New artwork breathing. . .

It is 8:50AM, as I write. I woke up earlier than usual today. Feeling peaceful and eager to create. I had some cinnamon toast and water out on the patio, watching the sun start to rise up above the rooftops of my new neighborhood. A reminder that I moved states for the first time in my life, moved apartments twice within three months, and left my stable career in property management.

If you told me two months ago that I would be here, I don’t think I would have believed you. I would have probably been a little scared, though the fear would melt away, and reveal itself in its true form as excitement. Really? Yes, really. Isn’t that how it goes? No risk, no reward?

Regardless, life has an interesting way of twisting and turning your plans. Sometimes for worse, sometimes for better. I believe this has been for the better.

This entire past week I spent rebuilding my home art studio and engineering a method of painting that I want to stick with. For a large part of my life, I let other people’s opinions dictate the art I would make. Sure, that makes sense. I was a kid, and then a student. It makes sense that people would inject their opinions into a young, wide-eyed little brain. 

Still it took work to undo. I’ve landed on a style of painting that absolutely lights me up. I am so, so excited to take this style to the edge of all it can be.

The process behind these paintings is to start with a tic tac toe like pattern in the background that slowly gets erased as the painting emerges. These works celebrate the feminine gaze, and establish warmth, kindness, and hope. 

For a large part of my painting career, I used painting as a catharsis to let out all the negative emotions I felt. My paintings were raw, cold in color, and emotional. While I hold this body of work to high esteem, (some incredible mark making happened in those paintings), I no longer identify with the person I was when I made them.

Naturally, a new method, new image, is born out of the new person that I am.

These new paintings celebrate the daily pleasures of life. When life is messy, unpredictable, and difficult, I want painting to be an area where struggle melts away. Where painting can provide solace, peace, and a reminder that not all in the world is bad. In fact, many things are good.

So I’m capturing the good things. 

I want my artwork to fill a room, and interact kindly with the existing space. I want the image to live between abstraction and representation. There are elements so deeply rooted in real life, (perhaps the blanket held by the subject, or a book,) and other elements that are imagined, though represent a blissful feeling. 
I would stick around a write more, but writing about all this makes me eager to pick up the brush. So until next time.

I know that life gets busy, and there’s so many things you can do throughout the day. Even just taking a few minutes to read my little musings, I truly do consider that a gift. And for that, this humble artist says thank you.