Here’s one of my most recent “art vomits” 🤮 I was putting a ton of pressure on myself to make my dogs portraits perfect because they’re my sweet good boys and last year I focused a lot on doing memorial pet portraits for people that had lost their best friends recently. My furry friends are still with us and I think I was putting even more pressure on myself because I want to hang them up on my walls while they’re still with us for my family to enjoy and appreciate more while we still have them around. This immense pressure I was putting on those portraits to make them perfect had me locked up and they sat in my studio half finished and glaring at me with judgement 🫠 I’ve been dealing with quite a bit of stress from balancing work, family life, and trying to find time for myself as well. Winters also tend to be hard for me and the anxiety was building as I passed these half finished portraits each day, wanting so desperately to complete them but feeling bound by other responsibilities. So I decided to art vomit, get that stuff unstuck from my body and let it out on the canvas. No expectations. No regrets. Just release and appreciation for allowing myself to make some “ugly” art. I began with the most intense feeling of darkness, a black background then the anger and frustration, red thrown at the canvas and some quick chaotic brush strokes. Then some guilt release with some orange, blue and purples to represent the racing thoughts and scattered mind. Again, no expectations, just release of these emotions though my hand so that I could look at it and say “that’s where I left that, it no longer lives inside of me, it lives there on the canvas and I can move past it now” I felt better. It opened up a channel to create again and shortly after I got back into the final details of my portraits. I hung this piece in my art show this month, put my whole vulnerable self out into the world, wrote a short description of why I created the piece and entitled it “anxiety/fight or flight”

First, apologies for not being active here. My life has been crazy busy and hectic, lots going on and less than optimal motivation to show up here for my community. I had a lot of requests to join to community in my absence and as I was just going through and approving new members, I notice a consistent theme that I think affects all of us as artist and creatives. The motivation to start, the will to complete a project fully once reaching the end, and the confidence to let our whole selves show through in our work. All things that I have been struggling with as well lately so here’s some tips I can share on these topics and I hope everyone can jump into the comments and share what works for them as well! First, the beginning stages of art can be definitely the most challenging, sometimes we have all the ideas and don’t know which one to begin with, other times we feel blank and unmotivated but have that urge to create. When I have too many ideas I tend to take a few minutes to meditate on what I’m feeling internally first. Have the paints and supplies set up and ready to go, put on your favorite music and breathe deeply while feeling into what is asking to be released. A lot of times this brings me just enough clarity to get started and see what emerges from an initial inspiration. If you have a photo to work from or something more realistic or detailed in mind, having that photo out with a few minutes to reflect on what it means to you and why you want to replicate it sometimes helps open to space for a starting place. I always start with sketching out some details with a neutral or opposite color very lightly to get some things on the canvas that will add to the finish later. When I’m feeling more blank and uninspired I lean into that process more heavily and focus on releasing expectations of what I want my art to look like. I really focus on the emotions that are begging to escape my body and the colors associated with them. For example I regard anger as red and orange, yellow can represent electricity or high energy, green for love and connection, blues and purples for hard emotions like sadness and despair or sometimes even clarity and focus. I think of the colors as they relate to chakras and focus on the most powerful emotion I feel first, release expectation and just start making marks on the canvas however my hand needs to move that emotion out.

Just a fair warning to everyone that’s legitimately joined this group to find community and support, there are scammers popping up posing as “art collectors” I’ve already banned a couple from this group and will not allow this type of conduct here so if you see anything suspicious, if anyone wants to purchase artwork using nft or crypto currency, please be very wary of this kind of behavior and tag me or message me about it and I’ll make sure they are not in this group. This is a safe space to share creations, connect and support each other and I’ll do my very best to make sure everyone is safe in every way to the best of my ability. We’re here to grow as artists and help build each other up, not put anyone in risk of their finances. Be safe folks! It seems like no place on the internet is untouched by scammers these days 🤦‍♂️

I’ve been feeling bombarded with life things happening lately and I know I should be taking time to slow down and paint to get myself back on track and let go of some of the stresses that are happening. It’s tough when there’s a lot going on though and I know we can all relate. It’s been mentioned a couple times here already, that guilty feeling that creating isn’t a top priority when other things need to be taken care of, around the house, for work, for kids, just all the life stuff.. So I would love to hear some of the things that help keep everyone motivated, whether it’s related to art and creativity or not, I believe this could be helpful for us all to see that we’re not alone and maybe learn a trick or two to help each other out 😇 Personally, my family is always my first priority so I’m always pushing myself to be better for them, keep the house clean, do the things I don’t want to do if it’s going to benefit us in the long run. Unfortunately sometimes that means I push my own needs to the side, but at the same time I think it’s important to show my kids how important it is to keep the creativity alive and pursue passions. So I’ve always got a couple projects I’m working on for myself, even if it takes longer to complete them than I would like. Here’s my current work in progress, I’m chipping away at these good boys when I can, even if it’s not as much as I would like. They sit in my studio and remind me daily that I should take the time to sit down and work on them when I can 💚 practicing grace and patience with myself though so I don’t spiral out and feel too bad for when I can’t make the time for them. Let’s see what you’re working on, how you find motivation to take the time for yourself and your passion, and if there’s any way I can support you please let me know!

Just wanted to do this video for you guys real quick about my perspective of being a stay at home parent (STAHP) (I know I fudged that a little bit 😅) I had kind of a rough day trying to balance my chores and tasks towards getting the house clean and getting an event made for a sound bath I’m doing soon here in my area. My son was feeling extra clingy and needed my attention but I kept getting frustrated while trying to do other things I thought were important. The day came to a climax point where he had a meltdown over a toy he wasn’t being kind with and I took it away (my frustration could have been lessor) and I sat with him through it, helped him calm and come back to center, got him some dinner and the night ended up getting much better after I took that time for him. Success as a parent looks a lot different than these big entrepreneurs that look like they have it so easy. We face challenges off the camera that consume so much of our energy that there’s often not much left for creativity. But I will argue (slightly) that creativity and self care are even more important as a parent and I want to be here for you through those challenges in any way that I can 💚 thanks for watching and reading. Have a kick ass day tomorrow and keep making small steps forward where you want to go! 😇