Media Showdown. Who Will Win?

It is time to put to rest the biggest tug-o-war of my painting career. Acrylic or Oil paint? Which will win the crowd’s favour?

Short Answer, Oil!

Peace Lily.

Left to Right: Acrylic, Oil.

As a part of my new year commitment, I am experimenting to determine which medium will be best for smaller commissioned paintings.

I will be scoring based on time, effort, frustration of process, and popular opinion. The amount of time, the image and size will be the same in these paintings so it may offer a good grounds for comparison.

I still have a more pleasing experience with the oil paint. It could be due to my familiarity and comfort level with the medium. After some messing around, I was able to make the acrylic paint to behave more like oil and easier in my process.

Through social media, I will be posting bet placing polls and see what the general consensus is.

After 1 day worth of painting time.

One Year.

It’s been a whole year since the end. It has also been a whole year since a new beginning.

It was January since my journey really took off down the road it has now become. I have now become a mentor, a teacher, a passionate creative, and it is only getting started.

Like many others, I took to heart the promise of the One Year commitment and I encourage others to do the same. I set a goal of where I wanted to become with a subset of smaller goals that I would complete month to month, those of which I left open ended and subject to change and evolution. You can see my last year’s outline here.

It is true when they say that Resistance is the best compass. For the large part of early 2021 I had so much resistance in my personal life, I knew something had to give. Something had to change. Through my handmade canvases, I came in contact with a local artist who worked as an instructor. I was offered a position to teach Visual Art lessons at a newer local studio. I have been very against a teaching career my entire life, but in the spirit of <Redacted>, I knew I could just give it a chance without obligation to stay. It was a great crossroads. I have now built my own life thanks to this leap.

In June, I made the very scary decision to forgo my full time management job. It was making me miserable and draining any energy I had. I began living on my own, which is even more terrifying. It was something I had to do, and I knew it was the right thing to do. I have since been able to create the life I’ve wanted to live and a life that brings me fulfilment. I discovered who I am and what I truly value in a life built by my own hand and spirit.

There have been many obstacles and low points. In the transition I have been faced with self-doubt, concern, uncertainty and depression. Everytime I have been brought down, I have picked myself up without fail, and become more resilient than before. I am confident in my worth as person and as an artist, and I am comfortable in my own life. Adversity breeds creativity and inventiveness.

I choose to use resistance as a guide instead of something to be avoided. With the time that I am not slaving in a retail environment, I have become a freelance artist creating tarot deck, logos, graphics, and more importantly, establishing myself within the art community and creating more work. I am honing my skills and learning new things. Earcuff jewellery, decor jars and general crafting have become an enjoyable pass-time with my group of friends.

As I began reflecting and writing this, my Keeper of the Glass painting had fell. It had been hanging in that spot for the entire year, to this day. It picked this day.

I will continue the coming year setting small goals through each month with a long-term objective that I will use as my guide. I have a large passion project involving the NFT space that will utilise my new found love of ciphers and hidden messages and community. My studio teaching job has also presented to me new and exciting avenues. I enjoy creating scripts for commercials, but performing in them is still something I am working on. There are many skills I want to practice, and I have been enjoying them as I do.

First, let me attend to the 15 unfinished paintings in my closet….

Integrate

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Integrate comes from a line of work portraying the experiences in the modern world. Technology has become so interconnected with everyday activities, it is now difficult to be separate from it and this has caused adverse mental health issues, especially in younger generations. I brought together the order of technology and the chaos of mental health into this surreal portrait.

The circuits and disconnected sections represent our ever evolving integration with technology; whereas the shattered top half of the painting is the resulting disorder of our psychology and mental health. As more people become aware of the importance of mental health, it has become a grand part of the discussion about our lifestyles, environment, and well-being.

December - January

It’s hard to predict what will transpire in the future. Even a month. I have learned that setting a plan in motion and letting go of the small details is the most beneficial method. Ideas will appear, develop, and spark a new project.

One of the November projects took longer than planned, so the previous month goal will be extended until end of year. The last half of December is a wild ride to be sure. Instead of jumping right into a new set of goals and projects, I will tie off the loose ends of the previous set and attempt to enjoy some of the holidays. The Great Conjunction has put a spin on how I view the coming year and brought new light to this Unus Annus Promise I have established.

Whether or not astrology can serve as a guide for you, there has undoubtedly been a shift. The lockdowns early in the year have created an important time of discovery through introspection. For many, it has allowed for revelations of what life means on a personal level, and what people want to do with the limited time they have. The collective experience across the world will bring about a very interesting 2021 and 2022. I am very excited to see how the collective consciousness shapes the coming years.

