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Following yesterday’s Brain Dump blog post, I spent some time thinking about how I could get more out of my creativity…

Buy my art (duh)

Of course, this is the first thing we can think of: buy the art (my Etsy shop is still open for now, as well). As a working artist, it is my responsibility to offer my customers an array of price ranges to choose from, original and why not prints or other products with my art on it.
I know that money is tight these days though, but when I buy art, I also see it as an investment. And I think “How will this piece make me feel every time I pass by?“. I wish I could buy more original artwork, but that’s why it’s not the only way to support other artists.
In my ArtCave, I have a wall I call “My fangirl wall”. It is where I hang the artwork I bought from other artists. It is in front of me when I create so it feels like I am with a gang of like-minded people (weird, I know).

Share, comment, give some love

Being an artist creating from home is sometimes lonely. Luckily, nowadays we have the whole wide web to connect with each other though.
When you come on my blog, read what I have to share with you, and comment. It makes my day. When my artwork gets shared on social media so it can reach people who would not have found me otherwise, it makes my heart leap. When you watch my YouTube videos and take the 1 second it needs to give me a thumb up, it makes me wanna continue on…
It’s the little gestures that often mean the most.

Leave a tip

As I said, artwork can be expensive. But some of us have a tip jar on our website (look on your right, mine looks like this:)

Hey, any amount is appreciated. Really, even if it is so I can buy myself a cup of tea while doing the admin work.

Art supplies, Baby!

Okay… this one is especially true for me (or not) but… I love art supplies. I talk about it with great length here so it is not a secret. But this is expensive to be able to let yourself be free with the supplies needed to create. Especially when you want the good artist grade stuff (have you looked at the price of gesso, for example?).
That’s okay: it makes me appreciate what I can afford and this is why I tend to push the supply’s limits: what can it do to serve me to the max?
I created an Amazon’s WishList titled “Creative Stuff I’d love”:

Creative Stuff I'd Love

A new video series is in the making on my channel, where I will be testing supplies people sent to me (surprising me with, actually). I have already one in the making. Being unapologetic this year also means asking for what I need and for what I desire, so here goes 🙂
And if the person has links to share, it will be added everywhere as a “Thank you”.

What are you favorite ways to be supported?

If you are willing, I’d love to know about how you like to be supported as an artist? I do my best to believe there is room for all of us in this deep sea. And I do know that it is by lifting each other up that we will change the game.

I told you before, I am a woman of obsessions… My mind is always in full swing going around the same stuff over and over. It is mostly annoying but I stopped trying to stop this. Acceptance is key 😉

Quinn Bouley

I discovered Quinn on Instagram. Her feed is one of the most beautiful that illuminates my Instagram.
Quinn has an online shop where she sells handmade stickers, journal stuff and printables.
Quinn is spiritual and very creative. She shares videos on Youtube about her process and I really like what she has to offer.

Billie Eilish

I feel like I am talking about her everywhere and apologize if it is too much for you 😉
Music is always playing around me, it started when I was a kid. My Mom had to work weird hours and so I was often home alone: silence scared the shit out of me (still today) so I always had music playing or the TV on.
Billie Eilish is currently 17 years old but she knows who she is, she loves what she creates and it is contagious. She is the perfect embodiment of UNAPOLOGETIC to me. Plus, I am jealous that she can get these amazing hair colors 😉
Her music is strange but addictive. And you have to check her music videos 😀 I can’t believe she recorded her first album with her brother (who produces it), in their Mom’s home, sitting on a bed. Yup.

Oil pastels

When I create, I put all my senses to play. That’s just how it is for me. If you know me a little, you know that one of my things is texture. I am always searching for new ways to create it, media to put together to come up with something different.
I use several brands of oil pastels, my favourites are: Sennelier and Caran D’Ache’s NeoPastels. Both are really creamy and come in so many colours. They are very pigmented, too. They are not on the cheap side of the spectrum but worth every dollar.

My 100 Days of Abstract Explorations project

After being part of several Design Teams and not being in one currently taught me some unexpected stuff. I need deadlines, I need structure in my routine, I need projects.
So when Elle Luna announced the current 100 Day Project, I decided to jump in. More on this in this blogpost, and this one. I need the end goal (painting an abstract painting every day for 100 days). And I accept this truth… maybe it’s finally my Virgo side showing? ahah! I am having a lot of fun, and that’s all that matters. I use all the supplies I love and I am doing my best not to run to the store not to buy more Pébéo markers and more Liquitex Gouache (I have two sample bottles of it only)…

My longtime friends might remember that I used to be a very very negative person. It was not on purpose, but I used to always see the glass half empty. I used to be prepared for any bad road something could take (just in case, you know…). Until not these many years ago, I complained about something. I can see it with hindsight now, I must have been one hell of a person to be around (and is probably why I lost everyone in 2003, as friends and family ditched me all at the same time), reaching rock bottom.
I won’t thank them for putting me through Hell. But I understand how they did what was best for them. And you know what? I talk to most of them years after. I did not forget, the hurt is still there, but I forgave…
At 33 years old, going on 34, I have learned to accept this part of me that finds it easier to see everything through a negative lens. I know part of my Essence is made of the same Spleen that filled Baudelaire; but also that it is not the entirety of who I am.

