Intuitive Art, 2023

Hello everyone, 

It’s been a while. I published two entries early last year and, well, dipped. Not because I wanted to stop creating and sharing; I didn’t think anything I made was worth sharing–big enough for sharing. I think I had an idea of what I was “supposed” to create--or what it was “supposed” to look like, and since I didn’t push myself to manifest it, my confidence fell flat. 

However, I also didn’t have enough energy to make much of anything (more on this in the next blog post).

As I finished my general education classes online through the local community college (the beginning half of 2023), I needed to muster up something fun/joyful to take my mind off the work and the impending gap year. Ultimately, I needed to get myself out of my depression/burnout in any shape or form.

(1/2) I’d fill the downtime between Zooms and classwork with something that didn’t take much brain power: intuitive abstract art. I’d start with a random color and pick up the next highlighter without looking; I’d commence at the beginning of the rainbow, or I’d just scribble.

These highlighters have been in my possession since the beginning of highschool, so it’s been about six years. They finally began to run out as I completed this sketchbook with the squiggles. (A grander message can totally be derived from my stationary.)

And you know what? These are worth sharing because making these helped me out of a negative cadence. Maybe they’ll help or inspire you too. Furthermore, art is as big as you make it–figuratively and literally. And I’m going to make it big :).

(2/2) I found joy in creating again in the summer. At first I didn’t want to scour the internet for references, nor could I settle on choosing from my collection of pinterest boards. Hence, the exercise of drawing people from my imagination, aka the Intuitive Portraits.

These sketches were so fun to make (yay! for fun). I didn’t have expectations of what was to appear, so looking at this collection, I find it interesting to see primarily Asian/Austronesian figures when I don’t consume much media from those regions. However, I am Filipina/white and can thus understand that correlation.

(3/2) Oh! And I completely forgot about my actual biggest project yet! I repainted a mural at my alma mater [final result not pictured].

I first painted the phrase in simple lettering my sophomore/junior year? It was my first mural and the first time realizing heights for an extended period was a friend I had yet to make.

Years passed wishing I had gone for more style (even though the amount of time in the air was already pushing it) and hyping myself up to come up with a new version. Thankfully, I got the opportunity to revamp the mural.

I am utterly proud of the process, the work, and how it has impacted me as a person, not just an artist.

2023 was, in fact, a year of putting pen to paper and of recognizing that doing something is better than doing nothing. I’d like to say I’ve built a stronger connection to my intuition and trust that things work out how they’re meant to; time will tell. I’m forever grateful that my year consisted of art.

I’ll see you very soon <3