Hey, Judgement. Go sit down.

I made a little book out of a pad of watercolor paper. Bound with cotton thread that was laying around. The covers are from a mailing envelope. At some point in the past, I had gessoed one side of the pages. Why, why, Michelle of the past, did you do that? Anyway.

I keep my palette, a glass of water, and a few brushes ready to go. No intentions. No feelings of preciousness about the book. This is playtime. Hey, you! Judgement! Go sit down and read a book. I don't need you right now.

Dip the brush in the water and then into the watercolor. Mix some blue with green. Get the page really wet and then touch the paint into the wet with the blue-green bristles. Push the paint around a bit but not too much. Stop before judgement takes a break from reading and wanders over to render its opinion. Keep going. Make more colors and more paint shapes. Don't think about what it is going to be but what it is.

On the gessoed pages, get out your permanent ink pen and doodle. Or just draw one tiny shape and repeat that shape. A line. A long line. A short line. Swirls.