What a week what a week yall. I’m currently drinking tea, did my morning yoga, and now i’m writing this blog. I’ve never done yoga in my life but recently I’ve been trying to do 10-15 minutes every morning. I ended up loving it and has been such a great time to center myself, my thoughts, and my intentions for the day. Gives me a chance to let go of things I need to let go of and re-direct any steps that may be working against me or the people around me. I’m with it for sure!
Anywayas, wanted to write my weekly recap of the week. It was such an eventful one - art opening, tattoos, art classes at creature comforts, and more painting!
Freemarket Galleries: “Heatwave”
I got to put up another dragon in “Heatwave,” Freemarket Gallery’s (Atlanta) large group show. It was a special time because a year ago I got to do my first dragon paintings for this same gallery and here we are a whole year later, and I got to put my “Ryu No. 5” in there.
For the opening of the show, I decided to stay and hand out invitations for my solo show and just shake hands and say thank you to everyone who was enjoying the art. I was for sure nervous to do that thinking about how I’d look and if I’d be alone or anything but I’m so glad I did it. I ran out of all my invites and got to meet so many amazing people. One of my favorite things is meeting other artists and being able to encourage each other. And as always, we had to roll up with the crew from Peters Street Station! It was great to celebrate with Simone, Petie and Mercury.
WORK: PAINTING & TATTOOS
I’m currently setting out to start all the work for my solo show. I’ve been exploring Chinese watercolors on rice paper recently, studying the traditional strokes of painting and expression. Here are my first couple finished rice paper pieces, two peony landscapes. Both paintings sold immediately!
I also got to do some really special tattoos this week. Joseph came to Atlanta for his 30th birthday and commemorated it with his first tattoo of my original artwork from 2020. I was also lucky enough to get to do a full color tree on Jacky. The tree was split up into four seasons, so I had to find a way to make a tree have spring, summer, fall and winter in it. It felt good to tattoo again and especially for this session as it was a connection from over many years of time with the art. Very special.
MEET THE ARTIST AT CREATURE COMFORTS BREWERY
Yesterday I got to teach my drawing class at Creature Comforts Brewery in Athens, GA. Creature Comforts is such a legendary beer and have made their mark on the world for sure. What’s special about this to me is that I lived in Athens when they opened, and remember the excitement about the beer and the whole brewery. I was like a senior in college or something and remember them building the brewery…. and it’s so wild to me all this time later to be able to have the chance to do this special event with them. It was amazing…. beer, live jazz trio, and a free art class? cmon man, it was lit. Of course all the Athens homies had to pull up, as well as some new faces too. I felt very honored to be there as a teacher and an artist… and overall with these classes I just love how for a couple hours we all can kind of forget everything else going on in our lives and just simply make something together. I’m finding so much fulfillment and a new kind of joy by teaching… like the real things of life are in there I think. But anyways, I was really, really moved by this opportunity and can’t wait to do more. My next class will be on Tigers on August 21.
REFLECTION
I had a realization this week that I wasn’t having that much fun at all doing this art thing. It sounds kind of crazy but I was in a place where I was so stressed and anxious about all the art I wanted to create and everything I wanted to do for my show that I was forgetting to actually enjoy life as it was happening. I found myself not being present with myself, others and the things that were immediately in front of me… always worrying about the next painting, the next event, or the next thing I gotta do. What’s interesting is that I set out to do my first painting for my show and felt completely stuck… like I wasn’t moved by it or nothing. I think it’s because I was creating from a place of stress and striving and not love. This is what brought about this reflection. So from then on I just set the painting down and tried for the next few days to just be present and thankful at all times. I tried the best I could the shift my perspective on art and life, to try to get myself back to the place of humility, gratitude, and ultimately TRUST. Part of my daily reset is trying to get myself to a place of TRUST in all things, not distrust. I feel like life tries to tear our faith and trust away from us, causing us to look at life and each other resentfully. But what if we could let go of that way of thinking? You are right where you need to be. Everything will be ok. Do you trust the process?
Love, AB