Original Art

  • Exploring the Symbolism and Meaning in Figure Art

    Exploring the Symbolism and Meaning in Figure Art

    In my short chapter of studying art in college, one of the most important lessons I experienced were nude figure studies in drawing class. Not only did I learn a lot technically from those classes, but it laid the foundation for meaningful artwork I would make nearly twenty years later. In this post, I explore…

  • Exploring Colorful Horse Art

    Exploring Colorful Horse Art

    When I was a young girl, I was obsessed with horses, and not just My Little Ponies, but that was a big part of it! My room was decorated with horses and unicorns and I was constantly making horse art. I’m sure it started with coloring books, then there was the barnyard scene I won…

  • An intentional 2021

    An intentional 2021

    This past year was a wild one, everyone knows that. It wasn’t exactly the worst or hardest year I’ve ever experienced – our family has been through much tougher stuff. However this was unique in that it was a difficult, strange, and overwhelming year for EVERYONE to different degrees. The collective anxiety and tension over…

  • 3 things I’ve learned from portrait painting

    3 things I’ve learned from portrait painting

    When I started experimenting with dog paintings a year ago, I never really thought about doing human portrait paintings. Dog portraits seem so low pressure, and it was just playing around mostly. But then I painted my daughter, as a gift for her, and it wasn’t long before my friend asked me to paint her…

  • Pet Portrait Paintings for Charity

    Pet Portrait Paintings for Charity

    When I started doing commissioned artwork some 6 months ago, I felt a little bit guilty. Why should I take money for doing something that comes easy to me and I thoroughly enjoy doing? I have a healthy salary at my day job and don’t need more money (said no one ever, haha!). Not that…

  • The Gift

    The Gift

    Inside so drab and tedious The air is thick with illness and boredom Winter’s chill weighs heavy But the sun shines So in warm layers I find the water Rolling softly in the steady breeze Tiny waves ripple and sparkle Forwards and backwards Swirling among themselves As if never really moving I am mesmerized Inhale…

  • Music, painting, and alcohol

    Music, painting, and alcohol

    The last couple months of 2019 were both joyful and frantic. I had a surprising volume of pet portrait painting orders for Christmas which was all a new business to me, so I just buckled down and spent my evenings and weekends cranking them out in time for the holidays. It was exciting and scary…

  • Painting the Noise

    Painting the Noise

    My first abstract painting was done several months ago, when I was just getting back into making art (for the first time in a couple decades, basically). And though I enjoyed it, I found myself pleasantly surprised with orders for commissioned artwork that has basically kept me busy ever since. But last weekend, I was…

  • Exploring abstract art

    Exploring abstract art

    Eek! I haven’t really written in quite sometime now. I’ve been too busy painting! It’s funny how any sort of creative outlet seems to work for me and settle my mind. Whether blogging, writing free verse poetry when I’m too lazy to blog, painting, or even just posting on Instagram. I blogged on and off…