Handing Over Your Creativity

“Create art that sells!” “Find your Niche” “Grow your social media with these steps!”

Does this scream bullshit to anyone else?

Ill say it again, no hate to anyone who creates or utilizes these services, but it just feels so inauthentic to me, and at the end of the day I believe our clients, consumers and followers can feel that if it doesn’t align with who you are.

Ive written before about my dislike of niching down, as much as I loved creating my first series and all the products that came of it, I felt like I was trapped in a box of other peoples expectations and like I couldn’t spread my wings and grow as an artist. Why are painters one of the few creators expected to niche down? Are potters expected to only make mugs for the entirety of their career? Or jewellers make only one style of necklaces? Even musicians are able to explore other genres of music. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But how come if an artist explores other projects they are often written off as not professional or just a flaky artist? Art is supposed to push the boundaries!

I feel like the addition of social media in our lives and the quest for perfection and going viral has a lot to do with this. Something works for one person, so we should all repeat that it get the same result. It doesn’t work like that! Why is it that on my art account I can post pottery I’ve done or sewing and crochet projects, I get, “Wow! Youre so talented/so creative!” But if I post a new art style Im experimenting with, that’s a big no-no? With so much of our lives created and curated for social media so many people now believe they should have an opinion in our lives. Really, unless they are paying you for a commission, you don’t owe them a damn thing! I can’t even begin to tell you how freeing that was once I came to that realization.

Ive never been one to really relax. After living the majority of my life with chronic pain and illness Ive always been a go till your body can’t go anymore type of person. (Im working on that, I promise!) The past 2 years my biggest selling items were my Animal Spirit calendars and notebooks. I unfortunately had to break up with my notebook supplier when shipping costs for Canada started getting outrageous. People were disappointed but it really wasn’t the end of the world. Then there was the calendars. Honestly as successful as they were, they were also a huge source of stress for me. Starting out, doing the paintings, creating the calendars, I loved it. But then I started to get burnt out and felt like the walls of the little box I was in were starting to close. Last year I forced myself through it and busted out a few more paintings to get this calendar finished. The result? Theres 2 or 3 paintings in that calendar that I HATE (maybe hate is a strong word, but definitely not calendar worthy in my eyes)  My calendars were still a huge success and sold out just like the year before, but it wasn’t as fun this time. January 2023 I said things this year will be different, all I have to do is create one or two animal paintings a month and my calendar will make itself come October. Then I fell in love with greyscale painting, pretty much a complete 180 from my animal spirit paintings. I never thought much about it, I started getting a little following for my pop culture grey scales and I was having a blast. As the holiday season neared I started getting the “I love this but where are your animal paintings?” “When is your calendar going to be ready?” “These are cool but you’re still doing a calendar right?” Well I was having so much fun with grey scales I hadn’t painted a single animal other than a commission earlier in the year. I began to start to feel the pressure and start doing the math of, if I do this many paintings in this many weeks I could have calendars ordered by this day. Not fun.

At this point in time my chronic pain and anxiety were again at a high. When this started affecting my health in some very serious ways I really had to start prioritizing how I spent my energy. My doctor recommended trying acupuncture before we resorted to daily medications. This was a game changer not only physically but mentally as well. It was on this warm comfy bed stuck full of 20+ tiny needles that I started thinking about the calendar and how many paintings I can bust out in a ridiculously short amount of time. I then had the realization that I really don’t owe anyone anything. The past year had been about honouring myself and exploring my creativity. Why should I stress myself out creating these paintings I probably won’t like and be left with feeling icky every time I think about it? Just because it was something some one else wanted. Why would I hand over my creativity like that?

At the end of the day, whether you pay money for it or not, tips and tricks for going viral or selling your art quickly is not guaranteed. Not everything is for everyone and that is ok! If you niching down has been a success, I am so happy for you, and also a tiny bit jealous that my mind just doesn’t work that way. But at the end of the day, this is my journey, my art and my career and I really don’t owe anyone a damn thing. I am calling my power back to not hand my creativity over anymore and to create what I want when I want. If your mind works the same way as mine, I wish you courage to step outside your box, and to prioritize your life and your art, not someone else’s opinion.

