Hello! I decided to start writing more stuff down cause it seems fun and my 60 year old self will probably thank me for it. Although I aspire to do these once a month, if I'm being realistic, they'll probably be more sporadic. And that's ok I guess!
I’m really excited to share a bit more about my art practice, what’s in my sketchbook, things that inspired me that I thought you might like, and other books & food & things to bring a little joy or inspiration or delight to your corner of the internet.
So without further ado (what does that even mean anyways? lol) here’s a few updates from the past few weeks!
First, I thought I should say that, I’m focusing solely on painting & illustration now. While I’ve enjoyed my career as a motion designer so far, that focus doesn’t feel right any more (at least for now). For the past few months, I’ve been building up my body of work and online shop full of original paintings, art prints, stickers, book marks, and other fun things to make people happy. My favorite physical things are beautiful with a little bit of weird/quirk/humor thrown in, so that’s what I’m gonna make!
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about practice and habits, specifically for art. This one’s hard for me as a person with ADHD – honestly, routines and sticking with long-term daily habits don’t come naturally to me. But I recognize the insane value of drawing/painting/exercising/etc every day. So I’m constantly deciding between trying to force myself into daily habits like a neurotypical person, which I know are good for me, or whether to lean in to my brain’s natural ways of ebbing and flowing with things, or creating in on- and off-seasons.
I tend to hyper-focus or obsess over something for 2 weeks - 2 months, then move on to something else, then come back to the original thing a season or two (or 5) later. Can I have seasons of productivity followed by periods of rest and still have a sustainable art practice and career? That’s what we’re gonna find out.
Right now I’m obsessing over painting and sketching and creating, much like a good summer harvest (which I thought I was going to be having right now but my two little squash plants I grew this spring dramatically gave up the ghost last month after a rudely intense rain storm so what can you do but I still got one tiny little baby 2” squash that made my entire year so I’m gonna call it a win). It’s all I can think about, all I want to do every waking minute, you know the drill. Yet later this fall or winter, I KNOW I’m gonna want to take a break and do nothing but bake bread or something for 3-6 weeks.
But this time, instead of fretting and feeling bad about not painting for a couple weeks, I think I can trust my future self to pick up the paint brush again after a period of rest, and hopefully come back stronger and even more creatively inspired. Fingers crossed 🤞
CURRENT PAINTINGS & PROJECTS
3 new floral prints!
Work in Progress: Big Ass Cake Painting
(Just ignore the green frog tape haha)
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I’m creating a few original paintings for the East Idaho Art Market next month and as soon as I realized I wanted a big centerpiece painting in my booth, I knew it had to be a giant pink cake! Idk where this whim came from but it's a STRONG one so we're going with it. Maybe this will be a series? Cause this is just too much fun 😋
Stayed tuned on IG for more updates and process videos!
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| Sneak peeks for some upcoming paintings 👀 Fran Meneses, Rebecca Green, Lindsay Stripling, and Jill Kittock have all shown me how awesome & important keeping a sketchbook are so I've been trying to do that more regularly this year. Even just a few times a month (although daily is the goal) makes a huge difference for me - always makes me feel inspired and grounded in my creative practice, woot woot. The Nina Cosford sketchbook is the one I use, I've tried 'em all and this one's my favorite! |
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UPCOMING EVENTS
- East Idaho Art Market
- August 27th, Rexburg, ID
- If you’re local, come say hi!
STUFF THAT'S INSPIRING ME LATELY
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| 1. The wildflowers in my hometown are out of this world 😍 If you're ever in the area, the Uintah National Forest east of Heber City, Utah is a must. |
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| 2. I FREAKED OUT when I saw this guy do a typeface collaboration with a tree!! a TREE?!? Man. Trees are cool. People are cool. He carved the alphabet into a tree five years ago, and came back and took pics of the expanded letters every year since and made it into a font. SO COOL. |
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WHAT'S BLOOMING
These pink Floret zinnias I grew from seed in my garden!! Ahh I love the pink + green combo SO MUCH and their cute snowball shapes 🥰
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My dog Lucy scooched under my arms all cute-like while I was taking the picture 🥺
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READING/WATCHING/LISTENING
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Recently finished: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee - 10/10
- Holy cow this book was so good! It spans 4 generations of a Korean family who were forced to immigrate to Japan starting in the 1930’s. It's fiction, so not based on one family specifically, but it's a combination of hundreds of real people's stories. I don’t give 10/10’s often, but this was an easy ten for me.
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Currently Reading:
- The Kite Runner by Khaleid Hosseini - been on my TBR list for 8 years! I loved A Thousand Splendid Suns by the same author and this one is really good so far.
- Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer - she has really cool view of the plant world being both Native American (spiritual) and a botanist (scientific)
- My husband and I loved Hacks and Bob's Burgers the movie <-- this was everything I hoped it would be and WAY more lol
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Aaaand that’s a wrap for studio update #1! Thanks again for being here. It really means a lot!
Reply if you have questions or comments or just wanna say hi! Much like my 4 year old self, I love getting mail :)
HAGS,
Lindsey
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