The text on the image reads
This is a dress I used to wear out dancing often. It's stretchy and flowy without being too much fabric to easily manage. It also has fun scarf-like bits that fly about when I do big moves. It cracks me up, and that's part of what I like about dancing.
Over the last few days, I've noticed that making and editing and staying within the lines is aggravating me. When I paint, I start with a drawing. Sometimes, I let some of the lines of my drawing tool show through what I paint, like in The Yawn: Lion. Those lines are loose, though, and meant to be guidelines and starting points and, well, hopes. The lines in these drawings start loose and then I tighten the life out of most of them as I add color, with the intention of having the lines play a huge role in the final drawing.
I don't want to do that anymore.
I'm in charge of all of this stuff coming out of me. The day before yesterday, I erased most of the lines. Yesterday, I brought them back because I felt compressed. Today they're all gone.
It's an interesting exercise in balance to hold on to what one loves to do and be without being able do the things that create those feelings of being. So, today I removed the lines from my drawing, and it felt good to be a painter again.