So needless to say, I will not have an Animal Spirit calendar available this year. I appreciate the love that it receives and depending on which way my creative energy flows this coming year it may once again be available in 2025, but no promises ;)

Brand + Vulnerability = Authenticity

Ive had so many wonderful conversations over the past week with other creatives and their love/hate relationship of niches and branding ourselves as artists.

In a poll I posted in my instagram stories asking creatives if they felt niches helped or not, 100% of people who responded felt it actually hindered their creativity. A lot of them that I chatted with individually didn’t want to be put in a box that they would then feel stuck in, by expectations of others. Yes there were a few who do thrive on niching down, and I am so glad that is working for them. Again, I wasn’t trying to make anyone feel bad about how they create, it just wasn’t my personal experience and something that Ive been struggling with for awhile now, with the way other people think you should create, and allowing that pressure to influence your craft.

The day I posted part 2 of my Existential Art Crisis, I also had the opportunity to attend a speaking event with Jillain Harris.  I admittedly was not all too familiar with Jillian other than knowing she was on The Bachelor/Bachelorette and was now a lifestyle/social media influencer. Really I just wanted an evening to get out of my painting clothes (ahem pyjamas) and to have a chance to hang out with some people who don’t call me mom. So I didn’t quite know what to expect from this night, but I walked away from it with my wheels turning. Aside from tv and social media, Jillian is an incredible business woman, previously doing interior design work, creating her own cookbook, has collaborated with several brands such as Smash and Tess, Joe Fresh and Canadian Tire, as well as releasing her own subscription box and online courses with The Jilly Academy. And her list of plans continues to grow. She’s about as multifaceted as you can get. She is obviously the face of a brand AND has a niche audience. Two things that make me hella uncomfortable. But for some reason it works for her, it doesn’t feel forced or robotic, it feels authentic.

This really got me thinking, how can you create a brand for yourself without losing your authenticity? Jillian talked a lot about leading with your heart, this was a concept I was familiar with, and believed in. But again, what makes it different?

Allowing yourself to be vulnerable!

Im pretty sure it can’t get anymore vulnerable than a televised dating show with the expectations of a wedding at the end. Obviously there is a lot of editing done on these shows, but Jillian was still someone who stood out. Even after the show and while creating her businesses, she was very open and honest about the whole thing. She shared not only successes, but times where she had come up short, or had to redo or revise things and how things typically ended up working out for the best at that time, whether she realized it or not. At one point she was offered a huge brand partnership for a great deal of money. In the end, this partnership did not completely align with the vision and morals she had for her brand, so she ultimately turned it down. Understanding what is important to you, your goals and overall vision is such an important thing to realize and stick to. Could a giant brand deal be life changing and earn you tons of money? It sure can, but what is the ultimate cost? She shared that it didn’t feel right to stray from her personal beliefs and possibly mislead her followers as well. She lead with her heart, stuck to her truth and in doing so was able to open herself up to even more incredible partnerships all while supporting small businesses and fellow creators. Was it easy? Of course not. It may have taken her a bit longer to get going in the direction she wanted, but she still got there eventually by being authentic and true to herself and her beliefs.

So what did this mean for me and how could I use all this in my art career?

