Wave Series of Paintings

 The series of paintings I'm working on selling on my website Knidaria Kreations is titled the Wave Series inspired from The Great Wave and my love for the ocean. 

The two I've been working on are titled "Breeze" and "Storm".  Sometimes I struggle with depression and just like the waves move around in a storm I constantly change my mind on what I'm working on sometimes. So I decided if I'm going to do stuff I need to do stuff I love and focus more on my passion rather then what people want me to do or what they percieve artist to be. I am the person that best knows me and knows what is the right path for me. Which right now with the pandemic choosing a path becomes even harder given the circumstances.

So I'm kinda just trying a different method where I choose to just ride the wave until life chooses the obstacle's for me to choose in the best given moments. 

Traveling with Ghost

 

Traveling with Ghost is a memoir written by Shannon Leone Fowler. It was beautiful, sad, and reminded you of what the journey of life is all about. Every bump in the road I feel like is a test, a chance to allow growth, and opportunity to lead you to the next thing. 

Shannon and her husband on their honeymoon when one evening they take a swim. As they are swimming her husband is stung by a box jellyfish. One of the most venomous jellyfish in the world if I'm not mistaken. They are known to kill you instantly if they get you good. Her husband dies pretty fast. And shannon meets two women that help her through her first few days without them. 

The story goes on to tell of a journey Shannon goes on traveling the world. Shannon visits many places some with some haunting memories just as disturbing as the events she witnessed with her husband. Through this whole book she fights her emotions not really mourning properly like in the movie I watched Ride the Wave. But we can't really be taught to mourn someone we are really close to it just happens and we learn as we take each step and take each breathe. 

This story took me awhile to read a few years because the way I read i pick up a book, then start several others and get back to books I read chunks at a time. This book deserves a good read by someone else. Give it a try look it up. If your having trouble mourning someone her ghostly tale will help you. 

Ride The Wave

 

Ride the Wave is a movie about love and loss and riding the waves of life. 

Hinako is a surf-loving college student who has just moved to a small seaside town. When a fire breaks out at her appartment building she is rescued by Minato a handsome firefighter. For Hinako it was love at first sight. Before you know it the two start to date and begin to fall in love. But just as the love is beginning to blossom Minato loses his life at sea. Hinako unable to look at the ocean moves away and struggles to cope with Minatos death. But one day while out she discovers when she starts to sing their song Minato appears in water. From that moment on she can summon him on any watery surface even a inflated finless porpoise for example. Minato says that he will be by her side forever, but now in his watery form is that possible? 

You will have to watch the movie for yourself to find out💗

Dealing with loss is very hard. The more of a connection you have with that person the more of a struggle it is. But I have come to a realization life even after is never ending and the people we love they are always with us. For me its my great grandma, my grandma Blanche, and my grandpa. I think about them everyday but I know deep down they are with me. 

This movie was a beautiful treat for it's animation, for it being a watery movie, and magical tale that miracles do in fact exist. 

This movie teaches us to get back up, don't stop trying, believe and fight for your dreams. 

I'm struggling a bit to find myself on this journey called life, but when I feel like when I'm creating art I am more closer to myself then without.

Our 1st Adventure

I know it's been awhile since I've wrote in my blog, So here I am. First let me just say this whole pandemic has been hard. Depression and anxiety really has been messing with me more. I learned keeping busy and self love help to fight it and maintain it. This past weekend, I went on a little trip with my fiance. It was our first little trip. I hope their is many more. But I found some hidden treats when we visited book stores. This was one of the treasures. Now I have two sketchbooks to fill up before I get to this Art Nouveau inspired sketchbook with beautiful texture🤯🤤🐙
Now this is the first of many posts I will be updating here. In more posts I'll show artwork I've been working on, ideas, and thoughts running around in my head. So I'll stop for now and post more about our journey in posts to come and books I'm currently reading and finished as well.
A guy made a comment on a social media account this weekend. And it bothered me. So it kinda made me think we'll I got to dig deeper in my roots.
He had said my piece " Just Another Day at the Aquarium" looks like just a shark in a cage. Which I took quite an offense too. But he made me look into myself and made me want to dig deeper with my passions for the ocean.

Sketchbook Project Favorites

Whales and Dolphins

My next piece will be a shark poster. The poster will focus on some shark spieces that have suffered and declined due to shark finning. What has also gone on is over fishing, captivity, and etc. I can go on but I won't. One photo is a collage of orca's, others stippled whales, and a whale colored pencil drawing. The poster I'm thinking will be done in water color and colored pencil.

