Ocean of Grass
For the holidays I decided to stay with my friends who have a house on the Washington coast. I had some pretty restorative nature walks during my stay – after a cyclone storm rolled through. Winds were so strong they made the house shake and birds fly backwards. We lost power for six hours one night and entertained ourselves with a puzzle and boardgames by the light of headlamps. Someone lit a fire in the fireplace and cooked crab cakes on a skillet.
The landscape around the house is scrubby, grassy, and perpetually green. On the way to the ocean there are evergreen trees with needles pointing straight up, the bark nearly black from rain. Beneath the trees are ancient ferns and patches of bright green moss. After the trees end there’s grass – yellow in December – and it’s everywhere. It covers the dunes. Walking beyond the forest, before you even see the waves of the pacific, you walk through an ocean of grass.
It’s experiences like this that I consider fodder for painting. I’m excited for 2023 and all of the painting I will do. I truly think that no matter what happens, I will always be painting or working in some visual media for the joy of it. I will live a creative life.
I experienced a lot of growth in 2022, personally and artistically, including:
Living on my own for the first time
My first group gallery show
Traveling internationally by myself for the first time
My first full-page editorial illustration
Getting into my first Society of Illustrators juried show (spring of 2023)
I have goals and dreams for next year and I’ve written them down. Generally, I would like to experience satisfaction. Below are some digital experiments where I’ve allowed myself to dream up some spot illustrations for an imaginary gardening magazine.
Thank you for reading this. My wish for you is a new year full of good fortune, friends, love, and satisfaction.
-Allie