Leading with your heart has always been big for me. Finding what feels good and sticking with it. Do I still lay awake and over analyze everything, heck ya, but I do ultimately know what feels true to me and my “brand”. Allowing myself to be vulnerable was always a struggle. Even just showing incomplete art pieces freaked me out, it was actually part of the reason why I was always failing art class in high school.  I HATED the “find your why” that is always being talked about. I really didn’t want to dig that deep into myself and just wanted to create cool shit. But as much as people liked my cool shit, they also liked hearing about the story and the person behind it. My love of using sacred geometry and animal guides in my art really brought a lot of connections to me, it was really sharing the place in my life i was at. The few years before my Animal Spirit series came to be, we had gone from a family of 4 to a family of 6 in a very short amount of time, moved away from our community and family, I left my job and my older kids had to change schools. Oh and then not to mention Covid hitting, good times. So I was leaning on my spirituality pretty hard at this point. This was what eventually birthed my Animal Spirit Series. With the mentorship I was a part of at the time, we had lots of great conversations, laughs and so many tears, but I finally found myself being able to share these struggles with others and then finally allowing myself to share my vulnerabilities to my followers. This allowed me to make so many deep connections with so many others. Ive come to find that these people support me, my heart and my journey. Not only supporting me when I create things they like.

Making these genuine connections through vulnerability opened up something I wasn’t aware of. I felt unconditionally supported. Like I could create what is in my heart or on my mind without having the worry about being criticized or losing followers (both of which happened, but those people weren’t my people, so it didn’t really effect me that much as it once might have).

I think creating “art that sells”, as simple as it seems, is really handing your creativity over to others, and the pressure that goes along with it is ridiculous. I guess if you are going to “find your niche” find people that  appreciate your vulnerability and support you no matter what, not the ones who are only there when you are creating what they deem worthy. After all, this is your journey, and they are only allowed along for the ride if you let them.

Welcome to my existential art crisis part 2

Over the past 10 years or so Ive been perfecting the art of not giving a fuck.

And it was finally time for me to convert this over to my growing art career. Once you learn to not give a fuck about the haters and the trolls (part 1), you then will likely encounter the social media creators who want to give you the ingredients to their secret sauce that is making sales on the internet. One of the biggest recommendations I seen over and over again is to niche down. Art is SO subjective. Theres an audience for just about everything out there. So if you are a multifaceted creator, why would you feel the need to niche down? Really, you probably don’t actually feel the need, but are being told by tons of other creators that you should do xyz in order to grow your audience, get engagement and convert to sales. Who can blame them though, that’s their niche!

I happen to be a multifaceted person / am 99% sure I have undiagnosed ADHD. I like trying (and sometimes abandoning) lots of different things. But why should that mean that I shouldn’t be able to find success and make sales too? In the past I felt pressured to create a “brand” and stick with it. Really the closest thing to a brand I was ever rocking was a hot mess mom with chronic  pain and illness, and it was time to embrace that. Realistically I can not and will not run my art business the traditional way (we already learned that in part 1). I have good days and bad days and simply cannot do a 8 hour/5 day a week type thing. So I am, much like my art, a bit flaky and all over the place and that is how I am choosing to show up in my life. That my friends isn’t so much a brand as it is authenticity. Authenticity is something often preached about, but is it authentic if you have to niche yourself down to fit in a box and market yourself like a robot? I am authentically a hot mess, but a lot of people actually relate to that and also like that I just so happen to make some cool shit every now and then and want to stick around for it. This is where a chunk of my followers come from, I guess if we are talking about brands then they must like my brand of awkward/weirdness, and I love them for it!

So, is not having a niche….a niche?

Welcome to my inebriated brain at 2 AM folks.  As much as there is talk about finding your niche, I now see talk amongst many fellow creators about not niching down and how they actually feel like that is stifling their creativity, instead of having the freedom to grow and learn as you create with the flow of your life. Obviously there are time and places for niches, it was something I also learned about while doing my fitness and nutrition certifications. Niching down to find your target audience. I specifically worked with women of all different shapes, sizes and abilities and helped them reach their goals and feel good about their health. So gym dude bro’s weren’t my niche. But again, art is subjective. So who is my target audience? Um people who want to buy my art obviously! And who am I to say what that looks like!? But now we get to the part where I really question if not having a niche is a niche, because this, I find, is a draw to other creators.

