4x4 Inches of Prolific Love
I hadn’t felt the urge or motivation to paint nearly all of 2020. I tend to go through waves of motivation for my different forms of creating; it’s been this way since early-high-school-ish. It all started with graphite/crayon/marker drawings as a little girl. Then moved to painting, photography, collaging, digital art, installation art, and almost “loops” as I discover new things that I’m attracted to—then I go back through the forms and deep dive into them. I didn’t really realize I did this natural cycle until the end of college.
I say all this because when I’m in the “deep-dive" of a certain art form, I’m all in. Not that the other forms are irrelevant, but what I’m hyper-focused on captures my attention unlike anything else, until I’m immersed in the next creative idea. It’s no secret that this year I’ve battled my fair share of depression and lack of motivation for a lot of things (who hasn’t) but my creative side really suffers from that.
Late November/early December (not-so-coincidentally my Sun is in Sagittarius, it’s the season for my reason), I felt my creative energy rising and knew that something exciting was on the horizon. Little did I know that the whole month would be my most prolific month…so far, ever. I knew that I wanted to gift my best friends and immediate family members paintings of their pets so I gifted them early, recorded their reactions, and shared on my social media that I would be doing a Holiday Special of pet paintings on the cutest little 4”x4” canvas panels.
The response was overwhelming (in the best way possible). I just finished my 36th painting in less than a month today. 36th painting. Granted, the paintings fit in the palm of your hand, but the labor of love reaches much further. I had friends, friends-of-friends, strangers messaging me looking for paintings. Did I bite off more than I could chew? HELL NAW! I would paint one during my lunch break from work, and try to get 2-3 paintings after work. And used the weekends to knock another handful out. I loved every minute of it (well, almost every minute, when I was around 15 in I was like….what the hell did I do? Then went back to wait…this is amazing).
Prior to the little paintings of late-2020, I think I did a total of 3-or-so paintings the entire year, to give ya an idea of how big-a-deal the seer amount and effort that went into these little babies.
Not only was 2020 prolific with paintings (well, the last month or so) it was also the most prolific with graphic design. (Check out this previous post of some of my favorite logos from the last year.) My position as Creative Director with Susan Hyatt has led me places I never knew I could reach. One thing being that I designed over 35 brands from scratch. Custom logos, custom color palettes, custom icons, custom illustrations, etc. I didn’t create that many during my entire career at my first position at a local design agency (~2.5 years).
So, as I’m taking my time to reflect on the hardest year of my life so far, sifting through the utter bullshit that made up a lot of the year I’ve found some pretty remarkable triumphs and 24k golden nuggets of accomplishments.
Shoutout to Jess and Tex for their incredible reactions LOL It made my heart sing!
Now, the 4”x4” paintings are still available for commission! I repeat: they’re still available, indefinitely! Birthdays, weddings, bat mitzvahs, baby showers, bachelorette parties, graduations, I could go on for the perfect time to gift a personal painting that fits in your purse. They’re incredibly meaningful and spark allllll the joy. P.S. They don’t have to be paintings of your pets :D Prices start at $80 and vary depending on the subject matter. Go on now, make someone’s day and place your order!
