Painting My Life

"Oh, so you like animals?" I remember a girl in my hiking group asking me this as part of our casual conversation and I was shocked. I thought everyone liked animals. It had really never crossed my mind that some people didn't. 

 At least half of the accounts I follow on social media are about animals. Specifically, I love wildlife. While our domesticated pets are definitely entertaining (cat videos are their own phenomenon), the critters who populate the wild spaces have always had my heart. From admiring the squirrels that roamed the suburbs in the midwest as a child to moving to Vegas as an adult and discovering the darling lizards and friendly roadrunners. Admittedly, the scorpions I could do without but they only haunt certain parts of town. 

I always knew that I loved animals but I'm realizing now that it runs deeper than I thought. If you're here on my blog then you know my name is Pony but you may not know that it is, in fact, my "real" (AKA legal) name. You may also not know that I chose this name when I had it legally changed. Ponies live in the wild (remember "Misty of Chincoteague"?) but I genuinely never noticed that I had named myself after a wild animal. I also have an Italian word, "Selvaggia" tattooed on me. This translates to "wild," the way one would describe, you guessed it, a wild animal. The clues were there all along but I am only now connecting the dots to how deep my connection to nature runs. 

Wildlife encounters are one of my favorite parts of hiking. I say this as someone who does NOT live in bear country and has never seen a mountain lion in person (and I don't ever wish to). There is something about them that feels magical. They are the definition of special. When I noticed a little caterpillar scooting across the trail in Scotland, you know I immediately got down on the ground to film his journey. It was enough to make me forget that I was soaked to the bone from the constant rain for a moment. When she saw my excitement, another hiker commented "You like the wee beasties!" I now like to think of them as such, "wee beasties." But these moments are magical enough that I knew had to capture them in more than just videos and photos. I would paint them. 

This is how I embarked on my newest painting series, Cosmic Wildlife. "Cosmic" because the animals are not being captured in a photo realistic way but rather in the way that I see them, vibrant and maybe even dreamlike. It's really about the energy, I want viewers to feel how special these creatures are. Below are some examples.

I paint in collections, staying on the same subject matter sometimes for years at a time. So far, the Cosmic Wildlife collection has paintings of critters I've seen on the trail and some I've not seen but really want to (I am coming for you one day, viscachas of South America!) and some just because I like them so much (like opossums and prawns). I am populating a fictitious world with wonderful wild creatures one painting at a time. At least, that is the goal. 

 My Cosmic Wildlife collection also brought one more thing with it besides the paintings themselves. It was the catalyst for Letters From The Wild, a totally new concept for me as an artist who wants to connect their work with the right people. Letters From the Wild is partly to get my art out there and partly to counteract the negativity I see online, especially on social media. I see people glued to their phones, consuming darkness that is bad for the spirit. So, in addition to creating prints of my wildlife paintings to send out, I started writing letters. They include stories about the animals I paint, personal anecdotes and always inspiration. Because what the world needs is creativity and positivity. And I happen to have both in spades. So I may as well spread it around and send it directly to your mailbox. Yes, it's a snail mail Pen Pal club! Click the pic below if you also love the wee beasties.