When one week I paint a detailed animal and the next week I paint a greyscale super hero, I usually will lose followers who may have been here for one or the other. But you know who doesn’t leave? Other artists! While the subject matter and medium may change, even if it’s not their thing, they may still admire the colour pallet used, the texture created, or other specific details. Creating relationships like this can then open you up to their followers and fan bases as well and allow you to grow from there, finding more like minded people who are drawn to your authenticity and the cool shit you make!

So to niche or not to niche. Is no niche a niche? I guess after all this, I really don’t know (another 2 am hamster wheel, round and round without actually getting anywhere). But I feel that if you live your life on purpose, do everything with gratitude and joy, that this will open you up to a greater flow of energy in your life that will continue to attract more of what you love and desire and want in your life.

I would love to hear your thoughts on creativity and niches so please feel free to reach out, wether that be here, email or instagram, this is a subject I plan on returning to in the future!

*Obviously this post isn’t meant to offend anyone, I truly believe to each is own, and if you find something that works for you, go for it! This is just my personal experience and the experience of several other creator friends of mine. <3

Welcome To My Existential Art Crisis

Part 1: The double edged sword of Social Media

I feel like “artist” is the one career everyone has an opinion on…. and are not afraid to share it. Whether it be if they consider it to be a viable job (insert eye roll here), how you market yourself, their thoughts on what you create, or what they think you should create, almost every one has something to say about artists.

These days social media has a lot to do with this, both good and bad.

Aging myself here, but back in my high school days, social media wasn’t even a thing yet, the internet was barely even a thing. So when someone said they wanted to be an artist, there really was the question of whether they were cut out for that world or not. You had to market yourself in a whole different way…mainly to galleries. And who are we kidding, if that was the case nowadays, I would likely still be a preschool teacher or working in the basement gym that I taught yoga at ( I did love both those jobs though!). I however prefer to be a goblin hiding out in my pyjamas and painting rather than having to deal with those things, hence an agent or manager would probably have been needed (who Id probably be required to talk to on the phone? No thanks!).

Going to university to study art ($$$) and then getting an agent($$$) and being featured in galleries($$$) was thought to be required in order to be a real artist. That still doesn’t make it easy, or even guarantee that you will be a success. I personally also realized in high school that I absolutely HATED being told what I can and cannot create, so much so that I just barely passed art class all three years of high school. So in that sense, I could see the the concern of loved ones back then when you said you wanted to be an artist. I could have potentially wasted a lot of money and time to realize that art school was not my jam.

Nowadays, you have unlimited information in the palm of your hand. Through this a lot of people started realizing that art school wasn’t the only route you can take to be a successful artist. Now you can make connections and learn new things from almost anywhere in the world at any time of day. This was really what was a game changer for my little introverted heart. I loved being able to learn from so many different creatives and making connections with other like minded people. This support was what really got me to take the steps toward a serious art career. This was definitely the good side of social media.

However, through social media you are also opening up to immense pressure, the pressure of other peoples thoughts and opinions, and the pressure you put on yourself to perform. So many people strive to go viral, constantly searching for the perfect formula and content to get themselves there. I totally understand this, that can be life changing, but also hella overwhelming. One thing I found when finally taking the leap to share my artwork more and “marketing” myself, is it also opens up yourself to A LOT of other people sharing what they think you should or should not do, which could be quite stressful and make you second guess everything you do. Theres the random people who “don’t get” your art, or think you should paint this instead, or think your work isn’t what they consider REAL art. But really, are these the people who are actually buying your art? Odds are, they are not. If someone who wasn’t planning on commissioning something told me “you should paint this instead”, and I said cool would you then buy it for 300 plus dollars? I feel like the answer would likely be no. So why not just create what YOU enjoy and just find your people along the way?

Well there’s also a problem with that.

Once you decide to not listen to the haters and just create, you then end up with the opinions of people trying to sell you the perfect formula to succeed (reels, reels, reels, niche, niche, niche, etc, etc, etc) This added on a whole other layer of stress I wasn’t even aware existed! Don’t get me wrong, these can be helpful, but at what price? Throwing away all the things that you are passionate about and burning yourself out creatively by just focusing on one thing? I fell for the niche trap when starting my Animal Spirit collection. I felt put in a box, and like I didn’t have time to create other things that made me happy and could likely make other people happy too. As a result I found myself wanting to not paint as much and feeling like I need to present myself in a specific way. Not authentic at all. But after much self reflection and conversations with other creatives who felt similar, a wonderful thing happened…..

