Creativity has alleviated some stress

"Cardinal Lets Loose"
Digitally Enhanced Watercolor

Well, this little cardinal (who symbolizes me) is finally letting loose and playing after a day spent figuring out computer settings for making cards and other graphic design brain activities that had me on the brink of a breakdown. A voice inside of me said "stop and play!!!!". And so I let my hair down, or shall I say, let the feathers fly, experimented and allowed the spirit of creativity to take me where it wanted to.
Cardinal gal has been sitting around on a white background for a few years all by her lonesome. I supposed my fear of painting backgrounds usually left my nature friends floating on blank paper. So I decided to add some things to give her some companionship and to get past my own old hangups. The background is a little hand-painted tissue paper I finally dug out of my studio and incorporated here. There's some pretty cool brushes on the computer that I got my hands on and it felt good swirling them around. These little brush tools seemed to release some inner stress I was feeling. Little birdy looks a little crazy now, hope I didn't transfer any of my loony vibes to her. She could be overwhelmed by all the changes I did to her and the painting. Hope she doesn't get lost here now, because she is a beauty in her own right. I enjoyed moving the bird off the page a bit and liked touching a few brush strokes to outside edges, felt freeing to me. (represents me pushing out of my self-limiting boundaries).
I feel more relaxed and mellow now as I sit here writing about my new/old creation so I thank you, my cardinal friend, for letting me transform you and visa versa. Let us both soar together.