You can't expect perfection when doing acrylic paint pouring. You are creating with fluid material. Just the word fluid should tell you how unstable a medium you're working in. You aren't holding a brush against an easel. You are pouring paint you hope is perfectly mixed and saying a prayer! So, give yourself a break and remember everything in life was created by God perfectly including you and your Art! So, maybe we are creating divine imperfections that are just perfect.

Not to discourage anyone from embarking on the magical mysteries of Acrylic Paint Pouring but let me warn you it isn't for the faint of heart! If anyone had told me how much effort goes into the prep and clean up for this fascinating art form I might have run screaming! Too Dramatic? Well, it's not the first time and if you know me, not the last. To create within this awesome realm you need to be prepared and have a plan. You need supplies, boy oh boy do you need supplies. In fact, if you don't have a lot of supplies you might just be finger painting. I thought a couple tubes of colored acrylic paint and a canvas and I was an acrylic paint pouring artist. Oh was I lost in a sea of hubris and ignorance.  I swam like this for awhile creating one mess after another.  Oh maybe I got lucky every now and then but certainly wasn't satisfied and I hungered for more. Now at this point, you either quit and count your loses or you continue like a knight searching for the Holy Grail. So, I learned, studied,  practiced, failed, and persevered. What was most important in my quest was learning about the absolute need for preparation. Just as in cooking you need ingredients and a recipe.  I donned my apron and got out my measuring spoons and began concocting a recipe. It goes like this: Add a dash of creativity, a tablespoon of chemistry and a cup of patience. Voila, now you're set! Well sometimes to be honest,  I throw in a teaspoon of prayer, I mean hands and knees prayer. Because even if you have mixed everything together just right and the moon is not in retrograde and the stars are aligned something can still go wrong.  Again in this moment you question your sanity.  You either pack it in or start again.  Really Acrylic Paint Pouring will show you who you are and what you are made of. Doing this form of art really is a spiritual quest of self discovery. 

Negative space, what is that exactly? Well it's defined as the space around and between the subject of the image. The positive space is the subject or object of the image. So, in this piece of art it's all that beautiful white I love so much! But it could be any color that surrounds the focal point of the piece. As much as I love my "white space " I often wrestle with how much or how little there is of it. Should I have added another flower or a leaf maybe?  Does the painting look lonely with so little in it? Or, in some cases, is the piece too busy and why didn't I save a little negative space to float my thoughts in. I have adopted the practice of hanging a new piece of art in my bedroom so that I can wake up and go to bed with it. In doing this I either decide I really love the artwork or I really don't! It is a great way for me to sit with the work. I know one thing for sure my bedroom walls have very little negative space!

Recently, I experienced Immersive Art and it was more thrilling than an amusement park ride! The Van Gogh Immersive in Las Vegas was the first time I had dipped my toe in such an all encompassing art extravaganza. It literally took my breath away! Seeing this artwork was more like a theatrical performance than a stroll through an art gallery.  The geniuses that created this innovation made me feel giddy and joyous. I was not simply looking at a painting by Van Gogh I was inside a painting of Van Gogh! His art came alive  literally leaping off the walls. His art was moving, changing, evolving.  I was apart of his paintings. It was on my arms, legs, my dress. I could dance under his Starry Night and feel the emotions of his intense dark pigments and illuminating bright lights. His gorgeous irises flooded the walls one after another until you felt you were in a field of them. To see art so alive, practically breathing, filled me with happiness. If only Van Gogh could have witnessed the joy his work brought the world, me, through this incredibly amazing art adventure. I am absolutely addicted. 

The bugs I contend with may not carry malaria or bite me in my sleep but they nonetheless irritate the life out of me! They seem to delight in messing with my artwork.  They steal into my freshly poured paint and like burglars steal away my little piece of perfection! They are a plaque upon my house. These dim witted, miniscule monsters create mayhem and haunt me every time I wait for my piece of art to dry. They silently slip into a pool of poured pigment sliding and sloshing through a surface of intricate images changing composition and form until it looks like a 2 yr old has been finger painting. What are they attracted to? Is it the glossy sheen of the wet acrylic? Or is it the strong toxic smell. Maybe they see in color and are drawn to the striking tones. I wish I knew. Even when I carefully net my paintings they still find a way to break in and take off with their feet and antennae loaded with pinks, purples, prussian blues and every other magnificent shade. I do feel slightly sorry for them when they don't make it off the glistening canvas and die a most glorious death etched in my artwork, immortalizing themselves by becoming now a part of the painting.              Sneaky little Buggers!

White is a hypnotic hue that draws me in like a magnet. I love being surrounded by pure white. That snowy essence fills me with peace and delight! I am happiest when adorned all in white. I am thrilled with white walls to hang my art upon and anxious with anticipation to paint on white canvas. Some people say white isn't a color but the absence of  color. I disagree. White is the brightest color. It eclipses any color that it is next to. It shines with purity and clean beauty. Everything is made better by a relationship with white. It takes nothing away and adds brilliance and clarity. In spiritual terms white light is what we are drawn to when we die. Science says when all  colors come together as one, they become white. Spiritual medium James Van Praagh said, "I believe that this white light is at one end of the dimensional spectrum and blends all colors of the light spectrum. " He goes onto say that this end of colors is the threshold to another dimension. Like a moth I am drawn to the light and to white.

