ancestral downloads

If you’re in any creative field, I'm sure you can understand how difficult it is sometimes to find inspiration, or simply just start. It has been a challenge to get my brain out of the mindset of creating something with the intention of it to sell, or to be pleasing to the general public in hopes that someone else will like it.

This weekend, I began with only the intention and openness to express something. So I put on some bossa nova, slammed a few cans of Celsius, grabbed a nice sativa, and figuratively locked myself in my studio.

I suppose I should explain how I decided to change how I work. My boyfriend and I are fans of the artist Joey Mars, and watch his live streams on the WhatNot app that my boyfriend sells vintage apparel on. He does amazing abstract work, and has created pieces for posters/shirts for the likes of Aerosmith, The Grateful Dead, John Waters, and many concerts. Not only is he a remarkable and celebrated artist, he’s hecking NICE. He had mentioned being inspired by the artist Basquiat in one of his streams, and the name was familiar but I couldn’t place a piece. After of course going down a rabbit hole on Basquiat, I was intrigued by his inspirations, especially drawing from his heritage and the Henry Dreyfuss Symbol Sourcebook (it’s literally in my Amazon cart but I can’t yet justify spending $55 on a book right at the moment). He also worked crazy fast. The theory being you get into flow state more easily if you’re hands are working faster than your rational part of you mind can follow. The subconscious can get the idea out before the rational part of the mind second-guesses it.

So I decided that I was going to make something from my ancestors like Basquiat, and go back to my comfort zone of acrylics, surrealism, and symbolism. Something with bold, contrasting, bright colors. My boyfriend always said people prefer my watercolors, but I needed to just get this out.

Usually I am sitting down for watercolor painting. I fidget a lot, and sitting at a chair and not cross-legged kills my lower back and hips (holla all my hypermobility and chronic pain folks!). I paint teeny tiny realistic watercolor nature pieces usually, so for this piece I wanted to go the exact opposite direction.

I pulled out the newer tabletop easel purchased a few months ago after I thought I was ready to do bigger pieces, and promptly smashed it to bits because it literally would not even stand on its own. Cue my 20 year old easel blessedly in the attic, cue massive 18”x24” canvas hand-me-down.

The jaguar is one of the most prominent symbols in Mayan religion and art. They are strong, fierce, and frightening. There’s a jaguar goddess called Ix Chel who is the goddess of midwifery and war. My people! I pored over dozens of photos of jaguars, traditional carvings, and pieces by traditional artists from Oaxaca, the Yucatan, and the Huichol peoples. The Huichol are known for their bright colors and yarn paintings of their deities: the deer, the corn, and the peyote.

With all of my “terrarium” accoutrements set, I painted for 4 hours straight, and then another 3 to finish the next day. Knocking on wood, but I think this method was helpful. Part of why I’m the least prolific painter is because in the back of my head I’m always over analyzing the concept, or how I’m going to do it, or if the technique is wrong, or if anyone is going to think it stupid. So then I never begin it, or scrap it partway through, or even get bored with it. BUT, if I work so fast I can’t over-think… well heck, and the added bonus of deadline/kitchen-rushing adrenaline kicking in. Not quite Hunter S. Thompson’s routine, but I’ll have to test my theory another time to confirm it’s indeed the key to getting into flow state.

With that said:

El Jaguar

Mayan Jaguar Painting, that may or may not also have some Japanese in there.

This was just a touched up phone photo, going to have to scan this in 4 parts…