AHH! ok so I have a SUPER exciting piece of work to share with you! I was invited by Sandra Evertson and her amazing team to be a guest for them during February. They very graciously sent me a couple of pieces to play with and here is the end result of my musings!
I am VERY excited to share this piece with you.. I had so much fun making it and I've been working on being FREE-er to my artistic heart.. going with the flow more often.. throwing caution to the wind and expressing myself more. TOIL is pretty great in all those aspects... and one more. It's also a compilation of all the beautiful inspiration I've been getting from other artists.
I love art.. I love SHARING art. Art belongs to us and no one should be deprived of it.
I love art.. I love SHARING art. Art belongs to us and no one should be deprived of it.
I was in a group recently and someone asked "When is it ok to call yourself an artist? After you've sold work?"
And my response was:
My whole life I've been submerged in art... all different sorts. and here's what I've come to believe.
And my response was:
My whole life I've been submerged in art... all different sorts. and here's what I've come to believe.
If you love it enough, and you hone it, and you concentrate on it, and you shape it into something that inspires other people.. you are an artist. Whether it be to make money or for fun.. whether it's scrapbooking, collage, pottery, paint, wood working, soap making, knitting, singing... etc. The artistry that is involved in each industry is breathtaking.
Consider yourself lucky to realize when you're in the presence of a great artist 
:) They've worked lifetimes to perfect their abilities.
:) They've worked lifetimes to perfect their abilities.
Because that's truly what I believe. I believe in sharing your work, in being inspired, in calling yourself an artist... because you are one. I am one. we are them.
Ok so that's a little bit about ME... but how about my Toil? well for a long time I've sort of been in this back and forth place of creating art I love (which I do!) and creating art that I think others will love.. whether it's to sell, or for a team, or even for an education base. Usually my pieces are a
mixture of the two --- but for this one I really let go and worked a lot more on a piece I wanted to! 
Toil started out as a political statement and evolved into a much more personal expression. It's about keeping the balance between respect & courage. between wants & needs. between light & dark. between life & death. It's about the inner struggle and which wolf we'll feed today.
Toil encompasses a lot of symbolism and there are a lot of struggles on the piece. The contrast in texture between the smooth resin & the harsh grungy masking tape is so appealing. The full figured renaissance style face versus the feeble old skeleton makes my heart race. It's always fun for me to start a project, watch it morph, finish it and then talk about it. When Mr. Catron saw the finished piece he blurted out "it looks like a mausoleum!" and I was so happy about that! It wasn't something I INTENDED but what a cool final effect, right?
What do YOU see when you look at Toil? What emotions are stirred, if any? I really look forward to conversing with you about the art. ♥
Wow! This a masterpiece. This is what this piece means when I see it. I see it a struggle inside oneself, hence the face with masking tape. The skeleton represent vulnerability. The wings represent, the yearn, the desire to break free of that struggle. I like the world toil, because every day we toil with issues in our head, we toil at work, we toil at love, we to toil to achieve great success. Along, the way as we toil, we have struggles.
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