MARCH - 2024
I have been drawing little things since the summer. Small things, in a small notebook, almost every day. No fancy pencils or anything, just a few odd crayons and supplies that I have lying around at home.
I like the simplicity and the routine of it. Sitting with this little notebook day by day for 10-20 minutes or so of my time. It’s become a practice. A solid fixture that’s rooted itself in my life. And then, these little drawings - finding their way into my creative process. Asking myself, What if I created these miniature pieces? What then?
Then I’d have whole collections each month. Small ones, tiny ones. A handful of pieces to share with the world again. And so - the idea for Mini Collections was born.
Perhaps they’ll be seasonally themed, or not, but more often might be just a random mix of pieces that catch my heart that month. These pieces though, they tell of the energy of my days and my surroundings; what’s been on my mind and my heart, and how I process things or see things in my world.
My grandmother once said, “Art is whatever comes out of you.” And I love the simplicity and efficiency of that sentence. It’s helped me embrace my own rules and themes, ideas, and processes as an artist - even when they didn’t yet make any sense to me at all.
And so - to debut this first series of the Mini Collections, I give you these pieces that I began creating and curating last summer. A small handful of pieces that began when I asked, What if…these pieces were the next pieces that began this next process and next phase of things to come?
Really though, the first bit of ideas that began in my mind were the nostalgic summers of my childhood; the months of July & August.. A time when we had months off school, and days seemingly stood still - and slowly images, senses, and feelings came reminiscing to my mind.
Like pink bubblegum colours, and the sharp green hues of bladed grass, a magnificent gold sun set against a bright blue cloudless sky, icy Slurpees or slushies in their rainbow-coloured hues with plastic straws, the condensation always melting down my hands as I drank them.
The lazy days spent by the pool, my sunlightened hair, and the deep bronze tan I always held onto.
And that month of August itself, with its endless heat-stricken depth, and thick humid days that clung to your skin. Those expansive never-ending days that ran at the heels of the inevitable season change - like Icarus flying too close to the sun, before they were caught by the big gaping yawn of fall that always followed after them - with its renewed plans, school routines, and work schedules.
I’m always drawn to the energy of things, and these pieces have such a light and playful energy to them. Centered around the aspects and themes of childhood, fun and play, and the unselfconscious desires we had as children. To run free and wild, to play with reckless abandon, to make and create things just for the sake that it brought us pure joy.
The energy of these ideas live in all of my work - but especially so in pieces where I’m called to play with bright colours, or draw in crayon, just like I did when I was a child.
I hope this ongoing series of collections will bring as much joy to you, as they bring to me while I create them - whether to hang in your home to remind you of this fun, playful, and free energy, to heal you in some way when you need a burst of unexpected joy, or even if just to gaze here on my website or on Instagram.
Much love - Tanya
