There are a lot of ways that I try to generally take care of myself and my surrounding environment. I exercise, I generally eat well, I recycle, and I try to maintain healthy boundaries for myself, all adding up to an intentionally healthy lifestyle. The one area that seems to be the exception to my self-imposed rule is my art practice. I’m completely aware that the fumes of the mineral spirits and the accidental paint blotches that get on my skin aren’t the best for my long-term health. In the past year or so, I’ve been actively researching and pursuing ways to clean up my studio so that my career minimally affects my long-term health. Also, looking into my near future, I want to maintain my art practice while pregnant and growing a family. This is deffffinitely not an immediate need, but something I feel I need to go ahead and educate myself on.
Read More
Congratulations! You just purchased a piece of art. You are officially an art collector! Did you just purchase an original painting? Or a print? I know that my next art purchase will be a piece by one of my artist crushes, Meredith Mejerle. No matter the piece, and no matter how small or how large your art collection, how you display the artwork in your home makes all the difference. There are a few key points to ensure that you maximize the impact of each piece of artwork, so read along and learn my best tips!
Read More
I am not the type of person who loves to go shopping. If I do, I have a list, and I get in and out as quickly and as efficiently as possible. I probably have my mom to thank for that - in our book, efficiency is key. Whether it’s for clothes, shoes, makeup, what have you, shopping in general is just not something that I particularly love. But take me to an art store…and hope that you can get me to leave. Most of my art shopping experiences happen online, and even then, I could spend hours deciding which new paints to try, which size canvas to try out, or if I really do need that new set of watercolors (Hint: I totally do.)
Read More
I am so excited to share something that I’ve always been wanting to do with my art - prints & paper goods!! One of my very first art purchases was a Teil Duncan Fine Art print. She is an artist I look up to in so many ways, and when I graduated from college, I wanted to treat myself to a piece of her art to mark the occasion. The only product of hers that was in my budget was a print. A fine art print is a high-quality reproduction of a piece of original art. I was so proud to feel confident in purchasing my own piece of art, and that print still hangs in my home to this day!
Read More
Remember when I talked about my favorite places to think? One of those places is in the car. When I turn the car on, and put it in drive, the car quickly transforms into a think tank. The trouble is, I try my best to stay off of my phone in the car, so I had to come up with a way to document these thoughts before they left my brain. Enter Voice Memos. I can quickly pull up the app on my phone, and hit record. I can capture my thoughts in a steam-of-consciousness fashion, and document what exactly it is that I’m thinking through in a raw, unedited way. When I go back and listen to them, I can shape these scattered thoughts into a real idea with a direction.
Read More
Every now and then, I like to zoom out. What are the things I’ve been noticing around me? What have I been taking pictures of? A quick scroll through my camera roll or my bookmarked Instagram posts helps me see the big picture. Often, there’s a color or color palette that emerges from these saved images. The colors, textures, and themes that I glean from this collection of photos helps me think about which direction I might want to go next in my studio.
Read More
Ever since I graduated from college, I’ve had a low-grade fear on the back burner of my mind that since I am no longer school that I will get dumber. Graduation requires quite the mental shift when you think about it. From age 4-22, I have spent Monday - Friday, 9 months out of the year in a classroom. When that all of a sudden stopped, the knowledge-seeker in me felt a little desperate, not knowing where to go to satisfy a yearn to learn (rhyme master, right there). I was keenly aware of the need for my brain to be engaged in something, anything. There were (and still are!) times when I feel like my brain is a dry sponge. The capacity to absorb is there, but it’s left without any input, so it isn’t serving its purpose.
Read More