I am a self-taught muralist and fine artist with roots in a small town in northern Idaho. My artistic career began at age 18 when I left America to travel, painting murals to support myself. I gained my education this way, along with experimenting with different ways of living, thinking, and moving. I am fascinated by all of the different worlds within worlds and I have taken time to immerse myself in as many as possible. After all, there are teachers and guides within it all!
I wrote for hours at bus stations in Europe, painted gypsy caravans at a castle in France, led pub crawls around Barcelona, spend night after night listening to bands play death metal in dive bars in Melbourne, danced with my dirtbag family in the high desert amidst fire toys and existentialism…all for the honor of experience. I drank it in with tremendous gratitude to be able to FEEL IT. And through this weighty experience of darkness and light have I been able to fully surrender to it all. Because I love it all. It's all holding hands. The scary stuff, the dizzyingly dark stuff, the bright and blistering stuff. All of it.
I chased it endlessly and painted whenever I had the chance. I bussed tables, poured beer, dug dirt, did sales, all until I had enough guts to quit my jobs and work as a full time artist. Even after I thought I committed I had bouts of doubt and fear which made me want to jump back into the 9-5. The unknowing and perpetual ‘grind’ was making my hair fall out. So I cut it off and kept at it in hopes this montage of ‘the artist’s struggle’ would end with me kicking back in my own studio filled with canvas and colors.
Four years and boat loads of faith later, it did.
And as I write this I brim with gratitude that not only did the faith deliver, I also now see with clarity the purpose of these paintings. They are Keepers of Spirit.
Along the way I have had visions of feminine spirits that occupy space around me, guardians, that illuminate a path. They all have a very specific aspect of the spirit they protect. There is a Keeper of Power, Sovereignty, Wisdom, Trust, the Dream, Abundance, among others. They come in dreams and visions then make their purpose known. I have had them all along the way, and it isn't until now that I have had the space to help them become realized.
I would hope that some piece of the spirits that I paint speak to the viewer and remind them of the immensity of this world and the worlds within it. For we have the tremendous power to decorate it, to make it magic, and to dance.
My work can be viewed at www.artofjuly.com and on instagram at @art.of.july
July