This is a first post of my paintings series.
This year I had my first ever solo exhibition where I showcased 20 different works – 10 paintings, 3 mixed media paintings and 7 digital artworks. It was a big accomplishment for me and something I really didn’t even think I’d be doing anytime soon. It was also a first time for me to put all of my art in one room, in a curated exhibition, where I was telling my story, sharing my journey as a human, as a multi-dimentional being, as an artist. A point opening up, letting myself be seen and witnessed through my art.
I won’t delve into my entire life story today, but I’ll share a bit about how I arrived here over the last 6-7 years. This exhibition was a very personal, visual interpretation of the journey that I found myself on, where I learned to love life, discovered magic, and freedom and most importantly found myself after feeling lost for so long.
I invite you to join this journey with an open heart and mind. Art has a timeless ability to speak to the human soul. I invite you to engage in a deep dialogue with each piece, seek hidden truths and symbols. Allow yourself to discover perspectives and emotions that these works bring forth. May this journey be a catalyst for your own personal awakening, as much as it has been that for me.
Thank you for allowing me to share my journey with you.
Some paintings are for sale, some are already sold. But there are signed print copy’s available of each of them. If you are interested in purchasing a painting or a print, please email me or contact me via social media.
Lets start. First three paintings that we’re gonna talk about are the first acrylic paintings I did on canvas between the years 2016-2018.
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MY MIND – BLOWN
This painting always confuses people. What’s happening here? During this period in my life when it was painted, I felt quite confused myself. Behind me were many years of darkness, pain and confusion. But there was also a glimmer of hope for a better life. And this painting reflects all of that. When I started painting it, I didn’t have any specific meaning or purpose in mind. In my creative process I generally only have a vague understanding of what I’m going to create, usually it all starts with one element or subject or even a color palette, I want to paint and everything else kind of just happens during the painting process and after it’s finished. As if the picture and meaning of it somehow emerges on its own, in its own time. Half the time, I have no idea what I’m doing. And with this painting aslo, I just had a vision; I wanted to paint an astronaut. During the process, an explosion appeared. Is the explosion within us or outside of us? That’s up to each person’s interpretation and may change over time. For months I despised this painting and I couldn’t figure out what was missing from it, only to suddenly gain clarity months after finishing it – it wasn’t missing anything, it was ready, it declared itself ready.
At first the explosion happened outside of me. It became very clear to me how badly we treat the environment we live in as humans and how little most of us care about the planet and it’s habitants or living in harmony with it. And other times, the explosion is within us, where our entrenched perspectives, beliefs, and ideologies shatter into pieces. Our worldview undergoes a radical change. It may seem scary at first, but there’s hope. We’re still standing. We face a kind of a void, the birth place of a new world, and what we do with this space/void is entirely in our own hands. We create our reality every day through what we consume, think, believe, say, and do. And to change these things radically, changes the world we experience outside radically too.
This painting shattered my old belief systems, ideologies and perspectives and made space for something new and better to grow instead. A new life, so to say. A death and rebirth of sorts.
ENTITIES FROM THE OTHER SIDE
From a young age I have always felt like an alien, as if I’m not from here and never will fit in anywhere. I’ve felt a longing for a place I don’t even know if it exists. While undergoing and experiencing this death and rebirth within me and outside of me, I also became interested in energies around us. From other dimensions and entities to the universe at large. Who are we, and why are we here? Is there anyone else out there? In my mind, large concepts about life and the universe unfolded, expanding through time and across dimensions. I saw visions and experienced some otherworldly energy, something mystical and inexplicable but friendly and loving. There I formed a connection with some invisible force that made it’s presence very known for me even though I couldn’t see it or touch it. A new world started to unravel for me.
UPGRADE
Continuing with mystical beings, this painting was initially something else. I remember having an urge to paint but having no idea what to paint. So I started by painting the entire canvas in a reddish-brown and while I looked at the chaotic paint mix on my canvas suddenly, a face appeared holding a sphere of light, as if offering it to me. I tried to paint that character initially, but quickly realized that the picture had to be a bit different. So I turned the painting on its side, kept the hand with the sphere and painted another being to the other side to recieve what ever was being offered. You could say that the creature here is a version of me. As if a visual representation of me accepting the light, the invite, trusting the process and heading on this journey I’m on today.
A glow and warmth surged within me. This warmth and light traveled through my body and soul, healing and opening my heart and eyes, aligning me on every level to my highest potential and path. This painting represents the human evolution to the next level, where our senses become sharper, and we are in connection with our higher self and the universal force around us. Our lives become symbolic and meaningful. Too often when we think of evolution, we think of the past, but evolution is happening all the time. Where are you evolving? Are you evolving aligned with your dreams and wishes, the vision of the person you want to be? Or are you devolving?
These three paintings changed my life and for me they go together. They inspired everything that followed: my career as a tattoo artist, my healing, my awakening, and finding myself. I believe these pictures carry that energy of death and rebirth, of magic and mystery with them in the best way possible, hopefully inspiring and empowering us on our paths.
I often like to meditate with them, they always have something new to tell me. I encourage you to take the time and connect with the universal force behind these paintings, and maybe you’ll receive some interesting insights as well.
Here’s a happy and a bit tipsy me after the guided viewing event I held for the exhibition, to end this post.
Next time we continue with next 3 paintings, so make sure to check back in few days <3
love,
r.