Today, I discovered, in my mailbox, the current issue of Somerset Studio with my name on the cover. It made me squee. And dance a funny dance on my patio, which caught the attention of a woman walking by, who smiled and said hello. I stopped dancing just long enough to greet her back, then went back to dancing with my dog.
I can say that this art — these pieces created in a flurry of movement and paint — seems to mark the beginning of a huge shift in my creative life. I feel myself falling further away from things like my Smash book (that hasn’t been worked on in weeks) and how I used to journal, and diving into layers of paint and hidden symbolism.
There’s more emotion and meaning to these pieces than the ones I’ve done before. I remember thinking, as I worked, “These mark the beginning of my Artist Self. All I’ve created up until now was practice, play, and experimenting. Now I am my True Artist Self.”
This shift has nothing to do with calling myself an artist — I’ve considered myself an artist for years — but more to do with being happy with what I create. I love all these pieces and can’t wait to get them back to hang in my own space! Yes, I love what I’ve done before now, but these — there’s technique and depth and spontaneity and emotion. The result of things I happened upon in my journals that I now used somewhere else.
And I just fell in love with these colors! At first, I was afraid I’d be limited by only being able to use three colors (plus black and white), but found it opened a whole new world of experimentation and application. How can I create contrast? How can I use shades and white and a bit of black? How can I discover depth when I can only express myself with such a limited palette?
But in the end, I learned a lot more than I thought I would! It was almost like a mini-class, all packed into one wild ride of inspiration, where each moment was jam-packed with instruction and discovery, both about my art and myself. I feel like these grew organically, rising from the first applications of paint, those wisps of idea that got me going; the piece on loose canvas, for example, was my “scratch paper,” where brushes were wiped off, stencils cleaned, and doodles were drawn when I was stuck….and yet it turned into a beautiful piece of its own, and one I simply adore!
I’m thankful for the opportunity this article presented, and the art I’ve created since has been different and soulful and wonderful…at least now you can see where this new phase of artwork and journaling I’m dwelling in started. I’m super excited to share it here with you, both as a way to chronicle this time of major shift and growth in my life, and inspire you to create something wonderful and soulful, too!
I should have prints of these pieces up in my Etsy shop, soon (and I don't link there now since it's a barren (wasteland!). You can grab your own copy of Somerset Studio on newsstands now -- or really, really soon!