Blog / 2021 / Online Open Studio All the Time
October 1, 2021
As the pandemic continues to kill our bodies—either outright or slowly with lingering symptoms and long COVID—I want to take a minute to talk about how it’s killing our mental health as well. Actually, I want to take two hours every week for the next three months to talk about it.
Every Monday and Thursday from now until the end of the year, I’m going to be live on Twitch, working on a series of surrealist paintings called Everything’s Fine, which will represent all the ways my mental health is breaking down. I’ll be live on Twitch working on the images twice a week no matter what, and, if you want to join me there and write to me in the text chat, I’ll be happy for the company!
Right now, the plan is that I’m going to work on these paintings primarily when I’m live, which means I’ll be signing on more often than just what’s scheduled, but you can count on me to be there for an hour on Monday and an hour on Thursday every week.
This whole project makes me feel a little like a paint tube that’s welded shut with dried paint. In other words, it makes me feel like I’m interrupting my own artistic flow with past sloppiness and poor choices—when you’re in the middle of painting, running to grab pliers is not conducive to staying in a creative frame of mind.
In fact, this welded-shut-paint-tube discomfort is what inspired me to get on Twitch and make Everything’s Fine. I’m doing it as a kind of exposure therapy for my perfectionism, which is currently holding forth nonstop in my mind about how I share plenty of carefully edited footage of me painting already, so why would I possibly need to share all the bits where I mess up as well?
I’m pretty sure that keeping regular online open studio hours will be good for me, one way or another and I love the idea of holding space to talk about mental health and art as the pandemic drags on. Maybe I’ll see you there?
Maybe this post made you think of something you want to share with me? Or perhaps you have a question about my art? I’d love to hear from you!
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