Knowing Your Heart

I recently found a quote that says, "It's never to late to find out who you want to be".  Yeah, I like it too.  If you are an artist reading my blog, then you get the struggle of "finding" yourself in your art.  How do you make it yours?  How do you embrace your talents? How do you set yourself apart?  Nothing frustrates me more than being super excited about something new only to find it on the front page of etsy the next day!  Drats....back to the drawing board. 

I've not reinvented the wheel this time around with my painting subjects.  I mean, why would I?  I am a painter who uses trucks, bikes, bird, bird cages and silly flowers in my paintings.  That's who I am....and quite frankly I like my subjects.  My painting style however I believe has matured over the years.  I was not a confident painter when I started.  I am pretty sure I thought too much about what I was doing.  Now, I just paint.  In fact, I am a very fast painter.  Mostly this is because I am not going for the text book version of a bird, but rather a more Jennism styled bird. 

As in the past, I am still a lover of texture in my paintings.  But I also love lines...so this round of paintings I had an "AHA" moment of adding texture enough to write my words in, still use the black gesso, acrylics, then fill the carved lines with oil stick technique.  Yes, it was a few day process.  But I am very methodical in my processes when getting ready for a show and started 15 paintings at once.  Yes, you read this right.  Of course 1/2 of those are on their way to the Texas Round-top show with Matilda.  Yee-haw paintings!  The other 7 are making me very happy right now spread out around the art studio. 

This last one.....well I think if you really know your heart, then finding out who you want to be will come quite easy.  You just have to tell your mind what your heart is thinking is all.