Why does color matter? (Let me count the ways…)
We are a visual species and we live in very visual cultures. Everywhere we go or look there are visuals vying for our attention. Color is one of the first things we notice about a town, a home, and a person. We notice the aesthetic. The colors of the buildings, the landscape, and the colors a person wears. The colors of their eyes. Color is a huge component in first impressions, and I don't think I have to say how important those are.
One thing I love about these prints, beside the fact that they offer instant gratification as soon as you hit the purchase button, is that they will each look great in a wide range of frame styles. This allows you to work with your own style and the style of the room in question and fit this art into those in many different ways. Whether it is with a large mat and thin frame, or no mat with a chunky ornate gold frame, I’ve got you covered in this blog post. All links are shoppable!
Eclectic mix of gold frames for a gallery wall (must buy at least 4)
Shells are one of nature’s most beautiful creations, and can act as a powerful symbol when brought into our homes. Have you ever collected seashells, lined them on a windowsill, or piled them into a bowl to display? Have you ever listened to the ocean waves in a queen conch, miles and years away from the ocean itself? Have you ever seen a beautiful garden bed lined with collected shells? These are all beautiful ways to keep shells, but the meaning goes far beyond beauty.
Colors are the original symbol, part of the very fabric and origin of life itself. Without light we have no life, and without light we have no color. Colors mean something in how they make us feel, based on our personal connotations, interpretations, and history—but colors also mean something at a sacred level that is true for all of humanity. Colors are, in short, part of the primordial sauce that created us out of stardust and atoms. So needless to say, colors we surround ourself with can have a profound impact on us, our personal energy, and the trajectory of our lives.
The Evil Eye shows up as a powerful talisman throughout much of recorded history, and across a staggering distance of different cultures and countries. A talisman, for those new to the concept, is a symbol or object that protects one against evil or carries good luck, positive energy, and protection for the holder.
Why jellyfish, you ask? I’ve had this question from several collectors—who loved the design but weren’t sure of the larger meaning behind it. For starters, because they kept coming to me, showing up stretched the length of my two favorite beaches. I pay attention when a particular thing keeps showing up in my life. Long tendrils trailing through the sand and seaweed, bodies dried out in perfect crystalized violets and blues. More than one friend said “you should really paint those”, but it wasn't until I looked at them from a shamanic perspective, thinking of the jelly as what it could symbolize, that I finally sat down with my paints.
Snakes. The notorious serpents of mythology and religion. People love them, fear them, admire them and loathe them. Whatever your feelings towards snakes in real life, they are a powerful symbol of rebirth and, when brought into your home, they can be instrumental in your own personal manifestations. The term snake is scientifically correct, with the word “serpent” used in mythological and indigenous stories. I chose to name my design a serpent because I hoped to draw the connection to the creature’ vast mythological resumé.
I love the path I took to being an artist. Did I waste a ton of time and money and supplies? Heck yea I did. But I learned a lot, and much of the “wasted time” was spent doing something very meditative, which in itself contribute to my creative process. I would fall down these beautiful rabbit holes of experimentation and I would allow myself to go down them, ignoring the obvious option of just googling an answer. This really re-connected me with my inner child, and the remembered feeling of getting lost inside a question or a process, in a way we dont often allow ourselves to do in today’s world.
I’ve fielded a lot of questions lately on my art materials, which led me to put some more thought into what felt like a natural choice. Many people look at oil paint as a toxic material, claiming it gives them headaches, or they cannot use it for other health reasons. The truth is that oil paint itself—with the exception of certain hues such as cobalt or the cadmiums—is completely natural and non-toxic, especially if you are using products from a high quality producer. Oil paint is really just pigment and linseed oil. There are other mediums you can mix it with, but personally I only mix in a little more linseed oil, or sometimes walnut oil.
When you’re first starting out with oils—or even after a few years—it is easy to get stuck on the same type of painting surface. Maybe you started with wood panels because they were cheap and now canvas feels foreign to you. Or you didn’t even realize you could paint on anything but canvas and now you have a guest room corner filled with bulky canvases and you aren’t sure where else to start (ahem—that was me).
The truth is that you can paint with oil on literally any surface, as long as it is properly prepared. Here are a few of my favorites, with link to shop of course :)
I had been painting for about 9 months when I decided to join a local figure drawing class. This was a class held at Featherstone on Martha’s Vineyard, and it was a storied class—begun initially by a group of early vineyard artists in one of their living rooms. About twenty or so artists would join every week—some would just be drawing, others would have watercolors or pastels, just any medium that they wanted.
You guys…I was NERVOUS.
