Welcome back, my feathered friends! 🐔

(I hope you’re ready for a very image heavy post. 😅)

It’s nearly the first Sunday of 2020, which will be the second Sunday I’ve been assured off after my clinic’s hours changed. This permits me to have one regular free day for art, which makes scheduling more predictable. (That definitely helps my sanity!)

Overall, 2019 – and the past decade in general – have not been as great as I would have hoped, but I did rediscover my art voice last year and even got to experiment with new subjects and paints, which I’m very grateful for. I also joined my first local art group – Art for Art’s Sake – and had 5 paintings, pictured below, accepted to their recent juried exhibition – “Art Unwrapped.” This exhibit will be closing at the end of the month, so if you’re in the area, please check out the Red Dog Gallery. All artwork on display there is for sale, and there’s tons of talent in my city! (Which makes stepping out quite unnerving to be honest.) There was an incredible turn out for this 3 month exhibition, and all wall space was utilized. It’s lovely to walk through! Additionally, I ordered my first prints and stickers, which are available through my Big Cartel art store.

As this new decade progresses, my goals are to grow my farm with my wonderful wife (9.27.19!!) and to continue my, as a friend puts it, “Spacey cosmic surrealist approach to natural art.” (Check her out here! 💙) Gotta say, I really do love weird themes and subjects. However, I completed a couple pet portrait commissions, pictured below, last fall/winter for two awesome coworkers, and I was very honored to have been chosen for these gifts. These types of subjects are also quite up my alley! Although, looking at them side by side now, I apparently have a thing for head tilts… …which my baby rarely does anymore because she said I made her do it too much as a puppy. (It was so cute though. We came up with all sorts of weird noises to make.)

Next steps for my art include further experimentation with acrylics and digital programs and just overall refining my rendering techniques regardless of medium. What helped to reawaken my previous love for acrylics was joining several of my teammates at a local painting and wine studio for pre-holiday fun. We were supposed to be creating the leg lamp from ‘A Christmas Story,’ and while I technically did a leg, it wasn’t…their leg. …no regrets. (Also, no, alcohol didn’t contribute to this. I don’t drink, and my weirdness needs no assistance to show. 😜)

After seeing the incredible digital art from my friend – linked above – and many others using Procreate, I decided to upgrade my art tablet, and I have to say, being able to draw on the screen versus on a traditional tablet is so wonderful. It’s gotten me excited for this medium again, and I’m still happily exploring. It has also presented a cool opportunity for live art streams, so if that’s something you’re interested in, I’m actually going live tomorrow (Sunday 1.5.20) at 5:00 pm EST on Twitch.

Thank you so much to everyone who has stuck with me, and I hope you have enjoyed the art update! Things started off pretty slowly last year and didn’t really pick up until July, so I’m hoping to be more productive out of the gate this year.

Spoiler Alert: While the title seemed fitting in its own right, the upcoming show at the Red Dog Gallery is titled ‘Reawakening’ too! Guess what I’ll be working on this month…