I’m still alive.
I haven’t disappeared.
And yes, I am most definitely still making art.
…so much so that I’ve let my blog posts fall by the wayside.
Fortunately, the works that have consumed so much of my time over the past few months are finally at the stage of completion…just waiting for the paint to dry. In the meantime, I am taking a moment to revise a few older paintings that have been weighing heavy on my mind (more on that later). I also want to take a moment to write about another smaller work of art that I delved into, when I had the pleasure of jumping back on the SNAGwagon for another night of live painting.
The subject of my painting revolved around the idea of happiness through enlightenment from within, versus force-fed happiness. I have been doing a lot of writing in that regard, as part of a lot of soul searching and reflections on my life and the change in my surroundings. These changes have not necessarily occurred as a result of having literally and physically changed my settings, although that has occurred significantly, but much more as a result of stepping away from my routine. In doing so, I was able to better re-evaluate my pursuit of happiness, and differentiate what was truly making me happy, and what I had fooled myself into believing would bring me happiness. I had been navigating through the routines of my everyday life on auto-pilot for quite some time, oftentimes by following the mainstream flock, and forcing myself into being happy in order to be part of the system. I allowed my temporary feelings of comfort and content to dictate my happiness. Looking around, I see many people going through the same cycle – chasing joy but settling on the quickest fix available, even though the feeling would be short-lived, and one would be back on the hunt soon after. In the end, no matter what quick fixes are out there, the purest and easiest form of enlightenment comes from within.
The painting that came from these ongoing thoughts…
Manic Buddha
During this session of live painting, I was much more comfortable and relaxed than I was the first go-around, and prepped my piece much less – only laying down the base colour. Not only did I finish my piece in good time, I was also able to do so at a relaxed pace, while chatting with a few friends who came out to support the show, and of course while having a drink or two…or three…Damn! forgot to take a proper picture of my painting again. On top of that, the winner of my painting had left the show by the time the raffle took place, so I was not able to get their contact info. I left a card with my painting, in hopes that they would eventually drop me a line, but I have yet to hear back from them. So once again, as I said last time – to the person who won my artwork: holla if ya can homie!
Thank goodness, Snag organizer Andrew Young took a decent pic that I could work with and post on my site. Not HD quality, but it will have to do.
Third time’s a charm?
…Time will tell. ;-)
