I sit here typing these words over a month after the launch of my most recent original artwork launch. Between Covid-19 and quarantine and a million thoughts in between these past few months have been an emotional rollercoaster and in all honestly, just a bit of a blur, but the thing helping me keep track of time is the artwork that keep being made in the studio and leaving almost as quickly (this is me yelling “THANK YOU, THANK YOU”).

These paintings were sparked long before the shut down and stay at home orders…

When the spark began inside of me to begin work on these paintings, there was this knowing inside of me that I needed to slow down while I worked on each painting. That instead of just wildly painting I needed to create space to observe, to reflect to recognize what each painting was telling me as I was creating. Before I started to add paint to canvas I pulled out my journal and began to write. Words poured out about how these paintings where going to remind me and others about the importance of living a life fully alive. To embrace the tension of living, meaning to see the good and the bad and be present to learn and grow in our understanding.

Little did I know what was coming.

Each day I would sit with these paintings in my apartment studio space. I would get vulnerable with myself. I would cry, laugh, turn on music and dance around… I would be reminded that I am strong, I am strong because I have become more wise with what it actually looks like to live a full life. For me a full life is not one that is only good, it is instead one that doesn’t let the hard break us. It’s about laughing and crying when it’s needed and opening my heart to others.

This is how these paintings began.

Getting quiet, opening my heart, listening and then pouring out from this place whatever needed to be expressed through movement, paint and color.

This was the beginning, then the Covid pandemic hit only weeks before I was initially planning on launching this collection of new paintings.. so I pressed pause. I knew I needed time to process the shift in the world before I finished painting.

It was that pause that gave me space to reflect and to remind myself that these painting were important and needed to be completed

Part 2 coming soon…