10 Year Anniversary: The Painting Diary 14 of 30
The Painting Diary 14 of 30: Invasion of Spring, 2015
One of the best things to happen on my 10 year journey came in 2015 when I got my first taste of live painting. I was invited to come paint and share my work at Cascadia Music and Arts Festival up in Washington and I jumped on the chance. This was a world that was totally foreign to me. I had never been to Burning Man and had no idea really what to expect…the thought of painting in front of people was terrifying; how was I going to translate what I was doing in my studio to a live setting? I was primarily painting in oils, but I would need to get out those awkward inferior acrylics and make friends with them if I was going to paint live. I was excited and totally freaked out too.
That weekend was transformative. I made so many amazing friends and discovered a community of lovely inspiring people, many of which have become dear friends and allies. My live painting that weekend was nothing special and I ended up painting over it later, but the experience itself was one of my fondest memories in the last 10 years. I really really needed to find that world and it has continued to unfold and be a place for me to grow and evolve.
Latter that year I was invited to live paint at a special dinner event and this painting, Invasion of spring, was started there in acrylic and later brought back to the studio and finished in oils. This was a technique that I’d repeat many times in the following years. I liked starting a painting quickly with acrylic and then doing a more careful paint over in oils, it’s the best of both worlds.
By 2015 I was momentarily back in the corporate office working at a virtual reality start up. That was a short lived but rough stretch and it was a divine blessing when they laid me off without warning near the last part of the year, with the option to collect unemployment! Score. Working there let me build a little savings back up and afterwards I would coast along for another year and focus on my own art full time…
Invasion of Spring, Oil and acrylic on board, 2015