“Art must be an expression of love or it is nothing.”
style
Designing and curating a spring collection created a new work method. It was refreshing to have a process that felt decisive and disciplined. Utilizing the new Adobe Creative Cloud was a big part of this when I upgraded in February because my Photoshop version would not do what I wanted. I am fluent in Photoshop but have room to grow in learning Illustrator. A specific need for a program to function a certain way is an ideal motivator. The frustration of trying to create patterns using math was not it, and the ease of Pattern Preview was a game changer.
Most paintings I've done in the past few years have been on a smaller scale because they tend to sell faster. This was my year to move away from creating work from a mindset of How much money will this make? Is it worth my time? When a painting begins that way for me personally, it shows. When I started my studio as a business almost eight years ago, I needed to learn how to make money and soften my interwoven emotions with creating art. The 2023 goal was to create a method to produce quality and meaningful artwork with potential to increase revenue spans + reach through licensing opportunities.
My sketchbook from a trip to DC was a training exercise for how I wanted to maximize the Visual Journaling retreat in France in 2022. I found some delicious Strathmore watercolor sketchbooks that made me want to keep a consistent style and color palette. I would begin a sketch on-site, like the one of my kids sitting at a table in the Pavilion Cafe in the National Gallery of Art's Sculpture Garden, and take a panoramic photo to fill details in later to maximize the paper’s landscape format. I developed a frequently used color palette with HIMI and MIYA jelly gouache with fluorescent paints.
inspiration
The biggest inspiration for a limited palette and line quality was researching the work of background animators from Looney Tunes (Warner Brothers) cartoons from the 1950s, like Maurice Noble, Ernie Nordli, Chuck Jones, and Irv Wyner. I found an animation background archive site and went down the rabbit hole. I promise that is not a pun about Bugs Bunny.
art history remix through reference imagery
The Afternoon Meal (La Merienda), oil on canvas, by Luis Meléndez (Spanish, Naples 1716–1780 Madrid), ca. 1772
Hearing and Sight (Pair), Chelsea Porcelain Manufactory (British, 1745–1784, Red Anchor Period, ca. 1753–58), Modeled by Joseph Willems (Flemish, 1716–1766), ca. 1755, Soft-paste porcelain with enamel decoration and gilding
The reference imagery was remixed into a digital collage of the two porcelain figures placed into a setting from The Afternoon Meal, by Luis Meléndez (from the same period). The simplified patterns on the porcelain and flowers were ideal elements to develop into a surface pattern. The stage was set, and I dialed into painting on the easel. Returning to painting on a larger scale felt so good, with curiosity and inspiration at the helm. This process and method of working united previous techniques and styles that operated like satellites for me. It combined my love for antique malls, decorative arts, painting on a larger scale, line work, and a high-voltage color palette.
During this time, I was not sharing any of this on Instagram, but would with anyone I spoke to in person. Although I felt certain with where I was going with this, it felt like an intrusion to divide my attention by “capturing content”. Maybe it is a resistance to always feeling under surveillance or how authentic this felt, I did not want to record while pretending I wasn’t. Oh, hi, I didn’t see you there! For the first time, I wanted to see a process through fruition and let it develop before sharing what I thought about it in bites. That choice to treat it in this way was something I needed because artists experience a range of sensations during the creative process. Some days, problems arise, and you have to walk away and some flow and feel triumphant.
production
fidus amor
I titled the painting Fidus Amor, Latin for true love, because I mindfully embraced radical self-acceptance. It is challenging to be an artist because it is an extension of yourself in a physical form subject to criticism. A positive mindset would suggest that an artist’s work is an extension of oneself that can reach other people and be celebrated. Fidus Amor results from a year dedicated to shadow work, slaying the dragons of self-doubt, and feeling firmly planted in this new direction. It is a process like a garden that needs tending, pruning, and consideration for the seasons.
surface pattern
The first image below is from a lookbook with mock-ups to visualize. More details are to come for how you can purchase products.
