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“Marsh Mellow Day”

This sweet little oil painting is part of my new “Marsh Memories,” series which I’ve enjoyed working on all summer long. When I posted a photo of this finished painting on my Facebook page, the first comment was written by the kind mother of my childhood best friend.

Miss Arlene wrote: “So pretty and soft. Like ‘marshmallow’ memories.”

What a perfect compliment. Just the inspiration I needed for the name of this painting, which has become one of my new favorites.

Being *somewhat* of a vegan-eater for the past few years, I just didn’t feel quite right about naming the painting after a food which contains gelatin. (Although, that being said, the inclusion of gelatin has NOT stopped me from eating my fair share of gelatin-laced S’mores this summer.)

MARSHMALLOWS can be sticky.
[And not-so-good for you.]

That really isn’t at all the feeling I wanted to convey in the piece.

Yet, the idea of a “pretty, soft, marshmallow memory” still somehow summed up the mood I was trying to convey so well.

Hmmm….

What about a Mellow Marsh?

What would that look like? What could that mean?

So I looked up the definition of “mellow.” And immediately, Mellow became my new favorite word. My new mission in life.

Mellow means…

adjective
1. (especially of sound, taste, and color) “pleasantly smooth or soft; free from harshness.”
2. (of a person’s character) “softened or matured by age or experience.”

verb
1. “To make or become mellow.”

LIFE can be sticky.
[And not-so-good for you.]

But if not ever allowed to Get Sticky how else does one become “pleasantly smooth or soft; free from harshness?”

The hard and tricky things in LIFE, if accepted and then digested correctly, can be just the ingredient that’s needed to mellow out the sharp, craggy corners in our mind. The steeled callous places that — left to harden — cause not-so-good-for you ways of thinking. And reacting. And then ultimately living.

Marshes are MESSY

Not everybody loves the marshes like I do. They are kind of smelly. And buggy. And full of little creeping things that move. But that is part of what I love about them.

Marsh Messiness is life in action. An ever-changing landscape, providing a different kind of beauty at every different hour of every single day. Marshes are a self-funded, self-directed projects. A type of installation art performance for anyone who is willing to slow down to enjoy the show.

Marshes are MELLOW

Every day, water flows in. Water flows out. Slowly carving a way for itself to engage with a larger body of water. Paths are worn by this slow, gentle process where the mud and muck is “Softened or matured by age or experience.”

I did not grow up around marshes, nor do I live on a marsh. I am a late-in-life marsh groupie. So I might be missing something here.

What I’m confident I’m not missing, is the way a marsh view can slow my breath and fill my lungs with its calming tonic. Its existence a temporary elixir for all that feels stuck within my heart.

So what is a Marsh Mellow Day?

Well, that is up to YOU to decide. Think about what that means for you today. And maybe by the end of the month, you will have started to formulate in your mind, what you could look like if you became a more mellow version of yourself.

Maybe putting this desktop calendar as your computer wallpaper will be a reminder to you to ponder the question. Use it with my blessing, and may it bring you peace as you go about the coming days!

Wishing you a more mellow path this month of August, 2016…

Warmly,
Marie Scott 

To see the entire collection of my vibrant, colorful,
and mostly not-really-very-mellow-at-all paintings, visit my online gallery
at www.mariescottstudios.com