Self concepts of art... A look into Rachel

If any of you like Van Gogh then you know about the struggles he had with his art and his life. Above  is a chair painting I did at age 22. Paying omage to his art... 

It was one of many this is now hanging in my parents house. I built the frame and canvas myself.... Stretched it cut the wood the whole nine yards! Then hand drew the under sketch before I painted it! Lovely right! I got an a++ on college for it!  

You know what my class mates said.. Your art is shit.. You should quit now... 

 Funny??? Right??? I get or used to get that a lot on line too... Now I just tell people to fuck off or if they are so great then post your work... Response I get ... My art is better... Ect. Critics will always be around... 

 Here are examples of other sketches or painting I have done.

I did these years later the one above with the crazy cloud patterns is hanging in my friends House. He loved it. These are a few crazy abstract things I did. I was happy here. 

So what happened here? If you are an artist then you know the answer nothing? 

Well I was breaking out of an old shell. 

Are they awesome are they cool... Are they shit? No they just are. In order to grow you must fail. What happens is change! I had to let go... So I did. I did not give a crap what others thought. If I had then well... Why live. People on YouTube laughed .... Others tweeted this failure. But I knew my dream has been and always was to share my art. Those sketches above are ideas for my comic.

You know who stood by my ideals other comic artists. Such as ninja-x and my dear friend Meggan... And many others.

I broke free of the above shell and evolved..... 

It took time... And a lot of self love.... 

I even did spiderman after my wonder woman failure.... 

Water color painting before and after adding paint... All done by my hand. 

The ability to change and grow is an artists greatest gift and strength. 

Here we are today

 

The very last drawing I did a few days ago.. It has a touch of what is called manga style mixed with slight abstraction and comic book style. You combine those three and you have my style I use for my comics. So I leave you with this.... 

Be who you are. No two artists are the same. People will always hate your art.... Some will love it. The only thing you can do is love yourself and fuck the rest.