The last 5-6 months I traveled all over the country, taking some much needed time away from the studio to experience more outdoors, which was inspired me to be an Artist in the first place. I love creating custom art and tattoos for clients, but the everyday grind can burn an Artist out. I needed to let go of the routine, let go of the controlled space and rediscover who I am as a person and Artist. Our thirties are pivotal years. They bring wisdom, clarity, gratitude and insight into how we decide to move further based on our past. I realized a lot of things while being in the middle of the desert, with no cell service, or camping under the stars somewhere out west.
It is incredible to see what you’ve done to build the life you want, but when we pay so much attention to our past and the things that we have accomplished or failed at it keeps us from focusing on our future. I was in love with my tattoo and art studio in Texas. When I’d walk into my shop or studio, I felt accomplishment and a sense of success that hugged me. But I kept thinking, what would I feel if this wasn’t a constant reassurance. Would I focus on the future if I wasn’t surrounded with all the things I’ve created up until this point? And my answer was YES. I truly felt I needed to break my routines, let go of my comfortability and understand that the most true sense of being is in the present. So I packed my entire shop and studio up. I put all the remaining art and essentials in storage and I wandered for months on the road. I rediscovered the work I really wanted to create and began oil painting- which was different based on the previous years of heavily focusing on illustrating.
I found a joy while painting unparalleled. It felt like complete freedom, and while I felt like a complete amateur since it had been so many years, it became fun to not be super great at it. Now, fast forward 6 months I am much more fluid with painting, and my work looks way more realistic. I’m really enjoying painting landscapes from ideas in my head with no photo reference. It allows me to be free of the constraints of what something should look like and focus on what I want to invent. There is power in creating from a vision only in your own mind because only you can speak to when it’s complete, successful or what you need to feel when you look at it with nothing to compare it to. And now, that is the theme of work I’m focused on brining to life in my new studio. I knew the second I was ready to settle down and get a new studio, start up again in another city- one that I actually began to build my art business in, and now it comes full circle, back to where it all began. Hello, Denver.