Turning a blank canvas into a masterpiece

A blank canvas can be pretty daunting. The amount of white space and the potential it is to hold can be overwhelming. But as soon as you start with the first color, it begins to breathe life and become something. Then, with every layer of color, and the way the image starts to appear, it starts to feel like something real.

I had the chance to paint "Starry Night" by Van Gogh the other night at Canvas and Cocktails in Cherry Creek. It was a crazy experience! We were instructed on how to mix the color and where to put certain images and then, before I knew it, I was a mini Van Gogh goddess. Okay. Maybe not. But it did feel sorta incredible to create something like that.

So, yes, the painting was super fun. But really the fun and amazing part was that it was being done with some of my best friends. So. This got me thinking. Friendship is a lot like creating a Van Gogh painting.



It starts with a blank canvas. Remember the first time you met your best friend? There was no history built yet, there was no depth, no life...a blank canvas! But then...but then those first times you laugh until you cry or when you realize you have an inside joke that will live in infamy, or you share those secrets that live in "the vault" is when you realize you are in the midst of painting the brush strokes of vivid color that begin to take form and shape and become nothing short of a masterpiece.


Through my painting experience, I also realized that I was more insecure than I thought I would be. I was nervous I would not put the right color in the right place. I also messed up in a few spots and had to figure out a way to recover the mess I had made.

This is like freindship too. I have insecurities that often get in the way of seeing the beauty of what is in front of me. I also mess up and I have to find ways to fix it. Thankfully, the insecurities and mess ups actually become some of the strongest parts of the friendship and I am a better person for going through the hard stuff.

I am grateful that I had the chance to paint my first painting...but I am more grateful that I got to do it with some pretty amazing women. Women who have changed me, shaped me and shown me that even when I mess up, we are in this together and, if I do say so myself, we are also some pretty kick ass painters.

We are wonder women, after all.