I am an artist. Likely, you already know this about me. I am also a photographer. Less likely that you already know this about me, but it’s true.
And in the last year, as I have been trying to gain my footing in a brand new country and pay my bills, I’ve been relying a lot more on photography for paying my bills.
Which also means, that I’ve gotten a lot better at photography. (YAY!)
And as I dig deeper into what art means and how it changes us and connects us together and why I have to keep doing it even when I’m too scared to or I don’t feel like painting/picking up my camera someday and I gotta do it anyway, I’ve come to the realization that I can’t keep considering my photography and my collage and my painting practices separate any longer and it’s time to integrate them.
And here’s my confession: I never really knew that much about Hockney.
(HOW!? A photographer? A painter? A BRIT! WTF, Andi?)
I mean…I didn’t go to art school so that’s probably part of it. I knew about his pool paintings, but that was about it.
But Hockney has been knocking on my door the past few weeks. A friend shared a photography show she did inspired by him. He appeared in his glorious round glasses in an interview about another artist I was learning about on a youtube video. I read about his last piece going at auction for 8 million.
And then he died.
And I have taken a deep dive into Hockney, full of joy and zest for life and showing us all that you really can grow up and be who you always wanted and were meant to be…but the one thing I couldn’t stop thinking about was this:
“I draw flowers every day on my iPhone, and send them to my friends, so they get fresh flowers every morning. And my flowers last. Not only can I draw them as if in a little sketchbook, I can also then send them to 15 or 20 people who then get them that morning when they wake up.”-Hockney
(seemingly unrelated, but related, I promise)
My best friend Amanda and I have been chatting a lot about what is it within us that we feel like we have to do something completely different and new and invent the next thing that nobody has heard of yet. And we’ve been laughing about why are we this way?
We got on this subject because the past two months I’ve been drawing and painting flowers like crazy, but I’ve also been a little shy about it because flower still lifes are nothing new and yes they are beautiful, and they’re everywhere but are they maybe overdone and why do I keep painting them?! Everybody does it. Are paintings of flowers really that special?
And I started giggling as I was telling her this because freaking VAN GOGH is known for his sunflowers…Georgia O’Keeffe, Althea McNish, Claude Monet, Matisse, Klimt..uh SO MANY OF THE MOST ICONIC AND MEANINGFUL PIECES OF ART ARE “JUST FLOWERS” …and here I am thinking I’m too deep to “just paint flowers”? My favorite LIVING artists are painting them too..Arriana Caroli…Betty Franks……Flowers…that show up at every celebration and sadness in our lives? That we give and recieve as gifts, that I gleefully select out of seed catalogs and garden centers and I’m just “too special” of a girl to paint them? WTF is wrong with me?
And now…Hockney was painting them ON HIS IPHONE!? The man lived to see his work go at auction for 8 million dollars… he was just painting flowers in bed next to his love as the sun comes up at 4 am in England and sending them to his friends.
Consider a slice of humble pie has been served up on my grandmothers china just for me.
And now I’m painting flowers and sending them to my friends every day.
Well, not painting on an iphone…that’s not really my thing.
But I am sending my flower paintings out into the world every day, because they keep coming to me and they’re meant to go out and I’m not going to stop painting them, so why shouldn’t people get to see them?
So, if you want flower paintings from me, that can be arranged. (No pun intended.) I’ll share them here on Substack every day. And if you ever want to know more about a certain flower painting…what kind of flowers are they, where was I when I painted it. Are they real? From my imagination…I’ll let you know. Ask away, I can’t wait to share all the details.
And you really do deserve flowers.
Love,
Andi
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