i am more than just the mistakes i have made

AND IIIIIII WANNA SING UNTIL MY VOICE CRACKS <3

🥹💓

looking into the distance

she has all that she needs around her —

toys and tools, to make and break rules,

a beast at her feet helps her keep the beat

a steady drum for feeding.

pencil in hand, scrying stone faced

my inspiration is an angel abandoned.

o, my little remembrance,

from all this pain,

Wrote out this bible verse for my grandparents to go with a letter I am sending.

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in various forms. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.”

1 Peter 4:10-11

"Time is the mercy of Eternity: without time's swiftness Which is the swiftest of all things: all were eternal torment" -William Blake

This piece is inspired by the 8 of Pentacles / 8 of Poetry from the William Blake Tarot of the Creative Imagination deck, as well as the Aquarian Deck. It features an illustration of a disciplined craftsperson, script of this William Blake poem, as well as illustrations of 8 hand-forged nails and 8 pentacles around the border.

Quite a bit of smudging on this one, but it was just for me, and just for fun! Took about 2 hours.

"You are defined by that which you exclude. You are divine by that which you exude. When we're together, we're pulling apart. Put it together, non-separation is a practice and an art." - Larval State, That Which You Exclude

Art by Rayne Blakeman

I made this art for my psych punk band, Larval State. This piece features lyrics from one of our songs. When I was writing this song, I thought that I had stolen this lyric from Rumi. I looked through my book of poems by Rumi and couldn't find this line anywhere. I ended up searching online, unable to find anything worded quite like this. The meaning of "You are defined by that which you exclude" is that in saying you are not something, your identity becomes shaped around not being that thing. What you damn, damns you back.

Our bassist Steve came up with the caterpillar/moth ouroboros, and I brought it to life here. The center of the ouroboros is the Larval State logo. The elemental symbols are in each corner. D.O.M.E. (Disciples of Mother Earth) is in each quadrant of the illustration as well. There are other little esoteric bits in this, I will let you find them. (Hint: 17 and 23 are my fav prime numbers) I would like to make a color variant of this and maybe make shirts one day.

I have 11x17 prints of this. Email me at [email protected] if you're interested.

“Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire.” -Jorge Luis Borges

Hi!! Thanks for reaching out :) First I wanna say I relate to this a lot, especially with my music. For a while I felt kinda like an imposter about my music, that my newer music written in my early 20s was less emotional or less interesting than the music I made as a teen.

The remedy for that was to immerse myself more in the process than the product, and remember why I started this whole thing anyway: my art (my songs) exist as an outlet for my emotions, and a way for me to process and integrate my experiences. So, even if I write a song that I’m not satisfied with, it must be what I need to make right now. And also, the songs are written for me first. There are songs I have written only for me, not to be shared with anyone, where I give myself permission to be a bit “ugly” in my expression if I need to.

When you're creating as a young teen, it is often more "play" than work. What are some ways that you can bring a more playful element to your art practice?

I think a good way to move forward towards satisfaction with your work is to find a way to enjoy the process more than the outcome. This could be taking a different approach, changing subject or medium, changing the inner/outer environment in which we create… There can be little shifts that bring more joy. I think the sense of satisfaction with a piece comes from the joy found in the process, which automatically lends itself to feeling happy with the end result.

I have a little saying hanging in my office, it says:

“Your job as an artist and creator is to create, not to judge your creation. A song is a song.”

it rains the creator

Hi! My name is Rayne Blakeman. I am an artist living in Pittsburgh, PA.

Welcome to my Creative Counseling landing page.

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Below, you will find some information about my background in creativity, my beliefs about creativity as a universal need, and my goals as a creative counselor.

Thank you for being here!!!

My background in creativity reaches far back into my youth, when I needed to be heard by someone, anyone. That someone ended up being myself, and I learned that I could express myself through art and music. I tuned in to the “little voice”, my child self that just wants to love and be loved and have fun. I would take songs I loved and change the lyrics to tell my story. I would draw little comics, my favorite characters from cartoons, and I’d draw what I imagined I would look like as a teen and an adult. Expression quickly became my best friend and the way that I would survive, and the way I could imagine a future for myself. What started as a coping mechanism became the greatest gift I would ever find. I kept listening to the little voice, and I kept choosing self expression again and again, through my art, my drawings, my words, my fashion, and my voice. I got a ukulele at age 12 and it became my favorite way to express my thoughts and feelings. If there wasn’t an outlet for my creativity to be shared, I would create one. I facilitated a talent show at my middle school just so I would have a chance to sing my songs on stage. Shortly after, I started playing local shows, and started building a foundation in my community in my town and online to share my songs and art with a larger audience. My first self-published music project was called Human Petting Zoo, and that project would go on to completely transform my life.

I carry this gift of creativity into my adulthood. I spend time writing every day, taking any preoccupied thought and getting it out, so I can let creativity flow through me with the least resistance. I am a singer and songwriter, playing many instruments and taking a liking to guitar in the last few years. I have done guest vocals on songs and albums of my friends and contemporaries. I (still) produce all of my own music and record it at home, DIY style, and distribute it myself. I am a seamstress, creating garments from my imagination or using patterns or clothes I already have to bring my ideas to life. I'm a visual and graphic artist, playing with Gimp (a photo manipulation program) and drawing with pens or colored pencils. I have taken an interest in interior design and decoration since buying a house two years ago, and have turned my office space into a haven for sacred creativity. I’ve designed a color palette and whimsical paint job for my friend’s coffee shop. I have been studying calligraphy and illuminated manuscripts, reading works by mystics of various spiritual backgrounds, learning about astrology, the human shadow, archetypes, working with tarot cards, and much more. I’ll play with whatever I can get my hands on to express myself and my unique (and in some ways universal) experience of being here.

Wherever the joy is, I follow it, and that is a creative decision I choose to make every day. I believe creativity is a key to transformation, and that creativity is a universal need. In an energetic ecosystem, each part of the ecosystem plays a vital role, just by being perfectly itself. A flower being a flower, a blade of grass being a blade of grass, a tree being a tree… You being yourself. These creative acts of authenticity bring life force into the larger whole.

I knew I had to become a creativity guide when I would hear friends make statements along the lines of, "Nothing I am making is good enough to share," or, "It's not worth the embarrassment," or, "It's not really art, I'm just a fake artist," or, "I could never make music again after what happened to me." Hearing these statements made my heart break. Whoever told them that their self expression wasn't good enough, that the way they related to the world was wrong or invalid, that they simply aren't creative, is just wrong, and probably blocked creatively themselves. Every single person, every single being, and the universe itself, is creative. Breathing is creative. And when I start to look at life through this lens, I see that even things like doing your taxes is creative, as rigid and soulless as it may seem, some people find their flames aglow from the process.

Anything can be creative if you let it flow within you, and then without you.

My main goal as a creative counselor is to guide people out of the darkness of "I'm not creative" and into the light of "I am creative, and I'm doing it right now". I will create a judgement-free space for others to be themselves unapologetically, to express things that they thought would be better left buried inside, to explore parts of themselves they might have overlooked or cast aside, and to experiment and play with possibilities never considered. Together, we will use discernment to find the paths that seem most interesting and exciting. We will learn together that our jobs as artists and creators is to create, not to judge our creations. A song is a song. In our shared experience of nurturing and recovering our creativity and finding the ways we have been blocked by past experience or by our own fears, we will both do a lot of growing and reflecting together. And so, part of my goal is to continue to grow as an artist myself through this practice. I view my life as an art project about becoming more free, and the goal of becoming more free is woven into everything I create and everyone I interact with.