Have Coffee With Your Demons

Have Coffee With Your Demons

"Have Coffee With Your Demons" - pen and ink on Yupo,  9 x 9 inches.  This item is sold unmounted and unframed.  (click on the image to purchase)


You should dance with the skeletons in your closet.
Learn their names,
so you can ask them to leave.
Have coffee with your demons.
Ask them important questions like, "What keeps you here?"
Learn what doors they keep finding open, and kick them out.
- Pierre Alex Jeanty

This piece was inspired by a friend and Facebook follower, who posted the quote and also threw down the challenge gauntlet when I oooooh'd and aaaaaahhhhh'd over the words she shared (thank you, Erica!)

It's been a post-it note on my wall for more than a month  - HAVE COFFEE WITH YOUR DEMONS.  Oh oh OH!  I have so many (so so so many) ideas and inspiration images around this concept.  

"What keeps you here?" I ask the demon.  Slowly, relentlessly, I am closing those open doors.

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About the art:  Yupo loves pen and ink.  I use a Rotring Tikky Graphic pen with pigmented ink, which glides easily and has a consistent output (no unexpected blops or skips).  In general, I design a pen and ink piece around a small square or rectangle, resisting the urge to expand the scene or add too many details.  I want the feeling of intimacy - a spotlight on the figure(s) and the moment.  I don't pre sketch on the Yupo, which is a throwback to the wabi-sabi of my early days of doodling.  I do measure out the critical parts - size of a face, proximity to edges, etc., but then it's a free for all.  Often, this means a few failed attempts (no erasing here, no painting over!  a trust-fall with ink!) but it does force me to be present and to contemplate every stroke of the pen.  Pen and ink meditation, anyone?

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The July Reader Giveaway continues!  Leave a comment (or several) this month - each comment counts as an entry!  On July 29th, one (or more) lucky readers will be selected at random by my trusty studio hound to win a piece of original art absolutely free.  Thanks so much for participating - your comments, feedback and energy make this little creative space extra special! xo

And here's a little something that just sets my creative sparkle on fire - I need a warehouse studio!