So, this upcoming First Friday I will be having new work up at Fraction Print Studios alongside Ash Miyagawa and Avery Fowles. I'm pretty excited, not only because of the beautiful work that I will be hanging (out) with, but also our vision for the show: an installation of art and hanging flowers. It will be beautiful. 

Hope to see you there:

Flora & Fauna : a drawing exhibition
Fraction Print Studio
130 W 18th Street, KCMO 64108
Opening: May 5th
Closing: June 30th

ashmiyagawa.com
averyfowles.tumblr.com

This new work has been really cathartic. I've been trying to spend some extra time in details, but also revisiting my old paintings from 2012, 'Containment'; a body of work that reflected on inner struggles and ignoring our animalistic feelings fearing mental illness because of them. This time around I decided to make things personal (insert action movie reference). 2017 can kind of go kick itself, with all the struggles, trying times, and life challenges that it's getting a laugh out of. So, why not make a body of work to go with it? I've always been fascinated with the idea of irony, like death just being a next step in life like becoming an adult and acquiring debt: something to be celebrated. Our view of death is skewed because our culture (and religion) but maybe this irony applies to other things in our life as well? We plenty of times have a separation between the actuality of a situation and reality. For example, eating meat but then angered when animals are killed; driving cars but then complaining about fossil fuels; stereotyping but then angered when labeled ourselves. Look beyond what you see in front of you. This is irony.

What other necessary ironies can you think of?

"Niko hard at work"

So, going into the new year, I had decided to make 2016 a year of experiments. I didn't have any shows planned which allowed me to get into making things I wouldn't normally. Playing with narratives, indulging in surrealism, and getting back to basics... possibly?

It was definitely difficult at first; pushing yourself to think differently. As human beings we kind of are creatures of habit (another very animal like tendency of ours). We like our routines. But no one ever told you in art school how everyone, and I mean everyone, eventually hits a spot where they find it difficult to make anything. And it's not because of lack of direction or lack of inspiration - no. If I may speak for all artists, I believe, we all are teeming, spilling over our own brains with ideas, needs, fidgeting with movement. So, it never stems from a lack of inspiration... but maybe a fear of failing. And that's what I had hit. What if my ideas were dumb?

I've always found folktales fascinating. how did we develop these stories? Why do we still tell them today if we don't find or see ourselves within these narratives? Are these the similarities as true animals we see in our personalities. Tales over time turn into folktales, so who's to say they aren't true? 

Goes back to our survival instinct to not fail. But isn't it out of our failure that we learn and find something new? Maybe something great? 

Cheers to Happy Mistakes. 

Niko & I working on my first ever large assemblage piece.