Miller states that we remain interested in our lives, the hero of our stories if you will, up until we get married. There is a narrative. An excitement. What will I do with my life? Who will I meet? Who will I marry? How and Where will we get married? Where will we honeymoon? After this point, we sort of collectively expect to just fade away into the suburbs. We watch Netflix and reality TV, and become more interested in other peoples’ lives.
In short, we do what is expected of us and at a certain point, we stop learning and evolving just as we are expected to. We lose interest in our own trajectory in favor of someone else’s whom we may not even know.
Think when you have felt the most enthusiastic in your life. It probably hasn’t been while watching the news or scrolling social media or even while zoning out to a podcast or the radio. We feel the most enthusiastic when are connected in to our why, in the present moment, and thinking of ways to move forward in the flow of creation. When we are in a creative state, enthusiasm is all around us. And a creative state is not just reserved for the stereotypical “Creative” type. Whether you are a financial analyst, a pilot, a preschool teacher or a painter, the creative state is that feeling when you are 1000% “IN” whatever you are doing. You are present.
When I decided to start painting again, I was 37 and hadn’t picked up a brush in a good 12 years. I also hadn’t had a job in 8 years and was the mom to 3 small boys. My youngest was just 10 months old and my oldest was 5. And somehow I knew I didn’t want to just paint as a hobby—although this is a wonderful thing too. But for me I knew from that first moment that it was my path to build this “painting thing” into a real business. How did I know? I knew because I really wanted to do that, and it sounded fun.
Sounding fun is great, but of course so much work went into this. And I had zero idea, at that point, what I was getting into. All I had was this dumb confidence that I could somehow “figure it out.” And I did…
The truth is that nothing much is expected to happen while you meditate. The seas will not part, and the lightening bolt of sudden insight and inspiration is not going to shoot down from the sky and whisper on your ear. When you create the space during mediation—when you open yourself up to contemplation—then you create a space within yourself for the inspiration to come. For me, I find that it comes at a random moment—while sitting in traffic, checking the mail, washing dishes.
Meditation, to me, is a willingness to sit with the questions. We can do this in many ways, beyond traditional “meditation”. You do not need to be in the lotus position, on a dedicated meditation cushion, with incense-scented air and binaural beats. If this is relaxing to you, great. But just like some people are happier running as a workout than on a yoga mat, there are also “meditation” exercises for those who would rather…not.
Developing your style—this is something that is given a lot of thought and that I get asked a lot of questions about. Truly, though, I dont think it needs to be. I’m writing this with some suggestions, but my biggest answer is just…to develop your style, live your life wide awake and with your eyes wide open and present to the moment. When you do that, when you see the world around you and you can develop your thoughts and feelings about your place in it, how you feel about it, where you want to go…then you have your style.
So first I’ll start with: Learn How To See. Look at the world as if you are seeing something beautiful, always. Whether it is a dirty city sidewalk or a golden field leading to the sea, see the beauty in all of it. It’s there. You might just have to look closer. And so look closer.
One of the tools I see as crucial in deciding how to get what we want, is knowing how our personality processes desires. Some personalities follow desires naturally, without thought (Hi it’s me). Others see desires as bad, and think that we must “do good deeds” over pursuing our happiness. I remember a conversation with my mom and she was downright horrified to learn that I thought happiness was the point of life. Does one of these sound more like you?
First off, before you think this post can’t possibly be for you, ANYONE can start an art collection. Art is a reflection of our personal style, our history, our adventures and our lives. I have framed fabric scraps that I value as a part of my “Collection” equal to multi-thousand dollar original paintings. If it speaks to you, If it makes you happy, if you would enjoy walking past it every day in your home, it is art. The end.
For whatever reason, oil is an intimidating material for many aspiring painters. I’ve met a lot of artists who feel like they “have to” start with acrylics, or believe that oil paint is toxic, or they just think it is too advanced.
My guess is that this comes from high school or college art classes, when oil was probably taught in a more advanced class or setting. In order to “advance” to oil, one had to first make it through drawing and painting (acrylic usually) I and II. So only the truly committed 19-year-olds ended up getting oil on their hands. Which, of course, leaves the rest of us who decide to return to a painting practice later. Or who begin for the first time post-college.
Oil painting suffers a complicated reputation. Even art schools traditionally place the oil classes as more “advanced” than acrylic, and I have met many artists who have been professionally trained in acrylic but still find oil intimidating.
The truth is that oil is very simple. It is just pigment, naturally derived from good old planet earth, and linseed oil. You can purchase tubes of oil paint, in which the pigment is already mixed with some oil (this is the most common form) or you can buy dry pigment and mix it with oil yourself. OR you can grind up pigment that you find in the wild, aka dirt, clay or rocks and mix that with oil. Very simple, indeed.
