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SwikPaints

@swikpaints

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🪩🌱🕸️💌🎨🦷 in Glen Arbor, MI

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Trust the process✨💖 biiig thank you @gracie.corbin for the trust in making this piece to honor their grandma for Mother’s Day🕊️🌿🌸 by @swikpaints

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5 months ago

@cambaarstad and his beautiful mama 🕊️💜 one of my favorites I’ve ever made. by @swikpaints

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6 months ago

🧡🧡🧡🧡 by @swikpaints

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6 months ago

💚🌱 by @swikpaints

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6 months ago

💙💙💙 by @swikpaints

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6 months ago

She’s baaaaaaccckkk 😙

My relationship to painting has been…. Strange. Now that I’m working a pretty intense big girl job as a crisis center social worker, I’m finding that on my days off I have been focusing my time on running, being outside, hikes with my dog, cooking myself real meals, and I’m knee deep into Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas rn shoutoutttt 🙂‍↔️🙂‍↔️🙂‍↔️ I’ve been doing the Artist’s Way exercises sort of irregularly since early Feb and in letting go of expectations to paint in order to please others.. my motivation to paint is sort of quieter. I’m not sure what that means. But taking a break over the last few months has felt incredibly restorative… I don’t know where this pressured rush to produce more work came from, but it was catching up to me

My goal now is to create when I feel like it and to focus on making pieces that feel authentic to the moment I’m in. I’m not sure how often this will be while I’m also relishing all my other fun hobbies. I dunno gang! I have lots of paintings to post that I’ve kept secret from the Instagram world, so get ready for a swikpaints dump because if I am shedding off old expectations for this account then I’m also going to stop valuing my work based on the response it garners on social media 🤪 by @swikpaints

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6 months ago

It’s been over a month since I’ve painted. I’m currently sitting at the easel with a blank canvas staring at me, and I’m frozen.

It feels strange to relish in beauty, to engage with art, to do anything except for grieve for what this administration is doing to our communities, our loved ones, and our neighbors. I’ve already been struggling with disliking my work for some time… this feeling that even despite the fact that my paintings of pets and weddings can mean the world to the recipients, I feel so.. detached from it all. It’s numbing. I don’t feel creative. I don’t feel inspired. I don’t know how to fix it.

I’m not sure what to do with all of the anger, grief, rage, heartbreak, and anxiety of what is going on in our country at this time. I’m even feeling anxious that it has taken this long for white folks to realize that our government has already been doing this to people of color for as long as our nation’s existed. I’m anxious about my anxiety! And I’m angry that our anger feels so late, that it has taken the murders of Good and Pretti to stir us into action when this has been happening to black and brown communities long before this moment.

It also seems like just sitting here at an easel with a blank canvas— stagnant in my own distress and feeding my frustration with further guilt— isn’t helping anyone. It’s not helping my neighbors, the causes I care so deeply about, and it’s certainly not helping myself. Why I’m sharing all of this, I dunno. This account has felt distant from me lately, and maybe that’s because I haven’t let it change with me as I have changed over the last few years. I think part of the answer to finding my creativity again has something to do with honesty and authenticity.

Thank you for reading, for supporting me, and for having me paint your adorable pets and gorgeous wedding portraits. I’m unbelievably honored that my art is up on the walls of so many of your homes.

What the next chapter of swikpaints entails, I’ve got no freakin clue. But something has been shifting within me for some time, and I feel ready to explore it. by @swikpaints

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9 months ago

Dune dawwwgggssss🌭 taken in Glen Arbor, Michigan by @swikpaints

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9 months ago

Everyone say hi to Goose!!! 🪿🪩🌱🕺🏼 by @swikpaints

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9 months ago

I had a blast painting this one 🙂‍↔️🪭

It was my first time painting smoke, which led to lots of finger painting to blend colors together. I think it’s the amount of shadows in paintings like this and the one I made of my siblings and I that makes the pieces just feel quite satisfying, and well rounded ? Not sure what the word is… but now I’m thinking about using more shadows and increasing contrast. I dunno! This whole account is just years of trial and error hahahahahaha so thank you for coming along for the ride!

I’m currently trying to keep my head afloat in the depths of Christmas commissions. Santa’s painting elf is BUSSSYYYY!!!! (Busy = good)

it’s nice to reflect back to this October piece that pulled itself together in a pretty seamless way 🖤 by @swikpaints

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a year ago

My cousin and his BEAUTIFUL bride🥰😭 by @swikpaints

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a year ago

A wedding gift for Abby & Devon 🥰🥰 by @swikpaints

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a year ago