Merging into a whole and complete self...

As we get closer to the end of the year, I begin to reflect. In about 6 weeks I will reach another milestone in my life. I think back to when I was younger and thought about my plans for the future. I also wonder at this stage in my life am I or have I quite lived to my full potential.

I have always talked about how I am a big underachiever but as I get older, I also realize that I also don't get out of my way. Which brings to mind, self-sabotage...

I need to figure out what I want...what I need to do to stay focused and not doubt the choices that I make no matter how they turn out. When I was younger before I started taking chances, I always kept my eyes on the prize. I said I was going to do something and I did it. I need to learn to combine the old with the new. Train my mind to merge the former with the latter to make a complete "me".

I have truly come far but I don't want to enter my "mid-life" on the verge of a crisis.

Until next time...




-Namaste

Art happens for a ton of reasons or Will Pin for Art...

Hey there faithful few...I'm Baaaacckkkkkk! Lol. I haven't gone any where yet, it's just that lovely time again. Blog time. So I have been recently trying to find more ways to keep myself busy artistically-wise. This past Monday, I entered my self-portrait that I did into an international art contest. I have been planning on doing it for awhile but I almost forgot about the deadline which was the 1st. It's a contest being put on by Derwent Pencils. I was excited to actually get a chance to enter. Even if I don't win a prize it was/is awesome that I did enter, you know.

Today I also pinned a few more pieces of my own work to one of my boards on Pinterest. I totally be forgetting sometimes that I have Pinterest and I was one of the thousands of people who were on it when it was invitation only and they hadn't blown up yet. Come to think of it I have pretty much neglected Social Media for a while save for the few times I have started a convo in a couple of my Facebook groups. (Which is odd, seeing as though Facebook is one of my least liked social sites out there...something about privacy issues, LOL) Now that I've mentioned it, I'll probably abandon my idea to read before bed tonight and end up spending some time perusing Twitter, Instagram and Google+. Such is Life. Anywhoogle this book I am currently reading called, Darkest America: Black Minstrelsy from Slavery to Hip-Hop, is a really good engaging read. I have been taking notes...maybe I shouldn't say notes...I have been jotting down thoughts based on what I have read so far that come to mind based on what I've read. At some point I can see these thoughts turning into a post here or who knows maybe some great work of art. And as usual, I will surely share with you guys.

Until next week...

 

 

 

-Namaste

 

These words...

So I have been thoroughly engrossed in this book called
Baltimore '68: Riots and Rebirth in an American City.
Its a book by Elizabeth Nix. I am about halfway through the book and as I have been reading it, I have been pulling words out of it. The words are combinations of names, ideals, class, and race. I have jotted them down a couple of times but I have yet to decide exactly what it all means to me. I have been trying to see the connection with it and my current body of work. I know in the past my work has been heavily influenced by race but the last few years for me, my work has tended to go slightly left of race.

Even before I started reading this book I had started to investigate when I had the switch over...when did I go away from mainly talking about race and class in my work to creating art that was more, how can I say it...more or less tamer than what I was doing the first part of this century. What changed my voice? I shouldn't say change...what caused me to hush my tone? Could it have been me feeling like it was something I needed to do so I wouldn't constantly get stuck or have to deal with the lull between pieces. Because for awhile there it felt like constantly focusing on race to me would come off like I'm spewing propaganda. And that's a message I never want my work to convey. Hopefully soon I'll have a better understanding of what this all means for me in the "now." Until then...

-Namaste