This year has been tough for me. Changes in social media , the looming recession, and the alignment of the stars have sent my work into an exposure downward spiral, and to many of my followers, it looks like I just quit creating.
Nothing further from reality. It's true that this horrible loss of exposure has hit me hard. Losing sales and exposure hit my state of mind in a very negative way. Every artists needs to be seen and validated by our audience, our art has the need to be seen in order to exist outside our personal reality.
This is doubly true when you are a working artist and your way of life depends on selling your work. And this scene, this had made me reconsider my life choices, and honestly, I've felt like quitting more than once.
But then my creative side speaks to me, and I acknowledge the need to create my soul feels, something that will be crushed on a day job where I would be on an office all day. I could sulk and lament myself for the loss of work and exposure, give up and join the rat race, but I refuse to do so.
This situation has given me time to realize that I was painting and creating to please others, making what sells and not what fills my soul, and it started to show on the quality of my work.
So, I am giving myself time to find what I enjoy doing again. Experimenting and doing things that are completely different than what I was doing before. In order to find joy in making art, I will need to experiment, try and try again until I find what I like.
Take these new paintings as an example of my experimentation. My work is usually colorful, with clear meaning and definition, and these new paintings are everything but.
I decided to use very little color and defined shapes to create. I feel that the end result is powerful and expressive. I was thinking about the powerful power of creation within every woman, how we can bring life into the world out of a tiny seed, just like plants do.
I took that sacred power and wanted to bring it into the world using just one color, combining only shapes and shades using ink and watercolor on paper, I created powerful images that merge the power of creation with our feminine side. By breaking away from defined faces and using blots and swirls, I wanted to express the infinite complexity of our internal world, contained within our bodies and surrounded by white space.
The sirens follow the same path, using very little color on a very rough paper, there is only the hint of detail of their bodies and faces and their world. Just like our dreams and our inner life, the outside world can only get a glimpse of the real subtleties in ourselves.
I know this is very far from what I usually create, but I feel there is no going back from me. I need to find myself again, and I hope you decide to follw me on this amazing journey I am embarking now.
All my love,
Danita.