Confessions of a Nail Polish Junkie

I blame my grandmother.  One of my earliest memories of consciousness, of being alive, was noticing my grandmother's painted fingernails.  I remember her standing at the door, me looking at her fingers tips and wondering why there were different.  I was too young to even know about colors then but I knew something was different and I loved the change! When I was young enough to grasp that fingernails could be painted, I wanted mine painted.  Looking back, my grandmother's fingernails were painted red that fateful day and that was the day I began my love affair with nail polish. 

One reason I like nail polish is the act of painting something with it and feeling I am creating.  Well, I am creating, putting a color on my fingernails.  It is simply the artist in me, as I like to say, I can't help it.

When I was making the photograph of the bottles today, I jotted down some of the names of the colors.  I noticed different themes:

Names of red polish:  Remarkable Red, Really Red, Fever, Love That Red, Big Apple Red, Rock N' Red, Ruby, Sharon's Heart.

Names that refer to nights:  Black Satin, Night Glow, White Night, Eclipse, Super Nova

Names that refer to emotions and passion:  Russet Flame, Blazed, Swept Away, Self Confident, True Love, Fever, Sincerely

My grandmother was such a big influence in my life in so many ways.  Looking back I think I shared with her the story of being so impressed with seeing those red fingernails. At the time we are making memories with loved ones, we don't realize the importance of it at the time.

A few months ago I drew this portrait of my grandmother.  It was drawn on Canson Textured Mi Tientes Paper using different pencils and pastels.