Thanks to everyone who came out to our Studio Bash on Saturday! We had about 300 people in the space throughout the event, and are feeling so incredibly blessed by your friendship and support!

Cheers and Love, 

Nicole, Sharapat and Mona (who somehow missed the picture!)

New Nest!

Friends, as most of you know, my two studio-mates and I moved into our new studio/gallery space in September!

It's pretty dreamy. 

Now I'm just about finished with the project that I've been working on for the past few months, and ready to try something fun before I start again in earnest on holiday commissions and other booked proposals. In case you haven't already seen it on FB, here's the deal:

Destination Re-creation!

I have two things on my mind theses days:

#1. I am dying to show you our new studio/gallery space!

#2. I just spent a year working on a bunch of super detailed portrait commissions, and now I'm itching to do some loose landscape painting…maybe even a painting a day!
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So here's the deal:

You guys send me a photo of your favorite place (vacation, family spot, wherever) and I'll spend the next month or so turning one into a painting every day! I'll post a photo of each painting as it's finished, and will hang all of the little canvases (8”x10” ish) up at our Studio-Warming Bash in December for you to take home for a steal if something strikes your fancy! I get some sweet reference photos out of the deal, and you get your own little piece of art!

The only rule is that you have to have been the one to take the photo (copyright issues). Oh, and first come, first served! It's all fair game—buy your own painting, snag someone else’s, or just come toast the new studio with a glass of bubbly!

(Of course, if you love your image and definitely want to be the one to take it home, just shoot me a message and I'll mark it as sold before the show.) Live out of town, but still want your own little painting? Same deal--send me your photo, I'll paint it, hang it in the show and ship it to you afterwards!

I’ll start painting October 1, and will post show details as we get closer to the date. Ready, set, go!

Bitter Sweet

This has been the view out my studio window for over a decade. (Fine, minus the rainbow most days ;) The point is, I have celebrated a million little triumphs, flung hundreds of paint brushes in fits of frustration and just plain punched a ton of hours in this little DC studio. I've become fast friends with some of my clients who have visited the space, the yogis who practice downstairs, the small shop owners, dog walkers and families strolling the sidewalks of this community.

And so it is not without sadness that I tell you, friends, that I will soon be moving to a new location as Circle Yoga expands its business to the top floor. Truth be told, while I have always wished my landlord/yogi friend luck, the news that I would need to move on initially struck me as nothing short of a disaster. As my ever wise Momma reminded me though, the word crisis in Chinese is formed with the characters for danger and opportunity. And so, I have chosen to see this as an opportunity for growth myself. 

Say your prayers and cross everything--I actually believe that I have found the most amazing new spot! In the meantime, I will leave you with a couple of pictures from my dream studio space which belonged to my future sister-in-law's grandparents (follow that?) in Cape Cod. Where ever I set up shop, I am definitely building a replica of their mind-blowingly amazing easel-table!

Wish me luck, friends!

Walking Toward Certainty with Terror in Your Throat

 

 Have you heard of performance artist, Philippe Petit? I caught a radio interview that he gave as I worked in my studio this morning. He is famous for so many amazing feats, including his 1975 tightrope walk between New York's twin towers.

 I don't think that many of us can really understand the terror that would accompany pulling off a stunt like that. What really struck me though was Philippe's description of the way that the faith in his last step allowed him to take his first step onto a wire 110 stories above the ground. 

We all think of the thrill of his stunts. Will he make it across or will he slip and fall to his death? Embracing the terror of the unknown is such a crucial part of his art. Philippe himself emphasizes this importance in creative work. "Surprise yourself," he tells us. "Go against your taste. Do not fall victim to something that works." And I agree: making art requires a certain danger, a particular wandering into the dark of the unknown.

Still, I come back to Philippe's subtler message: The certitude of the first step comes from a faith in the last. Art, he says, is the result of work in a particular direction. It is "an adventure that ends in an exclamation and hopefully not so many questions." 

We must dive into our creative endeavors with all the risk associated with unknown, but we should be fortified by our conviction that the full-heartness of such an adventure will bring us to the beautiful. We have to walk toward certainty with terror in our throats.