To kick off the New Year, I will be setting some less art-focused personal goals.

I have come to realise the direction this year will be taking, and I will be utilising this. The normal art social media posts will continue as scheduled, but they will be works of smaller scale than previous. They will largely consist of sketches, video clips, gouache, ink, and watercolor. These media will allow for consist low effort cost while larger time consuming projects develop.

There are two large collaboration projects starting and these will take many months before any glimpses can be seen. It is a hefty undertaking, so the low effort cost ‘doodles’ will serve as a mix up for my routine. Not to mention, it will allow for many new ideas for future projects to surface (because I definitely need more of those).

Lastly, the project I am interested to see flourish, is creating on mass the professionally stretched and primed canvases. My goal here is to refine my production of quality painting surfaces that artists will appreciate the value in through feedback provided from local artists. To make a great painting(or anything in general), you must start with a great foundation.

This year, I will allow the often dreaded Resistance be my guide. The anxiety of launching a new project has stopped me, more times than not, from pursuing ideas and ventures. This year, I will make it a point to reverse that, and translate the anxiety into excitement.

As the year draws to a long awaited close, I encourage everyone to look back and observe the changes in your life; to recognise the lessons learned and new discoveries. Extract the beneficial aspects of a tumultuous year and use it as a catalyst for 2021. I’m excited to see how everyone will shape it.

November - December

After a few days of grilling myself over the first goal, I have decided to keep it simple.

There are a couple of Christmas presents I am painting, and completing these is my priority. As a secondary item, health will also be focused.

The week after the completion of Keeper of The Glass has been one of recovery. Exhaustion is a byproduct of working with an intense and long-term project, and it is best to give myself a resting period before jumping into the next endeavour. I have shifted gears and instead of painting, I have been planning. Creating ideas. Reflecting on previous notes and picking out what intrigues me.

It is an important eb and flow process that keeps burnout at bay. Burnout is a detrimental outcome when balance is absent especially as a creative. Every artwork I create, a piece of me is let go into the world and the repercussions correspond to how much time and effort is expended into it. Inspiration and drive can be fleeting, but when they hit, they hit hard. As much as I want to continue forward at full-throttle, I cannot ignore the inevitable consequences of it.

Now, if I were to, in some alternate universe, get this month’s project completed with time to spare, I will work on some digital illustrations. Digital has never been a strong suit of mine, so I will use some of my extra moments to develop it. It also makes for a great sketchbook. Don’t like it? Undo. Messed up an angle? Transform it. Painted on the wrong layer for the past hour? Well, shit out of luck.

Keep on creating.

The Unus Annus Promise

The Unus Annus Promise

The task of planning out a full year is a very daunting task. You cannot predict what circumstances will change in the coming days. However, a sense of aimlessness will lurk if there is no goal or guideline set before you.

There are so many ideas that I have collected over the years that I wish to accomplish; it is very difficult to narrow down a goal. Tasks become overwhelming when you start to physically write the to-do list. The list grows one by one as I flip through sketchbooks, even the most recent ones. This overwhelming feeling is often discouraging, but this year I will turn the discouragement into excitement. I want to push beyond what I have done in a year's time, and commit to it, as much as I reasonably can.

Following is my own set of goals and tentative gameplan for the coming year. My Unus Annus Promise.

A limit I will be imposing is not buying any new art supplies. Nothing that's trendy. Nothing that I might like to have. I have been doing well to curb my habit of picking up a new art supply simply because I would like to try it. Not this year. I will only buy anything that is absolutely essential similar to stretcher bars for my canvas, or to replace essential paint colors.

For this year, my encompassing themes are expanding my network, adding to my catalogue of completed works, and improving my habits.

The format I will be going about this will consist of short and long-term goals. I have the goals that will carry out through the year, others that are for a month or two, and habits that I want to improve daily. This framework will allow me to have better focus on completing projects and ideas that have been left on the back burner by excuses like "oh, I'll pick that up another time," "I'll wait until life is more favourable"

Expanding my network will consist of:

-Attending local events

-Participating in interesting trends/events in the broader community

-Reaching out to create collaborations and/or business connections

-Creating a large scale project or final product (ie. book)

-Adding consistent content to my website (ie. Journals, research, gallery)

-Consist social media presence

In order to add to my collection of completed work, I need to designate a start and deadline for paintings and projects. Each month I will create a gameplan with a start and finish date. This is where the list has become extensive so I will pick a few to highlight:

-Bird and Skull series

-Hand-made professional oil & gesso primed stretched canvas

-Geometry series 'BluePrints'

-Accompanying video at the end of each project

Habit improvement happens on an intentional daily basis and will feed into everything else I have mentioned. Creating time to allow my mind and body to be at its best requires conscious choices to do or not do something.

