“Root Focused”
Facebook flashed this to me the other day, as a 6 year memory.
And it inspired this:
Holy Gaia! This was a pivotal piece in my career path as an artist. This is the FIRST piece I ever painted with paint markers, which have been a core, monumental tool/medium for my process of creating ever since.
I think about this piece often. As it holds a special sentiment and significance in my journey as an artist and who I am. I dubbed it “Root Focused” as it provided a grounding and anchoring for my dreams to take further manifest.
It was in the creation of this art piece I realized the potential of being able to share my artwork with the world in a more direct way. It resembled the ability to scale up my work which until this moment had previously been exclusively small scale works on paper, sketchbook and drawing pad sizes, with primarily colored pencils and micron pens.
Schhwwww.
I was opened up to a whole new level of possibility, capability, and inspiration with the creating of this (he)art piece.
It’s wild to fathom and extends beyond fathoming.
This piece was the door to an opening that has been integrated into my life ever since. This piece actually is a door, and was resuscitated from the waste stream. It was the first of a few pieces on reclaimed doors that comprised of a mini-series and my first works scaled up.
This piece was the grounds of exploration in preparation for my first mural. It was my first “study” of paint markers and an awakener to a whole new realm.
I was buzzing with the ease and the uncanny degree to which I was able to adapt my previous background in drawing to a larger scale.
One of the reasons this piece has often comes to mind is because I have no idea if it any longer exists. At the time of creating it, I was traveling through St. Augustine, FL and it’s not easy to carry a door in/strapped to a backpack so I left it behind in safe keeping, amongst others. That safe keeping took a different form eventually and I am still to have yet located the pieces from that time-frame.
“Root Focused” initiated me into a new ability to craft and to focus on my craft. I can re-member the energy flowing through me in the moment of creating this, and it was the sweet taste of inspiration, potential, and passion. It sensitized a dream and it’s feasibility. Such sweet grace. Such sweet vision.
It memorialized this feeling.