I realized I just don’t care anymore…

Thanks so much for reading my part 1 ramblings, in part 2 I will be talking more about the pressure to niche down and how I think that is actually killing peoples creativity. Stay tuned!

xo Brandy

2 years of Animal Spirit: What I've learned since releasing my first painting collection

2 years of Animal Spirit!

(and also nearly two years since creating, and then almost immediately forgetting about this blog)

Crazy to think that just over two years ago I released such a huge piece of my heart into the world! I learned so much about myself during the creation of this collection but also even more about myself in the year since its release.

If you would have asked me 3 years ago if I ever thought I would be selling my art in multiple countries across the world and running my own business, it would have been a definite NO! Now in the past year, Ive sold paintings, stickers, prints, notebooks and calendars across Canada, the U.S and even as far as the UK and Germany! Before, the thought of doing these type things absolutely terrified me!

Until then I never realized how important a strong support group is. Its one thing for your mom to love everything you create (thanks mom!) and for your family members to buy art from you, but it opens up a whole new world when you connect with like minded people with the same ideas and passion as you. For me this started back in 2017 with online painting classes by Linzy Arnott, my incredibly talented mentor and friend. From this I began to explore my artistic style, connected with artists from all over the world and gained a bunch of new friendships and support. It continued when I was apart of a more in depth artist mentorship where we delved more into the passionate, spiritual and business side of art. This is where my confidence started to grow and I began to take my art and business more seriously (sometimes maybe too serious, more on that later)and realize that this could be something I do for a living, a life long dream of mine.

This was the start of my Animal Spirit series. There was a lot of highs and lows that went along with creating this series. The pressure to be perfect, the fear of allowing yourself to be vulnerable, feeling like you had to be an expert in business, marketing, photographing your art, print making etc, or feeling like you’ve put yourself and your art into box. Then on the other side of the coin, the incredible rush and happy dances that go along with someone buying your products.

With the added stress of personal health battles and raising 4 kids during a world wide pandemic while having a husband in the medical field, I had to learn to be easy on myself and learn where to ease up on my constant quest for perfection to make life just a little bit easier. Don’t get me wrong, tons of time, research, wins and losses still went into the process, but isn’t there always when starting a new business? Because I did need to realize that it was in fact a business that I was responsible for whether I liked it or not. If I wanted to be successful I would have to step up and learn how to run a website and market not only my art, but myself as well.

The creation of my Animal Spirit notebooks was a success I definitely didn’t expect. My first small batch of notebooks I ordered sold out in under 5 minutes! Then came the big scary bulk order, which also did well. This was a great jumping off point for me, realizing that creating multiple items with my art on them opens up your potential pool of clients much more. Is this route for everyone? Of course not, but I LOVE it. Finding appropriate producers for products was definitely timely (and costly) I ultimately had to break up with my notebook vendor when shipping and custom fees became increasingly high. And then there was the travel mug fiasco of 2021, when i was sent a great looking sample, but when I ordered a bunch more, over half of them looked like crap. The replacements weren’t much better either. So although these products were super popular, I am still in the process of finding a supplier that I am happy with for notebooks and mugs.

Once the rush of the initial release started to die down, I felt a little lost. Kind of a now what moment. At this time I had joined an online artist mastermind group started by the wonderful Alice Ladkin. It was made up of me and 5 other creators from Canada, the US and the UK. It was so interesting to hear experiences and realize that my struggles were not just my own, but that even other artists that I thought were so professional and established sometimes don’t know what the hell they’re doing either! So refreshing to come to that realization!