-Practice mindfulness

-Create a beneficial home environment and simplify (messy space = messy mind)

-Targeted physical exercise (ie yoga, muscle building. I run around enough at work)

-Recording thoughts and dreams daily.

-Create time to create

-Don't stress about things that don't affect your real career

-Have fun

I have realized over the last year that I work best with organized spaces so that supplies are easy to find or reference and things don't get lost or forgotten. I had previously worked relatively well with a messy space, especially during my university years, but I have now found that projects and supplies often get forgotten now that the majority of my time is spent in a completely separate environment. Goal-oriented and deadline motivated both describe my personal process, but I need to remember to enjoy the process as well. This requires introspection about how I work and what methods are most natural to myself.

I find it most beneficial to have an idea or concept of where I want to be in life and create steps to follow toward it, but also acknowledge that things will happen and circumstances will change. I will need to remember to go with the flow and use my essential values to guide me through it. I may end up somewhere completely different than I had anticipated, but if I enjoy where I am and what I'm doing, then I am doing it right.

I did debate which style of long term planning was most fitting - a rigorous outline or open-ended. I settled on a mix of both. I am naturally a spontaneous person, but I often feel lost if there is no functional compass. The year-long and daily goals are set, but the month to month projects I will leave open and have a pool of ideas to pull from to keep things dynamic and interesting.

Working retail in the Christmas season, I find it especially important to keep focus on the things that truly matter. Life is normally stressful during this time of year, and we all have been presented with new stress and limitations this year. Adaptation and fluidity will be essential traits in these unpredictable times.

And patience.

Loads of patience.

Portrait Studies

Inktober 2019

It has been an interesting challenge sitting down everyday to create. Despite my full-time day job demanding the majority of my time, I am able to set aside the time to accomplish small things. These small things will inevitably create a large collection. Sometimes that is the hardest to see before you have set out on a goal.

Inktober 2019 Day 6 Enchanted

Inktober 2019 Day 2 Mindless

Inktober 2019 Day 1 Ring

Pop Up Gallery

Well, if I didn’t force myself to do this, I wouldn’t have met the great people I did. Sometimes pushing yourself out of your comfort zone is worth the risk.

A couple months of trying to figure out what exactly I wanted to present at this gallery, followed by two weeks of procrastinated workload - this has been a constant lesson. Stop leaving things to last minute. Hadn’t I decided this was going to be my passion? Hadn’t I worked all these years to make this dream happen? Then what is this resistance I feel every moment I sit to paint something? That’s life.

There’s no rational reason to not take on events or risks that reward you with new connections, friendships, and opportunity to further your path in life. You can plan and dream as grand as you like, but you will never truly know what pivotal events may happen if you just take that one step.

Paint Pouring

My newest creativity addition. There is no end to possibilities and combinations. Even with all the control imposed, not one turns out similar.

Beyond the Sea

Flying over British Columbia

To make a long story short, Poland has been an amazing experience. I am fortunate to have experienced another culture. Everything in Poland is minimized and compact. Standing showers are a rare sight. Living spaces are economically designed. The communities are very interconnected.

There have been a lot of reflection and experiences in my short two weeks of exploration in Poland. So this will be released in portions. In mid-summer, I was already beginning to see that this year was a year of change. A change in perspective, a greater appreciation, and a direction for my craft.

The Grand Day!

The exhibition was a huge success. There were a lot of familiar faces in attendance and I got to make new friends as well! It was surreal to see all of the graduate artworks in one place. I was happy to have such awesome friends and family supporting me on my big day. I hope it to be the first of many exhibitions.

Preparing for the big day!

It's only days away. The butterflies haven't hit my stomach yet. They will hit the day before. Who I am VS What I am  is an exploration into identity psychology and politics that seems to be dominating the media andsocial interactions in modern discussion. This artwork specifically deals with my personal identity and the mixed background of experience, biology and culture that I come from.

 Who I am VS What I am 

Oil paint on Canvas

Hannah Nott

2018

Posting test

Collecting studies of 1950s fashion style in dresses