{"id":4520,"date":"2013-07-12T03:42:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-12T08:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/?p=4520"},"modified":"2013-07-12T03:58:13","modified_gmt":"2013-07-12T08:58:13","slug":"questions-of-stress-relief-and-relaxation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/2013\/07\/questions-of-stress-relief-and-relaxation\/","title":{"rendered":"Questions of Stress, Relief, and Relaxation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dish<\/a><\/p>\n

Several good questions were presented over on Google+ last week.\u00a0 ..so I thought I would post the response here for everyone who might be interested in the reply..<\/p>\n

“A question: Is it stressful while you are painting and you are relieved when it is finished ? Or do you relax and enjoy while doing it ?”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The simple answer: Yes.\u00a0 ..and no.<\/p>\n

Painting, when things are going well and it happens to be cooperating, is something similar to meditation.\u00a0 So in a way it is relaxing and one loses track of time and an overall enjoyable experience. (When the painting is not cooperating, that is another story entirely..)<\/p>\n

However, while painting, muscles are very tensed and I am braced all over.\u00a0 It isn’t really something I consciously do, it is just how it happens – I suppose it is the result of the effort to create strong fine steady strokes in the paintings.\u00a0 As a result, it tends to wear with measurable amounts of painting time, and all areas get sore as a result.<\/p>\n

Sometimes picking up a cup of coffee the next morning is nearly impossible.\u00a0 That point is usually a prime time for a nature walk, observing wildlife, or some book or internet related research – anything that I am able to do with minimal use of my hands or arms.<\/p>\n

I am pleased when work is finished, of course.\u00a0 However, when all of the fur of a wolf or raccoon for example is complete, it is never quite as I had envisioned it and I have the urge to do it all over again ‘correctly’.<\/p>\n

It is a little disappointing or empty feeling when a piece is done and I have to start another in order to continue to paint more fur, etc.\u00a0 But of course, starting another work for whatever reason isn’t a bad thing, either.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several good questions were presented over on Google+ last week.\u00a0 ..so I thought I would post the response here for everyone who might be interested in the reply.. “A question: Is it stressful while you are painting and you are relieved when it is finished ? Or do you relax […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,13,14],"tags":[127,130,556,194,533,548,549,554,558,552,325,553,1789,337,342,559,560,352,551,555,563,550,557,423,463,470,472],"class_list":["post-4520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-stuff","category-miscellaneous","category-off-the-beaten-path","tag-course","tag-cup-of-coffee","tag-enjoyable-experience","tag-fur","tag-google","tag-measurable-amounts","tag-meditation","tag-muscles","tag-nature-walk","tag-next-morning","tag-painting","tag-painting-time","tag-paintings","tag-piece","tag-post","tag-prime-time","tag-question-3a","tag-raccoon","tag-related-research","tag-relaxation","tag-reply","tag-simple-answer","tag-steady-strokes","tag-time","tag-wildlife","tag-wolf","tag-work"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/DSCN9363-e1373577627545.jpg?fit=2619%2C1868&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4520"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4734,"href":"https:\/\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4520\/revisions\/4734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}