Squishy

I love my Dumbo octopus collection of pastel drawings. And want to do more in the future. When I found out Dumbo octopuses were real I got excited like a little kid. They are so squishy and adorable. It's really easy to entertain me. My friends often share articles, books they find from time to time. The books I add the articles I read and some influence creation. When. I find articles I may post them on here. If I find it interesting maybe there is other people out there that will be interested too.

Clay Montage

I can mess with clay. It is not my specialty but I learn as I go. I had a class in college and I did some volunteering at the YMCA with a group of older woman in a Intro. Ceramics class.

Tentacle Obsession

I really do love creating jewelry and mean to get back into it. I have a collection of stones I need to wire wrap, but with that being said I also need to put up a shop to sell artwork. But what stops me is would anyone really be interested in my art. I wanna learn to do chapstick and candles also. Maybe make some wine glasses and have a painting section. What I want to do most is get my Aquatic art out there. But I see myself not improved enough yet to get to that level. I feel like I am some mature compared to some great artists I knew in college. All this doubt, how does one get past it?

Toxic

Sometimes creating is easy for me especially when it doesn't involve much thinking. I love experimenting with acrylic pours. It allows me to not think just do. I've often experimented with combining different ingrediences. My last project in intermediate painting was just that. Creating 25 mini wooden pour paintings expressing the issues of pollution through my choice of colors. The project was titled " Toxic". The middle faint canvas was also expressing the main issues that threaten our oceans. Their are many layers. With that piece it kind of got out of control, which is what the pollution is doing to our environment anyway. Little tiny microp get into our food supply and then us. What's to change in the future? If nothing doesn't the future doesn't look to clear. With what's going down with us being on lock down pollution has gone down. Has anyone thought about this probably not. We are too busy fighting over toilet paper because we don't want to wipe our butts with leaves. The last image which is the one at the top went with the jellyfish trash pieces. This acrylic sat on the floor. It represented our world with the bright beautiful colors of nature and earth being engulfed by the jellyfish made of trash. I love this painting so much. I used different paints together to create this. If interested I'll look into this and post it back here.

Inktastic

Sometimes I get very anxious first thing in the morning before I wake up or late at night flipping around in my bed like a fish. I do remind myself that most of the anxiety I can't control or change in the moment, but that still doesn't stop my brain. Lately I've been putting my dreams as an artist on hold. A part of me creating this blog is to move forward with that dream alittle. Maybe get my mojo back and get the creative juices running again. And yes with that I mean creating more Aquatic art with tentacles. If you know me that's what I'm all about. These were created using different print making processes I learned at Youngstown State University. Some advice don't carve anything on your bed. You may end up carving yourself instead.

Jellyfish Panic

I know I have not posted for a few days. This pandemic has me in all different directions as to what I want to focus on. I want to read some books, cook, meditate, start walking, as well as work stuff, getting clean and organized, studying, and taking sometime for myself. But some days have me just laying around watching Pokemon Card pulling streams🤣 Yes being a 90's girl I have played all the games and what not.
Anyway I have started some reading. I even signed up for a 30 day trial with Amazon Audible. I got 2 free Audibles. Of course I picked meditation one. I guess some days art is my meditation. I do still get worked up from time to time. Telling myself I should be more skilled then what I am. The truth is we learn by doing. Through experimenting I have often found myself happier.
Saturday I ran an experiment with some acrylic paint on guesso board. I'll post it below. I still have to get back to it, but don't see myself doing so anytime soon because I got frustrated.

Tenacle Love

Other Art

 These two paintings are acrylic pours.

 This was a stippled squid I did.

 This was a wire jellyfish made with trash. It was a sculpture created to raise awareness for the threat of ocean pollution in the environment.

This was created with photo transfer of old dictionary pages from a 1942 dictionary  my grandfather kept. The specific pages I chose had words related to the ocean, jellyfish anatomy, cephalopods, and more. The jellyfish were inspired by jellyfish doodles I draw all the time.

Sea glass and Pottery

I love love to make jewelry. I have a collection of at least 100 pieces made. I got hooked on jewelry from an Intro. To Metals class in college. Featured here is pieces of Sea pottery and sea glass I hand drill. Each piece is unique and made with love. I hope to someday sell this and other art work I keep hoarding.

Octopus Love

Sometimes I just love to play until something comes to mind. This was one of those instances. Sometimes life has a habit of being chaotic and we realize we need to slow down more often. Instead of rushing we need to enjoy each moment in time. Even the small things. Like my morning Dunkin run.