Hemorrhage

"When the arm was severed The clot began to hemorrhage..."

This is a bit of prose that I wrote that's supposed to be a metaphor summing up what I think has been going on in my life for the last year or two. I've noticed an influx of thoughts, feelings and creativity after a long dark period of feeling stifled. The sudden change had reached the point of overwhelming me. It was too much for me to process, and it showed no sign of stopping. Hence the word, "hemorrhage." This series is my attempt at sharing the emotional, psychological and even physical hemorrhaging that I felt during that time.I also associate a number of firsts with this particular series: my first solo art show, the first series I've ever done in my "art career" (if you can call it that yet), and the first time I really started looking at myself as an artist with a respectable level of talent. What isn't new for me is this process of exposing parts of myself through some sort of creative medium. So when people ask me if I'm nervous, scared, or tell me how brave I am, my response is usually an unfazed one. I was more concerned about getting everything finished on time and looking somewhat cohesive. I think I feel more mentally exhausted than anything else. This whole thing has been on my plate for at least the last 6 months! I'm beyond ready to just get this stuff out and move on. The closer that I get to the day when I can get my work up, the more I feel like I have senioritis. I don't have the same fervor to complete the final tasks as I did when I first started working on the series. I don't even want to SMELL paint for a while, I'm ready to enjoy the summer!At this point it's the final countdown to the next big step in my creative life. So if you're in Reno during the month of July, please stop through Noble Pie Parlor downtown to see the paintings. I would certainly love for you to be a part of this milestone with me. If you can't see it in person, that's ok too! Just be sure to check back here and on my Facebook page for more updates and thoughts, as well as pictures of all of the new work. Can't wait to get your feedback!-Trace ~~<3

Intensity

I worked on this piece last week. This one was a bit of a challenge for me because this is a huge departure from the typical bright color palette that I use. I knew I wanted to paint a figure with "white" skin, just to see where else I would go with it as far as color. It ended up going in a dark or intense direction, I think it was the expression that led me there. There's still a detail or two that I need to add to finish it up and I've already moved on to the next piece, but I thought this piece was worth sharing because I think it's so unusual for me. Maybe this is a side that I might need to explore further at some point?

Art Walk Reno

In the midst of doing my own work, I've been wanting to get back into writing on my art blog, Purple Paintbrush, but I've been slacking ever so hard! At least I have kind of a valid excuse. It's been a while since I did any posts that focused on documenting art events and this is the first time I ever tried using video for the task. I really enjoyed putting this piece together even though I'm still fairly new at video projects.Reno just had their first official art walk in the downtown area and I thought it would be a great post for my blog. There were so many places that participated and I thought that it was well-attended by Reno-ites. I was able to check out and capture some great artwork and made this video to share some of the experience. My only regret was that I didn't plan my time well enough to go see everything! Next time I'll be more prepared though.Please enjoy!