When color started coming back into my life.
A ‘year in the life’ snapshot of my mental state through portrait art.
Top left, Chris Cornell passes away May 2017( I was already deep in a ‘fog of darkness’ that stretched back years, for many reasons I'll discuss in another post). Two months later, my brother Andrew passed away, pushing me even further into darkness, depression, and ‘dark art’. ( btw, I still love 'dark art' and will definitely explore it further in future work ).... Then, ‘Fuck it, I’ll paint Christopher Walken’ so I did:) Making art has always made me happy and kept me sane, even if just a little in those dark times.
Everything I created was gray, solemn, serious, hollow, non-confident. Sad characters yearning for their souls. That’s how i felt in life. One year later, in May 2018, I created my ‘infamous’ Aubrey Marcus portrait. Why did I create it? Because I had a habit to paint the people I become obsessed with. I had a massive man-crush on him. still do:) I became obsessed with him and his way of life, and it greatly impacted mine in a relatively short time.
Painting his portrait marks an obvious turning point for me as, not only in terms of health and well being, but most obviously, my art changed. Massively. color started to explode in my work, and hasn't stopped since. and I feel I'm just scratching the surface.
I’m writing this to encourage and express to others living in that 'dark endless fog' that you can turn your life around. And it can happen VERY FAST. Yes, you will face whole new problems, but you’ll have the tools to deal with them.
There are so many great teachers out there, giving away content for FREE. All you have to do is search. Youtube is a great starting point. Aubrey is one of so many incredible teachers changing the current landscape of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. And to him, I owe an enormous amount of gratitude and honor. I am proud to call him a dear friend and ally today.
you can learn more about Aubrey marcus here