2018 Art Year in Review

I kind of lost steam in the second half of this year, as life got in the way - but I still managed to accomplish a lot in the first several months of 2018, and I've got a lot more planned for the first months of 2019 as well! Below are just some of my art and blogging highlights from 2018.

• Some of my colored pencil drawings from the Canton Village Theater's GRRRLS Like Us exhibition (Nov-Dec 2017) were featured in a Heaven Spot episode of Detroit area artists. The video premiered at Young Felix Loft on January 19, 2018; you can read about my experience at the premiere party and watch the video here.

• My "Bandaged Duality" 22x30" watercolor painting hung in the Carr Center in Detroit from March 3 to April 26, 2018 as part of their "Nevertheless She Persisted" Women Art Exhibition.

• In the spring, I completed my largest artwork commission to date - an acrylic triptych of the Charlotte, North Carolina skyline, measuring 28x66" in total.

• My colored pencil drawings "30 Days" and "28 Years" were hung at the Grosse Pointe War Memorial from July 12 to August 19, 2018, as part of their "Flower Power" Art Exhibition.

• I was selected to act as an official art juror at the Art and Apples festival in Rochester, Michigan in September 2018.

• My Etsy shop continued to see sales throughout 2018, especially for custom watercolor bouquet commissions, original Great Lakes watercolor paintings, and art print notecards.

• I created more 8x10" colored pencil drawings on colored paper for my ongoing floral symbolism series. ("Flight" on blue paper and "Ambition" on red paper were two of my personal favorites.)

• This blog, "Until the Water Falls," hit 15,000 total views, and two of my posts from this year entered my "Top Three" most viewed posts: Entitlement (which has nearly 230 views) and Missed Miscarriage (which is now my most viewed blog post, with 460+ views).

• I received lots of great comments on several Instagram pics this year, with some posts earning close to 90 "likes." Follow me on Instagram and Twitter to see more posts in 2019!

What I love about looking back at the last twelve months is that even if there were a few months where I felt "not productive enough," I can still look at the year as a whole and marvel at everything I accomplished. Like any year, 2018 had highs and lows; if I focus on the high points, I can see that I really have a lot of positives in my life - which helps me get excited for the plans I have in the works for 2019.

Thank you to everyone who continues to read my blog, follow me on social media, purchase artwork from my Etsy shop and just generally support me in my artistic endeavors and in life!! :) In 2019, you can look forward to more colored pencil drawings, more watercolor paintings, and more personal vulnerability, as I write about my artistic journey and life journey on this blog. Happy new year!!

Dahlia Tattoo

Exactly one month ago, as a five-day-early birthday present to myself, I finally got a tattoo! It's something that's been on my bucket list for several years, but I kept putting it off because I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to get a tattoo of. I considered Harry Potter quotes for awhile - but there's too many good ones and not enough short good ones, and I didn't want an entire paragraph written on my skin. Then, I stumbled on pictures of floral "watercolor style" tattoos on Instagram several months ago, and that opened up an entirely new world of possibilities. I was really drawn to the idea of getting something pretty and artistic on the inside of my left forearm, near the inside of my elbow - something that would act as an extension to my body of artwork (floral, colorful, and heavy on the symbolism), and something that I would love and appreciate - and be able to see - every day.

But knowing that I wanted a colorful flower wasn't enough for me (of course). I wanted my tattoo to mean something more specific than just "a pretty flower" or "beautiful colors" or "a reference to my floral artwork". I carefully considered (as I do with much of my art) what the message of my tattoo should be - that is, what type of flower I should choose.

Brand new tattoo!

I settled on a dahlia flower because dahlias stand for a lot of cool things, including wisdom, creativity and art, drawing upon inner strength to succeed, maintaining kindness, grace and dignity in the face of adversity, embarking on new adventures, making positive life changes, and forging my own unique self-identity. They also symbolize a lasting commitment - and I don't know what's a more lasting commitment than a permanent tattoo. :) My dahlia tattoo is a promise I'm making to myself 1) to be kinder to myself (that is, to stop all self-abuse and negative thought patterns and start treating myself with the same kindness and respect I show my friends), and 2) to be unashamed and unafraid to be who I am, feel the things I feel, or want the things I want.

I designed the tattoo myself. I drew/traced several images of dahlias until I got one that I thought would work. I also played around with the amount of petals, cutting some of them away to simplify the flower a bit, given the size it would be on my arm. Then, I blew it up to 8x10 size (to make it easier to paint), traced it onto watercolor paper, and added some light watercolor washes, just to decided what colors I wanted to use and where I wanted those colors on the tattoo design.

The watercolor sketch before I added black outlines back in.

I chose purple, blue, pink, and green for the colors. Purple is often associated with wisdom, elegance, intellect, depth, and beauty. Blue and green symbolize new life, fresh starts, and changes. The pink I added just because it's pretty - and I wanted a lighter color to make sure the darker purples and blues didn't make the tattoo too dark. These are also probably my four favorite colors (though I like so many colors, it does change a lot), and I have a lot of clothes in those colors, which will help my tattoo "go" with most of my wardrobe.

When the watercolor paint was dry, I went over the light pencil lines with a black Sharpie. Then, I used my copy machine to shrink it back down until it was the smaller size I wanted/the size that would fit on my arm.

Printing copies to try to figure out what size it should be on my arm. (The leaves point down to my wrist.)

The copier made the colors a lot duller, but I made sure to pick out with my tattoo artist the bright colors I actually wanted. I also told her I'd like to extend the extra pigment out further from the black outlines, to give it a more abstract/painterly quality. She used my to-scale copy to trace the design onto my skin, then inked the black outlines and the areas of color.

It hurt less than I thought it would, and went quicker than I thought it would too. It only took them about 1-1.5 hours to finish the tattoo. It also healed faster than I was told to expect, which was another nice bonus!

Here's what it looked like last week, three weeks after I got it:

It can be hard to get a good, clear picture of it... Not sure if that's the nature of this kind of tattoo, or just a problem specific to my phone camera (but I'm guessing probably the latter). :)

Now if only the weather would stop being so cold, maybe I'd actually be able to wear more short sleeves to show it off!