My latest piece
I did finally complete the peonies piece I started last year and it is sold and at the printers getting properly scanned. I'm working hard at doing all the right things like documenting each piece properly before I send it off into the world. There's actually a lot of my earlier pieces that didn't get so lucky in my early and more broke years- so no high res photos of those exist at this point.
It was hard completing a piece because honestly my life has been a lot of crazy with me juggling a new business and working part time and life in general. But I am resolved to carving out more time for my art because it's who I am and what I do.
My other business- woodworking and charcuterie! Not only do I help make the boards but I do all the photography, food composition and social media wrangling for Tygerbyrd Woodwork. And I love how it has nothing to do with the art world, galleries, competitive artists and all the hooplah that burned me out on the art scene in the first place. It's a humble and meditative form of art- working with wood and making a piece of nature have another purpose. I get to make this all happen with Mike Byrd, who is a great teacher and we learn together how to do new things with the wood and the importance of new ideas. A new medium and learning platform for me is tons of fun and injects new ideas into my personal work as well.
My favorite monk has left our realm and it brought me back to the present moment and mindfulness. I have admittedly slacked off on my meditation, breathing, mindfulness, reading and general involvement with my spirit. And that is no way to be. I don't have the words to vocalize just how important Thich Nhat Hahn has been to my life...so I won't even try. Maybe that stuff goes into my painting, like good spirit stuff does.
I also feel the need to express one last thing and will never explain myself about it again because it is ultimately resolved in the universe.
As an artist I have cultivated my own style, language and art. It is in my choice of colors, mediums, subject matter and preferences for certain design elements. Each piece I do comes from my lifetime of looking, feeling, learning and being and as such I'm entitled to paint whatever I wish and whatever I feel needs to come out of my brush. To simplify- I am free to paint whatever I wish at all points of time of me existing on this planet. No one can tell me otherwise. Not one soul. Art is the one place where I don't have a boss, I don't clock in... and even if a piece is sold it is still my intellectual and spiritual property. Artists can still reproduce their work unless a collector buys the copyrights- which none of my collectors have ever done. I can reproduce my art on underwear for cats if I so desire. Just to clear the air on artists rights and what they can and can't do. "Can't do" isn't in my vocabulary unless someone has some 5 digit figures they want to slide into my bank account for copyright acquisition.
And with that- all is well in the Universe. Be mindful of the here and now and what you put into the world. I aim to put beautiful things for others to enjoy that came directly from me and the spirit I remembered I need to take care of.
Thank you Thich Nhat Hahn ❤️
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