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Finding Creative Inspiration: The Firework Flowers Collection
Coming out of 2020, I couldn’t imagine trying to tackle creating a new original collection. There’s so much work that goes into generating and maintaining inspiration for me usually, I couldn’t get myself to the point where I could create freely without feeling the dregs of burnout.
I felt burned out for nearly 6 months. I took off a lot of the first quarter of 2021 thinking, ok, a couple of months is MORE than enough time to get my engine going again. Turns out, I need nearly three times more!
I started to feel my spark again in June. I wanted to paint every hour of the day but hadn’t found that seed of inspiration that leads me to a collection, so I started a 30 days challenge. I gave myself a somewhat loose parameter, paint foods or flowers every day for 30 days. On day 18, I painted this :
And that seed of inspiration was planted. I could see this BIG - so much bigger. I wanted to incorporate my love for black and white checkers and stripes. I wanted to paint with all the color palettes I adore from the 60s and 70s and create awesome textured overlays. The ideas were coming really fast and I knew I needed to get going or the drive would leave me.
I ordered my supplies for an original collection the next day. 11 cradled wood panels, all different sizes, 18k gold leaf, loads more red oil pastels, and a butt load of paint tubes. I broke out my easels (which I had NEVER used before) and felt like a big girl artist.
I allowed myself to explore.
My natural way of painting flowers is very gestural and flowy. Something that I've never quite leaned into because it always felt sloppy to me. But after seeing it come together in my 30-day challenge I fell in love with the result and I gave myself permission to believe in these funky sun-like flowy flowers.
Once I finished laying down the color palettes and floral shapes I stared at the pieces for a long time. I knew black and white needed to make its way in and my first initial thought was to do stripes on trims. But I second-guessed myself for days because I’ve personally never seen artists do funky stuff with the trims of their originals and I thought surely there’s a reason. But then I remembered I don’t care about that and I did it anyway.
I’M SO GLAD I DID BECAUSE THE BLACK AND WHITE STRIPED TRIM IS MY FAVORITE PART!
I finished this collection with a HUGE sense of gratitude. Gratitude in myself for trusting my process but mostly gratitude for you, those who’ve followed me in my career as an artist. Gratitude that I was able to take the time off I needed to better my mental state and during that time you still stuck with me when I returned. So as a sign of my gratitude I painted mini abstract original thank you paintings for each collector of the Firework Flowers.
This collection feels really personal to me. These are floral shapes I’ve drawn all my life but have never shared. These color palettes of the 60s and 70s are some of my favorites. They shine. They bring in happiness and warmth. I hope they find a home because I truly believe each painting in this collection is a generator of joy.
Firework Flowers Original Collection
10 original mixed media paintings on cradled wood panels ready to hang.
Acrylic, Vinyl, Oil Pastel, and 18k Gold Leaf.
Sizes:
(2) 24x36in
(1) diptych 16x20in (32x20in together)
(3) 16x20in
(1) 16x16in
(1) 12x16in
(1) 11x14in
(1) 8x10in
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