Over the past year my art work has began to evolve as I explored other mediums and styles. While I still love this series with all my heart, Ive loved growing and learning and look forward to incorporating all of it into one big crazy style that is my own, so thank you to those who have been on this journey with me and continue to support whatever craziness I get myself into.

These blog posts have been very few and far between (this post actually started out as the one year anniversary post until…. I forgot about it lol) but now with a few more available hours I can dedicate to my art and business I look forward to sharing more of my journey with you. Again, thank you for being here.

xo Brandy

Discovering my love of Sacred Geometry

Sacred geometry is a rather deep subject. Basically walking a tight rope with spirituality on one side, religion on the other, suspended over a giant pool of science…..ya.

“Sacred Geometry is essentially the study of the spiritual meaning of various shapes. It can be applied to the forms, numbers and patterns seen throughout the natural world” -Mindbodyspirit.com

Without going completely down the rabbit hole here, sacred geometry is thought of as the pattern of the universe and creation. It is found everywhere in the natural world in things like spiderwebs and snowflakes; in religion such as the architecture of buildings as well as sacred artifacts; and also has a great influence in the art world (think Leonardo Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man drawing) among many other examples.

It is often used as a form of mediation, gazing upon it or in my case creating it. The symbols are thought to be of very high frequencies connecting you to your higher consciousness and the universe.

Ive always been drawn to symbology, hidden meanings and how simple or complex it all can be ( I think Ive mentioned before, The Da Vinci Code was SO my jam), so during an art course when we meditated on a symbol to bring to life, I fell in love. During our mediation I saw a golden Sri Yantra combined with a Seed of life. The seed of life may be one of the most recognizable pieces of sacred geometry around consisting of 7 identical overlapping circles. The spiritual meaning and symbology of the number 7 is a whole other topic I won’t go into today, but essentially the number 7 is a number of wisdom, spirituality and intuition. The 7 circles making up the seed of life, symbolize the connection of earth and the universe, earthly connection to the divine, “as above, so below”

Seed of Life

Flower of Life

When I envisioned my owl painting, behind it I had seen the also well known Flower of Life, which is a more complex version of the Seed of Life, and is believed to be the template from which all life is created.

The Sri Yantra is a symbol of enlightenment, made up of several interlocking triangles, 4 of which are facing up, representing masculine energy, and 5 triangles facing down, representing feminine energy.

These symbols combined together represent the path to enlightenment, manifestation and the oneness of all.

Up until this point I always felt unsure about the direction my art was going, I enjoyed painting realistic landscapes and animals, but also really loved abstract art and including metaphysical elements that made up so much of my life. Finding the joy in mediating and having these symbols reveal themselves to me, along with later on the vision of my owl painting, made me realize I could combine my two loves into one powerful painting using the symbology and semi realistic paintings of Animal Guides along with the deeper spiritual meanings of sacred geometry.

At the point of finishing my Owl Spirit painting I took a break from painting, I had some minor dental surgery and was also just beginning a 6 month Art Mentorship program. I wasn’t sure on what animal I should paint next but decided to let my intuition guide me in creating an abstract background, and once again it just flowed out of me.

I really love how the paintings take on a life of their own and often don’t turn out anything like I envisioned at the beginning! I had purchased a giant pack of multiple different colours of metal leaf, and had originally planned on using rose gold tones for my next painting, but the vivid purples are what ended up coming through and my Raven spirit painting was born!

I hope you enjoyed this brief crash course in Sacred Geometry, it really is a fascinating subject to explore further if you feel called to!

xo Brandy

Creating the Animal Spirit Series

This series was a long time coming, but was really an accidental series rather than an intentional one!

Does it sound cliche to say it started as a dream?

I first had the dream of an owl with a beautiful golden flower of life behind it in January of 2021. Ill be the first to admit, when the universe/spirit/muse shows me something, it pretty much has to scream at me in order for me to take note ( have I mentioned Im a sleep deprived mother of 4?) This owl became a constant in my dreams and thoughts. As a reiki master I have done A LOT of work with animal guides over the past 13 or so years, so I understood that this owl had a message for me, but I still didn’t realize I was getting a kick in the pants to paint him!