And this is by reaching the bottom that the possibility to rise above appeared.

Yes. When I think about it, I often picture myself in a very deep pool, sinking deeper and deeper… sometimes I see myself just there, at the bottom, in the water… until something shifts and I tap my foot to get above. Rising. I am always rising, eventually. I was talking on the phone with my Mom this morning, about my career choices and she told me: “you’re like me, resilient. And belligerent. I know you will figure it out. I just know it.” and it felt good to hear.

A few years ago (2015?), I decided it was time to invest in myself and to find my people. I was in Hannah Marcotti‘s «Magic Making Circle» class. In this class, Hannah put the emphasis on the art of flipping. You take a negative thought that is bothering you, and then you find a way to switch it to something positive.
This is something I try to teach my daughter. Something I wish I knew how to do when I was a teenager.

It is not easy work. There is no switch you can pull so it magically shifts. But I do believe that the magic resides in the process as much as in the positive outcome.

We hear everywhere that there is no light without darkness. I say a big FUCK IT to this. Yes.
I am a big believer of the power of positive thinking and of wishful thinking. However, don’t tell me my life can change just because I desire it. With experience, I now know that desire without concrete action is nothing but energy put to waste.

How art helps me shift

I will usually take refuge within my art journal. Between the covers, I feel safe to express whatever needs to be addressed. I can do whatever I want without the need to share everything. I let the pain, the hurt, the anxiety go within layers upon layers of paint.
Also, creating my Nixies is a huge relief in general. They are not planned out. I learned to surrender to my emotions as soon as I step inside my ArtCave. I sometimes start simply by stating something like “Please, help me release XXX through what I will be creating today” and let it go. My most precious artwork was born from a deep place of darkness…

As I told you at the beginning of April, I embarked on The 100 Day Project this year.
On week 2, we had a long painful power outage. My ArtCave is located in our basement and it was about 10ºC (about 50ºF) inside our home. So let me tell you: no matter how badly I wanted to go paint in there, it did not happen for five days.

On the positive side

• It forces me to stretch my creative muscles
• I need to work on not boring myself
• It’s okay for me to explore new color palettes
• I have no pressure, or almost none
• I will end up with 100 paintings in the same series: to me, that’s huge!

On the less positive side

• I do feel bad when a day is skipped
• Some days, it’s like I am just repeating what I have already painted
• I am afraid to get bored eventually
• what the fuck will I do with 100 paintings?!

Some favorites so far:

At the end of 2018, I had this gut feeling telling me that 2019 would be a turning point in my life. That it would pretty much feel like Flight or Fight in many areas of it. And so far, this has been true… Many decisions to be taken, choices to be discussed. About the mundane and sometimes more life-altering.

Do you have a guiding word for 2019?

Being unapologetic in being me

This year, my husband decided that I will find my way back to my Self. And it comes to being outside how I feel inside.
I sometimes feel like I am schizophrenic because there are SO many sides of my personalities, sides that don’t necessarily make sense put together.
I have not straightened my hair for years now, wearing them au naturel instead. With the fibro, it’s very hurtful on my shoulders to keep up but that is part of me owning my heritage. However, sometimes I like actually being able to DO something with that mass of hair. My daughter spent 3 hours flat ironing my hair earlier this month; we put Queer Eyes on Netflix, chatted and laughed and I am very thankful for her asking me if she could do this for me.
I am also getting more unapologetic in the time my body and my soul need to rest, fully and deeply. It means being less productive in a way, but I realized that it’s a lie: I am more productive when I am rested.

Being unapologetic within my creative practice

Since the beginning of April, I started the 100 Day challenge and I have not painted a Nixie in a while.  I sometimes feel like I am abandoning them but I know in my guts this is temporary. Nixies keep showing up in my mind but they want to come out as big as possible and right now, that’s just not an option… I don’t have the room for them. By the way, I have a lot of them coming in my new shop in the next few weeks but you can check my Etsy shop and my new shop already, maybe one is calling your name and you just don’t know it yet 😉