As I have committed to my own artistic process and what that creative practice looks like I am starting to contemplate what it means to be an artist moving forward in my life. I have been, in short, asking myself what exactly does my own Mature Art look like, where do I see myself and what projects do I hope to create in my life moving forward.
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And every day since then I have been asking myself but what goes here. And about every other day I ask my tarot cards and they answer with the High Priestess, the guardian of sacred knowledge and hidden mysteries.
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I’ve collected words my whole life. Scribbling quotes, song lyrics that I love, making lists and general documentation. I cannot for the life of me finish a notebook however at any given time Im working in at least three. What I am is a compulsive list maker, a doodler, and a dreamer.
Read MoreThere was so much going on I had not really wrapped my head around the reality of it. It started with one last trip to Silverton to meet with a hotel owner on a potential sale and commission. We left knowing it would be the last time getting out, we knew also that it was probably a last time effort on this sale. Even during the overnight in Silverton we felt what was coming. We hit the grocery store on the way back understanding that in Astoria certain resources had already become impossible to get and we hoped Silverton might provide. Coming home it was a flurry of closing studios and figuring out exactly what a Quarantine might look like. Would we still go in to our studios, how would we keep them safe?
Read Moream going to start here by letting you know that none of these links are affiliate links. This list is specifically only for folks looking for information. Most of my students know that I have some real opinions about certain supplies. Iin this time when folks are home and hopefully creating I wanted to share my favorites. I have a lot of feelings about the list being an amazon list however I know that in the end Amazon may be the only way folks are getting supplies. If you have any questions feel free to email me with them!!
Read MoreOver the last year, the 29th Street Women, a collective of five Oregon artists—Shannon Amidon, Barb Burwell, Pamela Chipman, Kim Lakin, and Kirista Trask—have been meeting in a studio on NW 29th Street in Portland to give one another professional support, critique each other’s work, and build conversations about key issues facing female artists. After reading Ninth Street Women, they were inspired to build a broader conversation about what they’d learned. The book is a social biography of five abstract expressionists—women working in New York in the mid-20th Century: Grace Hartigan, Helen Frankenthaler, Elaine de Kooning, Lee Krasner, and Joan Mitchell. Struck by their predecessors’ stylistic innovations and courage, the five Oregonians decided to pay tribute.
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Through this microscope I have come to one very important realization. The realization as I work towards personal work and artistic work meant to bring me closer to the divine both within myself
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I have lived my entire life around mental illness. My mother has been fighting a long term battle with PTSD that has manifested in a variety of ways. As a small child my mother would go from extreme happiness to extreme anger in what felt like a split second. As a teenager when my mom started to finally get mental health therapy I saw her struggle with a life time of memories coming back at once. I saw hallucinations and the utter terror of wading through a life time of pain. I became the child parent taking care of things around the house to ease the pain I saw my mother experiencing. The other side of that is that I also saw redemption when my mother graduated law school. I saw her start her own law practice and take control of her own life.
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To say I love Oregon is an understatement. I genuinely I cannot imagine dying in another state let alone living there. So when Travel Oregon came out with their Seven Wonders of Oregon I couldn't not go. As started to plan the trips that would get me out into some parts of Oregon I had never been I had no idea how integral some of these trips would eventually be. Nor would I imagine the beautiful selection of paintings that would come from these experiences and just how beautiful they would be at Wallow Foundation. I wanted to share with you each of these pieces and how they came to be.
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Now that I have some rules about how much social media I consume and a new place to do the work I have to start asking myself the even scarier question which is "what am I doing to sabotage myself and my career". I won't go too far into that as it is it's own blog past entirely. I will say though, that as I clean up my business systems I am learning to look further inside of myself at what other factors might be at play here.
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I realize now that I have finally put that place down on paper, that it inspired me because so much of her best qualities were present there. She was an incredibly talented crafter. She could make almost anything beautiful and during her children's young childhood made incredibly beautiful matching outfits for them. She loved endlessly.
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In checking out at IKEA I realized that I had climbed a small mountain that day. The easy road is no longer a viable option because my work is worth it. My business is worth it and more importantly my clients are worth it. I want my artwork to change people's spaces. To make them feel alive and vibrant and I cannot do that with subpar choices. My business, and more importantly my art, have a higher value than that.
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Friends I love designing pillows. This last month I got a special request and this was the beautiful design I came up with. I got so excited about this one off that I have decided to offer it for sale in my Etsy shop as a special for the month of May! I love this so much I am already dreaming about what design I will feature in June.
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We have been spending some time on our childhood trying to re awaken our inner child and I knew it was time to come back to the envelope in the drawer. I pulled out those photos yesterday determined to find some goodness in them again. As an artist my work focuses on the topics of queer identity, femininity and recovering lost memories. It was time I took to those photos for contemplation.
Read MoreShe’d done it. The tiny little stranger had looked inside my soul and found the words I never could. You see, that has been my problem my whole life. I have a whole lot of feelings going on inside and yet seem completely incapable of adequately expressing myself. It was not until I was almost thirty and I started painting that I finally found a way to express all that I had going on inside. For me I felt like I was suddenly speaking a language people could understand.
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Two characteristics each of the panelists related to being women in sports. Over and over I heard each panelist speak on these two topics. As an artist struggling to figure out the in-between space in my life it spoke so deeply to my heart that I almost teared up. It reminded me that I am not alone, not as a women, not as a artist, not as someone who is so passionately in love with this crazy career path that I cannot imagine who I would be without it.
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