Octopath Traveler

I am stoked about this texture discovery on my new medium exploration.

As a postgraduate, I feel the common yet seemingly unspoken anxieties of navigating the world. College is giving as a real world simulation. As a young adult, it's a brightening chance to peel away from parental guidance. We give young, wide-eyed 18 year olds the exhilarating experience to concoct a personalized structure of habits, community and opinions. College is, for the most part, a forgiving cushion to explore dauntlessly. 

Leaving this structure, I wondered, what does this mean for my journey as an artist? I was both terrified and excited. I’ll keep making art, I would tell myself, my friends and my professors. But of what? Using what? How do I know if something is good enough to validate my artistic integrity or if it’s too revealing of my hesitations?

I needed something fresh. A new journey to stimulate my real world endeavors. 

I had some old 11x16 MDF panels that I had gessoed with the intention to paint, but for some reason, never gravitated towards. I had been working on charcoal drawings on paper, which I liked for its static-y sound and the expressive qualities that presents itself naturally in creating depth with just one medium. 

So, turning on an episode of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, I started rubbing the charcoal on the panel, feeling inspired by the bold and unpredictable triumphs of Kimmy. Unlike the smoother qualities of how charcoal morphs onto paper, the dark dust followed the natural crevices of the sandpapered gesso I had painted on months prior. The ingrained lines brought forth an intuitive process, relieving me of the pressures to create a foundation entirely by my own thoughts. 

With Kimmy’s enthusiastic peps as a distant murmur, I zoned into scratching, smudging and brushing. I combined this with some ink wash, eyeballing different amounts of water each time and being pleasantly surprised with the varying ranges of opacity revealed when dried.

Octopus tentacles are...floopy and gloopy. They can bend anywhere, twist and extend into alternate paths all under one brain. I've been into the fluidity and flexibility of octopi. True multi-travelers!

College was a palette to develop my own color, mixing the experiences I had and the challenges I faced to cultivate my hexadecimal color code. 

Now, I feel accompanied, trusting the invisible history of texture woven by my past steps to guide my practice and my journey into the world. <3