#brookeshaden

requiescat by Brooke Shaden Via Flickr: Day 31 of a #monthofdarkart and it's a massive breakthrough. All month I've been sharing my older, darker works and it's been amazing! All my life I've had a narrative running through my head. It said, "You can't draw. You can't paint. You're not an artist." This stemmed from watching my sister be good at drawing from a young age, from trying so hard in school during art class and never succeeding at making what the teachers wanted. I assumed I didn't have a natural talent. Creating this reminded me of the single most important lesson I could ever share: YOUR GENIUS IS WAITING FOR THE RIGHT EXPRESSION. We tend to try things in such narrow confines; instead of attempting every type of art there is, we stop at the first one we fail at, or succeed at. ***We are reduced to the outcome of our performance rather than the exploration of artistry.*** Yesterday when I edited this, I decided to go for what was in my imagination - a painted image of a girl whose head is exposed. To make this, I applied about 5 different brush techniques in Photoshop, manually creating strokes in the pixels. I photographed a sculpture I made as the head portion and blended that in. In this one image, I applied painting principles, photographic techniques, and sculpture. And it's one of my favorite things I've ever done. I've been smiling randomly all day thinking of it. This girl, who thought she COULDN'T paint or draw or sculpt or do anything traditionally artistic, has just proved her former self wrong by creating a mixed media image that she loves. Thank goodness I've learned to be the type of person that constantly questions the narratives I've always told myself to find a better one. Thank you for joining me for a Month of Dark Art. Diving back into darkness, exploring my more expressive and abstract side, has lead me here.

darkside por Brooke Shaden Via Flickr: We are all made of beauty, pain, life, death and the magical in-between. We are all so human it hurts sometimes, and other times it feels like summer awakening.