Art

There are moments in my creative process when I feel completely stuck. It’s not the kind of stuck where I don’t have ideas. Sometimes it’s worse than that.

I was moving my artwork into a storage box when I found an old sketch that I used for the basis of “Bloom,” a large acrylic painting that I created back in 2013.

Near the end of each year, I begin working on a new and updated art book that includes all the artwork I’ve created for that year. I’m doing things a bit differently for 2023.

The irony of receiving more meaningful engagement from a machine than from human followers on social media.

I had an old mix of green ink that was perfect for what I was hoping to portray for this piece. Typically I would use this color to indicate life or growth, but in this case, it was a better indicator for the toxic energy that I find myself dealing with from time to time.

Balancing creativity, production, marketing, and sales on a day-to-day basis is no easy task, and artists who work hard to make a living at their craft deserve some attention and a HUGE amount of respect. And no…I’m not talking about me.

The so-called “creative block” that I’ve run into over the years has come from anxieties over my work not being good enough, telling myself that I didn’t have enough time, comparing myself to other artists, and so many other things.

I had a nagging feeling and some sort of vision repeating in my mind for the past few days that I needed to create this. And through my sloppy mistakes and fumbling around and uncertainty, it seemed to have created itself.

Inspired by the song “Into The Mystic” by Van Morrison, a quick sketch/painting demonstrating Artgraf’s Water-soluble Graphite on Yupo paper.

I’m leaving this here for me to read…to remind myself as often as I need to.