Themes, Story & Mental Health.
Just when I thought we were over the hardest parts of this past year and a half, things seemed to fall apart, and I realised there’s probably no endpoint, only moments of rest or calm, if you will, as trauma and depression are processed. I said previously that last year was tough personally in terms of mental health crises in my personal life and that I thought we had made it through to the other side. Unfortunately, I was mistaken, and I now need to come to terms with the fact that things will probably keep on happening, yet I can’t put my life on hold indefinitely to deal with these situations; rather, I need to work with them as they arise and find ways to continue to work on my art. Mental health requires time, patience and grace, and that’s my plan moving forward.
I will say, these events have helped me to view my craft and what I want to achieve with my art from a new lens. I have agonised for years about how I should tell my story, what methods and media, and what type of artist I am, and these past 18 months or so have allowed me to refocus on the kind of art and storytelling I’m actually drawn to tell, naturally, myself, my voice. Creature comforts during that period reminded me how much I enjoy a well-told story, a tale crafted with emotion, descriptive imagery, mystery, intrigue, and even humour.
“You ever just feel like when you see all the things {things being art}, you wanna make all the things??? Yeah, well that was me, all the time. I scrolled social media endlessly, I saw all this beautiful art and I wanted to make that too, without asking myself what I actually wanted to create or allowing myself to play, to see what art I naturally wanted to bring into the world.”
I say all of this to say, I’m currently working on the illustrations for the prologue. I rewrote the graphic novel script as a novel, as I did with ‘The Weeping Princess’, but with visual elements and scenes. As beautiful as graphic novels are, I have neither the time nor the patience to write and draw all 4 books, so I am allowing myself to return to writing novels rather than scripts, with the addition of drawn elements and selected scenes. I also much prefer creating individual art pieces and have fallen in love with the idea of making commonplace or concept art books filled with lore about the world I’m developing.
I wish things were easier, more straightforward, or that I had found my path years ago, but I find I’m having to give my stubborn dyslexic brain time to realise I have to accept things as they are and forge my own artistic path. However, moving back onto the path of a traditional artist and writing feels like coming home after a really long day. This path feels both familiar and new, exciting and has the distinct feeling of being right. I also realised I had a list of themes that I continuously feel compelled to explore over and over again in my art. While you can, of course, explore your chosen themes through whatever medium you choose, I found I preferred to draw or paint singular images or a series of connected works, rather than having to plan out a structured storyboard and script, making sure each image accurately conveyed a story. My themes have always centred around magic, astrology, myths, spirituality and black women, and I feel like I have only scratched the surface of the art I want to create to explore them.
Moving on, a few story updates. I have changed the name of my story series from ABOVE & BELOW to Stardust & Alchemy. I feel like it fits the story better. Second, I’m aiming to have the prologue book printed for SLCZF - South London Comic & Zine Fair on 19th July; I’m going to be tabling 🥳. It’s time to get myself back out there. I’m excited to start taking part in pop-ups, exhibitions and fairs again; I’ve missed it.
Alright, let me get back to it. It’s been a long few months, and there’s still so much work to do.
✨Manifesting a creative summer for all the art babes, even those who don’t know what they’re doing but are gonna try anyway, because AI prompters wish they were that girl 👩🎨😎
Chat soon art fam 💜❤️🔥💜
