#seamless repeat pattern

A year has passed since my last blog post. Blame it on my ADD, baby (insert wink emoji). Despite all of its challenges (all of us grappling with pandemic-induced collective trauma), it’s been a good year for my art. I have to urge to create more than share. Actually, I have been creating, painting and drawing more than any other thing. Hence, good year for my art. I’ve had no shortage of work (gratefully), and no shortage of ideas.

Completing work for clients is easy when there is a deadline, completing prints in general when there is a deadline is highly motivating, albeit at the last minute before its due. I can’t tell you how many Spoonflower challenges I entered around 2:53 pm on Tuesdays!

Despite not updating my website, despite no new blog posts, in 2021, my Pinterest reached 5 million views! I also landed a steady freelance gig with a major retailer which has really allowed me to sharpen my execution skills. (Experimenting to create solutions to the Spoonflower challenge design briefs definitely contributed to honing my process.)

First (maybe only, but probably not?) blog post during the… duh-duh-duhn… QUARANTINE. The word just sounds as dramatically surreal as it actually is.

This print is a revisited piece from when I was recovering from surgery 6 or so months ago. I was unable to use the tools I normally rely on so I learned a new way. The first iteration was vibrant with bold colors. This is the gut instict- the raw, unfiltered idea pushed out into the universe. 4/20 and I’m reminded of the Mary Jane print I created during what I see now as my practice run of isolation. I had always wanted to come back to it with my full arsenal of tools, to experiment, to actualize the potential of what it could be. But work happened. And prioritizing happened. The fast pace of “normal” life happened.

But here. Quarantine. Isolation. Its time and its space. Its rearrangement of balance. I am aware of the date despite the unknown (yet familiar) landscape of daily sameness. A new equilibrium is beginning to set in; a more righteous balance of work, motherhood and domestic upkeep. It’s here in this un-rushed pace that I am becoming more present, more reflective, more conscious.