Art of LaTricia Rayenae

Clean Enough to be Healthy / Messy Enough to be Happy:

I LOVE this phrase! It is one of the personal mantras I use the most. My perfectionism and anxiety always comes to a head when I try to clean. I never really learned how to clean much growing up so as an adult it was always incredibly overwhelming.

One of the things I would get hung up on is... how clean is clean? Where do you draw the line between landfill and sterile? It sounds like a weird question, and maybe it’s obvious to lot of people, but for me it always resulted in focusing on unimportant details and not actually getting anything done.

This phrase, along with “It doesn’t have to be perfect, just better than it was” (which I will probably do soon as well), have both made it much easier to focus on what really matters when it comes to cleaning.

Perfect is the Enemy of Good:

Perfection is a lie, and the pursuit of it can be self-destructive. As an artist it’s particularly easy to get caught up in the idea of creating perfection and destroying what is good in the process. Flaws can be beautiful, embrace them.

This piece came about as an attempt to help break out of an art rut. Lately I’ve been feeling like I’m losing interest in Magick Words. After spending some time journaling about it and discussing it with my wonderful sister, I realized that I was beginning to get a bit too formulaic with my art.

When I first started Magick Words, it was intended to be experimental. I wanted to be able to try out new styles and techniques when I wanted. Somehow I lost sight of that. It’s been really showing in the quality of my art, too, for which I’m very sorry.

When I decided I needed to try something different, a painterly style immediately popped into my head because I’ve never really done much like this before. Then when I went to look at my list of phrase ideas, this was the top of the list and immediately jumped out at me. And for the first time in a while I felt really excited to work on a Magick Words piece instead of worrying about other projects I’d like to do.

I AM the Man Who Can:

One of my favorite quotes from the Wonder Woman movie. I know this is quite late for riding the hype train on that movie, but I still think the fact that it exists is a wonderful thing.

It’s Show Time!

Jem and the Holograms fanart.

It Always Seems Impossible:

Quote by Nelson Mandela

Inspired by Mountain Goats that seem to defy gravity, balancing on even the most precarious ledges. 

Broken, but not Worthless:

Flexibility, Love, and Trust:

It’s No Use Going Back to Yesterday:

Memories are just another fantasy that can distract us from living in the present, in reality. It’s important to learn from and honor our past, but it’s easy to get lost in hazy, nostalgic dreams. But memories are just reflections of a time that doesn’t exist anymore. All we can do is keep moving forward.

Just Ride This Wave:

One of my first personal mantras that I still use a lot is “everything is temporary” or simply “its temporary”. I haven’t quite managed to come up with a cool image for it yet, though, so it’ll have to wait. However, this phrase captures a very similar idea.

When we’re caught up in our emotions, whether the result of a bad situation or because our brain chemistry has gone haywire, it’s easy to believe it’ll always be like this. There’s been times that I’d forgotten what it even felt like to be happy.

But it IS just temporary. Feelings are not facts, and this too shall pass. Sometimes all you can do is hold on tight and ride it out.