Some days I  am an Art Scientist, or do I mean a Mad Scientist, unable to stop or let go of the urge to keep creating to find a cure for the ordinary an mundane.  Every piece I create is an experiment. My art studio is Dr Jeckles lab full of paints, additives, primers, stains, pigments, oils  and other mystery concoctions I have mixed to elicit a new response which may or may not work depending on what elements I have combined. All my trials, tests and experiments bring me one step closer to finding my miracle.  The thing that will be my legacy.  

Stereograms have always been challenging for me but seeing a picture within a picture, now that I can do! Even as a child I could stare at anything, a wall, the floor and see images. I always found it exciting and comforting. They say if you stare at a picture long enough you will begin to see something other than what appears obvious. Now with fluid acrylics, I am creating my own Pareidolia, or simply a picture within a picture. The thing is, everyone sees something different in the artwork. Everyone's perception imposes their own meaning into what they see. I am sure of what I  see but then someone else looks and declares they see something completely different than what I see. It fascinates me and is thrilling. I am delighted when something I didn't expect pops out of my picture. I talk a lot about giving birth to my art and it being almost like my children, well when I see an unexpected image I feel the artwork come to life and evolve beyond what I began. My art surpasses me and creates inspite of me. Fluid acrylics has mastered Steganography or the idea of Pareidolia, materializing it's own images within itself. Tell me what you observe in this picture? Can you find 5 separate images all the same type? One hidden within one,  and 5 images inside 1 image. 

I have started thinking of my art as my Children. I am anthropomorphazing everything.  I guess this happens when you go through life without children. Pets, plants stuffed animals,  now paintings. I pour the paint and watch the paint grow, change, thrive or fail. I feel like a proud parent when my babies bloom and I want to cry when they screw up. As any parent knows it's not the child's fault when they fail it's theirs. The constant worry over their life. Will my art make it through the drying period unscathed by dust, falling particles,  the temperature and my favorite,  tiny flying insects that for some reason are not smart enough to not settle in a perfect puddle of my artwork. You try everything you can to protect your art so that one day it can graduate and live in a beautiful gold frame sitting upon a spacious white wall just waiting to be adorned. An artists dream!

My 1st question for God is, does it upset you when your creations don't live up to your expectations? Given free will and all you must have to resign yourself to whatever comes, right? But how can you not have an expectation? I always have an expectation that greatness will emerge. How to live with imperfection? My 2nd question,  how do you live with disappointment? In creating art I face failure and disappointment as much as I embrace surprise and exhilaration! Yin and yang, light and dark always two sides, opposites. I want to be able to embrace the joy of failure. I feel so deeply useless when I spend the day painting and come up with nothing that satisfies me. Of course, I know so well it's the journey but I keep chasing the illusive masterpiece that most certainly will come, that is surely right around the corner.  How the great artists must have suffered punishing themselves for not creating what in their minds was their great work!  Looking at their works did they not achieve their desired end? Dd they ever accept and acknowledge there masterworks and feel triumphant? What makes a masterpiece? Is it great art if it's in an art gallery? Is it great art if you sell a ton of it? Did the beloved artists we so admire today feel successful or know deep in their hearts that they had created something extraordinary that was of value to them? Do we need validation from others to make our art valuable? Or is it valuable because we value it? My 3rd question for God, can an artist ever be satisfied, content? 

This is one of my new series of fantasy creatures. They just started materializing. Let your mind go when you look at them and hopefully you won't feel like your having a  bad trip! The first creature that came to me was a delightful blue dragon. He looks simple and silly but he was born out of much work. Now I have expanded my menagerie with creatures that look like they come from another planet! I am thrilled with their zany designs and vivid colors. I have always wanted to do things outside the box, not wanting to follow the norm or conventionality. I have longed to be able to design something original and not just copy others or keep reinventing the wheel. I started really doing this with my colored dog series which can be seen in my Olderwork/Dog Art section. I stopped wanting to draw or paint reality and instead stared creating fantasy which is so much more fun and fulfilling.  In my pictures I see things that delight and surprise me and not everyone sees what I see and that's ok. Even my Florals artwork is filled with fantasy with its fluidity and fantastic boldness. Stepping outside the box feels good like throwing your arms up and spinning like a dervish!

