Gratitude and art
A few days ago I was painting new growths on my new smaller paper. Changing size always changes your formula so I was interested on seeing what would happen. I had no idea how much gratitude was about to entire my life with that paper.
As I finished a bunch of beautiful growths I decided the next step were faces (that was the plan after all). I knew I didn't have enough of my own pictures, nor was I interested in 10+ more of my own face. So on a whim, I decided to put a call out for strong, confident women to contribute their bad ass selves.
WHOLEY CRAP I did not expect the response I got. All of the most confident, badass women I know responded from all over. Pictures have been flooding in. Fast.
I have spent the last few days receiving this flood of images that have been self chosen by the strongest women I know, as the most confident images they have of themselves. Women are taking photoshoots to get the idea across and digging through their treasured photos of themselves from when they were feeling particularly badass. The self love has been so incredibly overwhelming.
I have also spent the last few days telling all of these women how amazing they and their images are. Every single one had intention and thought put in and I sincerely hope everyone understood how grateful I was. The positive language and love have been so strong throughout.
This experience has been so incredibly amazing. It comes at a time where I am building myself back up, regaining my footing and finding my balance. This outpouring of strength has fortified my spirit and I have moved past excited to completely honoured to create this project.
It has been a few days since creating the growth paintings and the studio has made a mess of my plans once again. Most of them are not going to get a face, as I realize they are finished as is. Who knew? Some of them have only a handful of brush strokes! Something about the size of the paper perhaps? But around the time the studio was telling me this, I was also realizing that the images I received were too badass to just plunk on some pre made paintings. Each one has a power that I need to honour individually. I'm not sure how I will create that yet but I'm so excited to start.