The First 3 Months of 2018

HAVE BEEN FASCINATING, BRENDA.

There's been something notably different about the energy, lately, and, though I know astrologically things are happening with Pisces and Mercury, it's something I can't really pinpoint and define —though I'm finding that through some of the pieces I've been creating and some of the events that I've been participating and sharing work in, this is actually a really good thing. Not knowing what this energy is but shifting along with it, shifting, always shifting. 

I've been in two art shows in the last three months, sold some pieces at both and could not be happier or more grateful. More than anything I'm discovering that my art is creating this bridge between myself and the people I need and want to invite into my reality and I want to keep building on that.

I did a group show last weekend with SoCalArt Collective at the Casbah and it was probably one of the coolest shows I've ever done. I definitely relied on the fact that I had prepared so hardcore for Empower a few weeks before (another amazing art show I participated in, which I'll get to in a bit) and only had to do just (1) last minute scramble to create some new pieces, which ended up being some blank journals I made last spring and painted over.

The energy was amazing at the Casbah, even though I made more money selling pieces at Empower there was something about the particular crowd that night that I really connected with in a more organic, energetic and fluid way. I got to meet a lot of the Art Unites team in addition to all these amazing artists so I'm sure that energy did something, too. I mean take Dustin, for example. He had just had one of the most life-changing experiences with his significant other, professing for the first time in their relationship their love for one another and saying "Yes" to this commitment to love. He saw this piece as a reflection of that energy and, I've got to tell you, that is a feeling that makes all of this work so, so worth it. There was a connection! Ah! You know?

A few weeks before the Casbah I was in a group art show with Hanalei Artworks at Mike Hess in North Park called "Empower," dedicated to Women's Awareness Month and the overall badassery of women everywhere. I went through a lot preparing for the show and it was, indeed, so empowering to have pushed through challenges and get the pieces I wanted to showcase ready. I sought out some vendors and did some printing on large 15" x 22" watercolor sheets and painted over that, had it framed professionally, packaged my prints, had a folding table, HONEY, I was living that Artrepreneur fantasy so hard and I was living for the other artists there on the same grind.

I'll be in another show in the beginning of May and I'm thinking, whatever this energy is and for whatever reason it's causing these shifts to which I can't seem to attach positive or negative labels, it's a momentum that intuitively I feel is vital to my process, and I can totally get behind it.