The more fluid artwork I create the more similarities I notice to human beings. Both are alive for a period of time and then become static and transition. Artwork, like humans, are born perfect but are often corrupted by the environment in which they exist. Art is fragile like the body to destruction and untimely demise. There are so many elements that can harm a beautiful body of work. The creation of art is beautiful, holy and scientific.  I do my best work when I feel aligned with the Universal Energy that vibrates all around. I see and feel the energy.  It is there and it brings my artwork to life. The art is alive creating within itself. Just like a child is created and then grows up to be a creator. As a creator I live in a universe that has been created to create. My art lives and breathes-in precious seconds of life creating within my creation of it. The art expands and grows at an incredible rate and fulfills a complete cycle of birth,  life and death. It is always in the moment, living only to be and create. It is not caught up in its legacy but in the journey of living and creating. Does art have a consciousness like humans? Does it long to create beauty, to be beautiful? Or is its only goal to live in the moment, content to mix and flow with other pigments and additives; to form new shapes and designs with each moment it exists. When paint is in harmony with whatever it is associated it thrives and beauty is created but when mixed with the wrong elements the outcome is uncertain. This is why science and art must coalesce creating a perfect partnership. There is a rhythm and a feel to producing fluid art. When the art is wet and alive it is thrilling to watch it grow. I wait in wonderment at what will manifest and how the painting will evolve. Learn, practice, engage and then let go and trust and believe in yourself. 

Recently I went to St Paul, Minnesota and when I returned I had adopted a calmer attitude.  I'm not sure if visiting St Paul's Cathedral had any thing to do with it but it might have. It felt so good to be in a holy place and take time to commune with God and feel connected to humanity again after so much separation and fear. I submitted to my faith and for an hour let go and simply was in the moment. I am trying to do this in my art. Trying to create without coveting isn't easy. I have gotten so upset when a painting didn't come out right or when a piece was accidentally ruined. I was torn up for days mourning the loss of a piece of art I thought was my best work. I know what I experienced was a lesson, painful and poignant. I can't put myself through that again. So, I am trying to create in the moment and then let it go. Again let me tell you it isn't easy. I no longer have the original of this piece. Luckily, I snapped a picture. The art really is in creating the painting and watching it come to life. When a painting is wet it is truly alive and breathing! It moves, it grows and changes becoming apart of life until it drys and essentially dies in its static state. I mourn its death but rejoice at its legacy. I do get attached to the art but the new calmer me is going to try to create in the moment, accept what is and if the work makes it to the wall, hallelujah!

Circles have always attracted me. I am drawn to the endless cycle of return and the idea of Karma and that we continue on through reincarnation. My beloved mother always said what goes around comes around! She was right.  My name, Persephonie,  is also a symbolic endless circle of life, death and rebirth. Persephonie is synonymous with the seasons. She is life or spring but also death or winter. She lives, dies and is reborn every year. Here is one example of my joy in the eternal ring of life. This circle may also represent a shell or coiled up serpent another attraction I am interested in as I am a snake in Chinese astrology. However, I paint them unconsciously. 

This piece is for my mother who I have been thinking about. Wish I could share my art with her but hopefully she can see it. She would have been my greatest supporter but she never knew I started doing artwork. My mother and I would watch my father paint for hours transfixed and always adoring of whatever he produced.  I grew up with the smell of turpentine in the house. I still love the scent! I never believed I would be an artist and neither did anyone else. I had a completely different path but that road closed up and so here I am.  This painting represents my feminine side. Whenever I paint flowers my heart is happy.

Sometimes I think I have fallen down the rabbit hole. Every weekend I paint as if I am compelled to do so. I have entered this fantasy world of creation filled with magic, mystery and total mayhem! I really have no idea how I got here or how to escape. I am consumed and mad as a hatter most of the time trying to create or keep creating. This journey has really taught me a lot, good and not so good about myself. Some days I literally want to climb right out and be done but I don't think I can stop because I am always chasing the high of creating something truly wondrous. I am my best and worst critic, always striving for my perfection. My hobby has become my obsession!  It may be time to stop chasing the white rabbit and go another direction, the direction to wonderland where I started and begin having fun again! Tea anyone?

The more I paint the more respect I have for the chemistry of mixing paint. All I can say is the right paint and primer are everything.  I worked for three weeks with different paints and wondered why nothing was working. Then I finally found a paint that worked. Now if I could only locate the precious Holy Grail, which really is Australian Floetrol! Whatever it is it must be comprised of magical properties because without it nothing really pops! If I ever get to Australia you can bet my suitcase will be chuck full of Australian Floetrol! This was made with American Floetrol. One day I will be saying Gday but sadly not today!

Every time I sit down to paint I feel like it's for the very first time! No matter how many paintings I do or how much I study, each time I am unsure if what I have in my head will transfer to the canvas. I am excited and compelled to create, almost obsessed but in a healthy way, at least that's what I tell myself. I can't sleep properly because I can't stop thinking about what I want to create next. What's so frustrating is that what I am sure will be wonderful turns out a hot mess or gets destroyed by so many things that can ruin a wet painting, or just looks like crap. Of course it's my idea of crap. I am my worst critic. This is when I remind myself that Van Gogh cut off his ear. Art is supposed to be fun and relaxing but with each painting I feel pressure to live up to the last piece I created. I am trying to live in the moment and enjoy the creation for better or worse but it ain't always easy! So after saying all that, this piece is one I really liked and came out beyond my expectation. This is one of my first attempts at achieving a combination of colors, cells and lacing.

This is another Pearl Pour that I altered slightly. In the beginning, I had trouble creating pearls now I make more pearls than I want! Typical I guess. So, I cut through my pearl composition and added more layers of paint to create a better design. The Extreme Sheen gold in this piece really looks rich up close. Teal, black, white, silver and rich gold are the colors used.