in my practice had quietly constricted. I'd been making more "studied" work, careful, considered, a little too deliberate, and drifted away from the gestures that feel most alive to me: scraping, peeling collage tissue off the surface, scribbles, marks, glazing. The work (and me too, if I’m honest) had stopped breathing. (If you want to watch the first passes on a couple of these panels, the video is here.)
Technique Is a Tool. It Works For You.
A basic truth about the work: technique doesn't belong in the driver's seat. It belongs in the toolbox. You reach for it when you need it, put it down when you don't, and you don't let it make your creative decisions for you. When I went back to the marks I'd talked myself out of, the work exhaled. The distress, the texture, the layers starting to accumulate without a plan — that's not messiness. That's the work lightening up and breathing again. These panels feel like a sigh of relief.
These colors, that texture 😍
Take It With You
If you want to work through this yourself, technique as servant, not task-master, the Take What Belongs to You workbook covers exactly this territory. The Technique section walks you through making something, covering it up, making it again, and finding your way of working rather than someone else's. It's $17, instant download, and it's yours to keep.
Also, Walk With Me
If you've been curious about the membership, this is the kind of thing members have been getting first: the early observations, the panels in progress, the unfiltered sorting-it-out. Walk With Me is creative companionship, not instruction: behind-the-scenes posts, direct correspondence, early access to new work. It's $9 a month, less than a coffee stop, and it's the closest thing to actually being in the studio with me.
Can you hear them breathing a little easier?
The Dogwoods Are Out
The dogwood blossoms just arrived on the mountain, along with the first filmy green of new leaves. There's an energy underneath it all right now: The Creation deciding to start anew. These panels feel like that too.
Are you making work that feels like you, or work that feels like a careful version of you? Reply and tell me, I read every message and I write back.
Shine On!
Monette
PS The workbook is $17 and an instant download, the Technique section alone is worth it if you've ever felt like you've accumulated more methods than freedom. Grab it here.
PPS The video is raw and unedited, which is the whole point. Watch here.