Animal Guides

I first started becoming familiar with animal guides about 13 years ago during my Reiki training. (Reiki is a form of intuitive energy work) While I was doing a session for my Master certification I very strongly had a peacock show up, this was incredibly strange to me and I had no idea what it meant, but when we later looked up the symbology of a peacock, it was bang on for the situation the client was going through (something I didn’t know anything about) and from there on, they just kind of stuck around. While they most strongly show up in Reiki sessions, I also often see or pick up on their energies during meditation. They quickly became a way for me to confirm the things that I pick up on intuitively for myself and others, kind of like how tarot cards work for some people.

Our connection to the earth and its creatures is always there whether we realize it or not. Even if you live in the tallest tower there is probably some sort of animal or critter around you, and he’s probably carrying a message for you! Many people have an animal that they consciously connect with strongly and have a lot in common with personality wise. This is likely your Power Animal, an animal that guides and supports you throughout your human journey. There are also other animals that will just pop in from time to time for some extra support or guidance in your current situations. You can also call on these animals specifically yourself if you ever need a little back up! These animals may show up in dreams, mediation, on TV, books, other peoples clothing, advertisements, or physically right in front of you with their message! (And if you don’t pay attention the first time they could be pretty persistent until you notice them, like my owl was)

Owl Spirit

Owl Symbology

As I mentioned above, this owl was persistent! So much so that I was sure I must have seen this image somewhere else so I started searching for it….and came up with nothing. It was then that I started digging a little deeper into what was going on here.

Owls have been a pretty constant guide in my life, which is a little funny because Im actually scared of birds, even though 3 of my guides are more often than not a type of bird. (Im sure there is a deeper meaning here but Ill save that for another day)

Owls are often watching and listening, even though you likely won’t be aware of them. They are deeply wise and intuitive animals and in a guide sense, can help you see through the bullshit.

Barn Owls specifically help you effortlessly open up to love and abundance. Just before I started visualizing this painting (that I didn’t know was a painting) I had been accepted into an intensive Art Mentorship Program with the wonderful Linzy Arnott. I was so incredibly nervous for this, not only was I suffering from some major imposter syndrome, but the thought of being open and vulnerable about my life, art and business with a group of strangers (now family) made me feel sick to my stomach. I believe the Barn Owl was there to support me on the start of this journey and I then felt the need to paint him.

The Beginning

This was where I once again started to feel intimidated. While I now had the strong urge to paint this owl, the past few years Ive painted an animal here and there (funny enough I didn’t realize until much later I had actually painted 2 of my kids own Animal Spirits for them) but my main focus had been mostly on abstracts and landscapes.

I don’t think Ive ever had such a clear vision about every detail of a painting from start to finish as I did with this one.

From the abstract smoky background to the gold leaf flower of life, I could see it all so clearly and dove in. I must say, this painting poured out of me effortlessly. I have some major procrastination issues that I like to blame on my kids, so paintings can usually take anywhere from weeks to months for me, but this guy came together in record time. In fact he was finished right as my mentorship program was beginning. This was the painting that bared my heart and soul to a bunch of strangers on the internet, and the love and support I received for it was overwhelming. My mentor Linzy picked up right away that this was meant to be a series of some sort, maybe an oracle deck eventually (never say never) but I was still thinking this was a one time thing, that theres no way that I could align with pulling that off again.

While I had kind of been feeling somewhat aimless in my art, this owl and my art fam, through a lot of mediation and deep, vulnerable conversations, helped me open up to accepting the possibility of allowing more into my life. More joy, acceptance, support, love, and the knowing that this is something I CAN do.

Thank you for joining me so far on this journey, I am looking forward to sharing more about the creation of this series and will be going more into the sacred geometry, animal meanings from this collection, and my own personal growth in future posts. If you would like to learn more about Animal Spirit Guides, one of my favourite books/resources can be found here.

xo Brandy