A Pilot G-2 retractable gel pen in my pocket and my 3.75 by 5.5 inch sketchbook in my bag at all times. That’s me, the artist.
Photo. 03
Chat, is it hard to do what you love? I really think it can be. I love to create and every time I finish a painting, a drawing, a sketch, even a silly artistic social media post I get an inflated sense of pride. Look what I did! Me says to me, over and over. I just want to look at it some more and keep looking at it, bask in it, send a photo to a friend and say, again, Look what I did!
I make art that I like... of course, but the wave of satisfaction isn’t because I like my creation just that much. I think it’s almost entirely born out of the relief of actually completing something. It is fulfillment, but more than anything it is sheer relief. I think for a lot of creatives and definitely for myself, having an idea and actually bringing it into reality is an arduous task and downright painful for anyone trying to develop their skills at the same time. Here it is... I sometimes feel a bit of eye-rolly shame in claiming my ADHD (why that is... is another issue!). However, it’s just true. I have ADHD. I see a psychiatrist and I take medicine to relieve those symptoms. The relevance of ADHD to making art is that there is mental clutter! I’m often repelled from doing anything creative - Now’s not the time. Do something else. Think about something else. It’s a challenge to work through those blocks and do what I love to do. Not to mention the issue of distraction and memory and, I’ll say it, the state of the world. I have difficulty tapping into that special creative zone of ease and love and focus artists are always talking about. Boohoo! Nobody wants to work anymore!
And so, selfishly, and despite the 3 large photos of me on the page to the left, this digital zine is mostly about me and not you, the reader. I really hope to make it funny and interesting and inspiring and, most of all, visually pleasing (see Photo. 03), but the dirty truth of this zine is that I want to engage myself
ART is war for the adhd brain
ART is war for the adhd brain
Structure... a reason to keep creating, something to work towards - it’s huge for my silly little process. I’m already having so much fun scratching the itch of layout design, logo development, writing copy, etc. I’m even more excited to give myself a clearer path for creating more art. Thank you for choosing to be a part of it!
This featured painting is of a real life yellow house and a real life white ethereal-looking peacock in Winter Park, Fl. It’s actually the first original piece I’ve ever sold! I believe the man that bought this one bought it for his mother. God, I hope she loves it.
“Guardian of the Flordia Bungalow” 2024
Gallery
Welcome to my monthly Bad Art Gallery - where bad art goes to live. Some art is not good... and not just subjectively; Objectively, not good. The idea, however, is that all art is useful. Of course, practice is always important, but bad art can also be a tool to express yourself in a messy way, to track progress toward your goals, and to just look back and laugh about. As long as you are creating, you are on the right track (talking to myself here). Here’s a small collection of some uglies and some justfines, but mostly funnies from the past couple of years. I do fear they reveal too much about my psyche, but please enjoy!
1. I hate this dumbass f*cking drawing.
2. What was the reason?
3. Okay, cute, but incomplete. I needed this page to have something decent to look at!
4. Not my circus, not my munkies, but here I am.
Gallery
5. Stress piece.
6. Shelly Duvall or Ghost Whisperer’s Melinda Gordon?
7. Stress piece.
8. Stress piece.
WHAT’S Freakin’ NEW?
This may not be breaking news, but did you know along with the website I launched at the end of June, I’ve also started a monthly newsletter?! This is it! You’re reading it. As daft as it might seem to write about my newsletter within that very newsletter, it’s the big update on what I’ve been up to! I’m feeling excited to engage not only with interested readers, but with myself as an artist too. Also, I’ve been working parttime at a Dungeons and Dragons themed
coffee shop for about a year now: Fable Craft Coffee & Pastries. Baristaing allows me some freedom to spend time working on creative projects (that might not exactly pan out or be all that lucrative in the long-run) without worrying too much about “wasting” my time. Fable is great for me - good vibes, a little bit of structure (which can really be lacking as a freelancer and artist), and every once in a while I get to plant my feet firmly into the community with opportunities like being featured in the Fable coloring book! How cute?
To be half-naked on a beach in Norway painting a bunch of bathing men.
“Self-Portait in Hell” 1903 The nude body, the flames, the dark shadows: this painting clearly expresses Munch’s inner turmoil (fear, guilt, anxiety). But is it not also, like, kind of funny? It’s giving FML.
Artist Highlight
I‘ve taken an art history class or two, but I was not an art major. I discovered 19th century Norwegian oil-painter Edvard Munch for myself a few years ago when his painting “Starry Night” (bottom right) was featured in a video I was editing for an assisted living facility. As artsy-fartsy as I’d like myself to be, I don’t think I’d ever been so enamored with a painting before. And don’t think for a second I got something wrong here... Van Gogh has his ultra famous painting “The Starry Night” and Munch has his own piece with a similar title. Munch’s pulls me IN - the brushstrokes, the colors, the composition; it’s depth. It eases my brain the same way the soft, low-frequency rumbling of brown-noise does. While “Starry Night” remains my favorite piece, I soon learned that all of Munch’s paintings have this effect on me. Little fact: We’re all probably familiar with Munch’s iconic piece “The Scream”, but did you know there are 4 iterations of it - PLUS a lythograph version for prints? Anyway, this won’t be the last time I feature Munch - I think I’m in love with him.
