Amazon Mini-Series

Since May, I have been working on this series' drawings, and I have enjoyed the way they have developed. After trimming some leftover scraps from my studio, I decided to make a series of drawings as an ode to moments of life in the Amazon Rainforest. I have always felt attracted to the Amazon Rainforest; there is so much about it that is magical. The sheer size of it, the species that inhabit it, the indigenous tribes that still live traditionally within it, the medicine that develops from it, the fact that it serves places around the world in so many different ways. It is pretty incredible.

This concept has been developing for some time now. Over the years, seeing how much of the Amazon we have lost to over logging, overdevelopment, and now extreme fires, it was hard to ignore. It was first a personal project that later evolved into a conversation with others as I began to create and share the drawings.

It is hard to wrap our heads around the actual amount of damage that is going on, and it is also hard to wrap our heads around how it could affect us personally, so I just wanted to focus on little elements of beauty within the habitat.

The Amazon Mini-Series is just about admiring the Amazon rainforest's details, little moments of something so grand and incredible.

For this series, I am teaming up with artist Nick Vermeulen from The Netherlands to sell some art inspired by The Amazon and the natural world. The series will be released to the public on World Habitat Day, Saturday, 10-3-2020, and 25% of the profit will go towards The Amazon Conservation Association.

To get first access on Friday, be sure to subscribe here!

A Fragile Existence: A Solo Exhibition

This solo show with (9) The Gallery was planned from early summer last year. I was looking forward to having my first solo show and with such a cool gallery. When January came around it started to look less and less like it was going to happen at all, due to the spread of the virus. 

Considering I had been working on developing this series of artwork for the better part of 9 months, I decided to keep going anyway. If there was no show, there was no show. I wanted to keep developing the artworks and follow them wherever they were going, even without an event to prepare for. Luckily, (9) The Gallery was prepared and willing to go virtual, so now we are back in the swing.

Working on the series

Working on this series was a very interesting process to go through. As the pieces developed, I kept feeling a sense of nostalgia for life, for the moments I was experiencing at that exact time, and even for the moments that I had yet to experience.

While creating the images out of very thin washes of ink and charcoal, I felt intentionality with the layers. I wanted to focus on slowing down the simple, quick moments, and cherishing them.

The Name

One phrase kept popping up in my head as I continued developing through the series, “ A Fragile Existence.”

Leading up to this show, I was inspired by the passing of time, fleeting moments and human fragility in my own personal experience, and by the time I had finished this series, I was witnessing it on a global scale.

The past few of months, have made it more clear. With this pandemic, we are experiencing fragility in a very palpable way for the human race as a whole.

There are moments of sadness and anxiety, yet I feel the appreciation of the intricate life that we have here on Earth. I think of how lucky we are to have this grand display of nature around us and how we can interact with it and each other in countless ways.

This series is to further the conversation of our physical, human experience on this planet together, and slowing down the simple, quick moments to appreciate and savor what is before us.

This series is currently for sale on:

(9) The Gallery

Artsy.net

If you want to dive deeper, you can watch my interview with (9) The Gallery about the work here.

I hope you are all well and healthy!

The Studio Challenge

Sometimes I would throw away an idea or dismiss a painting or drawing just because it didn't go with the "current series". Us artist can do this a lot. We sometimes dismiss an idea that comes to us because it is irrelevant to an ongoing theme that we have been working on.

Lately, I have been trying to free myself from the pressure of trying to make something that matches the current theme of my work. I am trying to allow myself to take little sidetracks and be curious about certain ideas, because that is what the creative process is all about. Right? Exploring? ...

And you know what? I have found that it is now helping me develop as an artist and even helping work out problems I was experiencing with those longer projects and series I am working on.

I encourage every artist to allow themselves to explore their curiosity about something even if it seems irrelevant at first, whether it be a medium, material or subject matter.

How I do my Studio Challenge:

• I make a piece each time I am in the studio with whatever material I feel, and I focus on whichever subject matter I feel like at the time. Sometimes it is a portrait I saw on Instagram or a technique the piques my interest. Basically…I scratch that itch.

• Every once in a while I will just cut and prep a batch of paper or canvas and put aside, so that it is easily accessible when starting a Studio Challenge for the day.

• Some pieces I work on throughout the day, in between breaks on a larger piece. Some may take just an hour or two, some may take 5. Whatever it is, I try not to force it. Some even sit for a day or so before I figure out how to finish them.

• Not every piece created in the "Studio Challenge" is put up on the website for sale. Only the favorites go up.

• All "Studio Challenge" pieces are the same price, no matter how long the process took or how large the piece ended up being.

This is an ongoing challenge so be sure to check in to see if there are new ones posted!

If you find this helpful and would like to try it out too, let me know how it works for you and tag me in instagram with #birdsstudiochallenge because I would love to see what your curiousity brings you.