God is in the Imperfections

Playing with paint brushes, laughing uncontrollably, and enjoying the company of close friends; that is how I spent my Saturday evening. 

In honor of my friend Courtney’s birthday, my friend Nikki and I treated her to a Girl’s Night Out at Painting with a Twist.  We were mesmerized by the display of art that draped the walls of the intimate studio in North Dallas.  After locating our seats and slipping on our aprons, we waited with the other eager participants for Daniel and Robert, our amazing instructors, to help us turn the white canvases into a painting of six lively colored wine glasses.

“Okay, first we will begin with the large brush…” Daniel said.  The chatter and giggling among the participants came to a halt and all eyes were glued to the front of the room where Daniel stood with a completed painting to his right and a clean canvas to his left. 

Moments later we created a sort of creamy cheesecake (homemade not store bought) color for the background using a mixture of honey mustard yellow and a mayonnaise white paint.  Daniel would refer to this mixture as mayo and mustard throughout the course of the evening.

It was apparent from the first few strokes that Nikki was an apprentice to Picasso and Courtney a student of Van Gough in their previous lives.  Nikki used soft feminine strokes. It was as if she barely allowed the bristles to touch the canvas before she twisted her wrist to go at it from a different angle. The girl had skills.  Courtney’s approach, although, still delicate, was very precise.  She is a project manager like me, so her attention to detail and precision was not a surprise.  My approach was simply to keep up with Daniel’s instructions and to make small talk with Picasso and Van Gough in between strokes.   The three of us were focused, determined, and dead set on leaving the studio with an exact replica of the wine glass painting. 

It didn't take us long to see that we would end up with three very different paintings.  As a matter of fact, no one in the room would walk out with the same piece. Nikki used more mayo than mustard in her mixture, Courtney used a perfect blend of the two, and I used more mustard than mayo. I forgot to mention that Daniel and Michael… I mean Robert (I kept calling him the wrong name throughout the evening, but bless his heart he answered anyway) had drawn an outline of the top of the wine glasses which meant that we had to ever so carefully paint around them.  My next blog will be called, “Painting outside of the lines” because the three of us were temporarily transported back to our youth and even though the pre-school and kindergarten art classes were decades ago we were just as agitated when our brush found itself on the wrong side of the lines. Hearing our rants and groans due to our juvenile slip-ups, Daniel reassured us by saying and I’m paraphrasing here, “The beauty is in the imperfections.” Robert agreed.   

The last step of the process was to outline the wine glasses and initial our names at the bottom right corner.  Let me tell you the outlining was very tedious. If you ever want to see adults whine like little kids then sign up for a painting class and I’m sure that you will be entertained. Six vibrantly colored wine glasses caused us to bend, stretch, stand, and place our bodies into some pretty uncomfortable positions all in the name of art.  Daniel reassured us that our efforts would pay off in the end. Again Robert agreed.

As a final touch my friends and I each added the words Live, Laugh, and Love inside of one of the glasses.  We stepped back, dropped our brushes in the water cups, and admired our finished pieces.  Picasso (Nikki) received compliments for her zigzag free-hand glass stem, amongst other things. Daniel had the class take note of Van Gough’s (Courtney) ice cubes which she had drawn in one of her glasses and a few participants thought that my tiger print wine glass was truly unique.  It was so easy for  us to compliment the work of the other person seating next to or around us, but when we saw our own paintings, although truly breathtaking if you ask me, we focused on the imperfections.   

                

           After a few photos and selfies with our finished projects, Daniel left us with a few final words of wisdom, “Everything looks better in the morning. Ummm…with paintings that is.”  Robert agreed as always. 

                

            Courtney, Nikki, and I left the studio last night with our heads held high and a new found appreciation for art. In life it is so easy for us to focus our attention on our imperfections or our flaws.  God can do wondering things with imperfect people and imperfect situations. Last night I learned to step back and focus on the big picture instead of focusing on the mistakes that I make along the way. Each day we must take a look in the mirror and focus on the canvas in front of us.  We must paint our individual pictures and allow God to steady our hand so that we can maneuver the curves and turns that may come our way.

This morning when I took a look at my painting, I no longer saw the uneven lines as imperfections. I saw a unique creation; a one of a kind piece of art.  I saw God in the imperfections. And that my friends, is a masterpiece. 

Be Blessed,

Christy

***Special thanks to Courtney and Nikki for allowing me to share our story. Also thanks to Daniel, Robert, and Jim at Painting with a Twist in Frisco, TX.