I'm going through a transition right in my art. I ended my 2 year artist in residence at Midnight Lunch at the end of 2024. I also paused the Daily Bow Jacket drop after making over 100 bow jackets in 2024. At Midnight Lunch I created more artwork in a short amount of time that I could ever imagine. The more things popped off the more I wanted to make things. It was so crazy after being so afraid to share my work to have people excited by it was a THRILLL. The combination of the live retail experience meeting with the content creation fed it all together as well. So much to show and tell from the experience, one thing I will be doing this year is sharing so much more about the project.
As I move into 2025 I have been thinking about what I want to focus on. Right now I have distilled it down to, UPCYCLE + EXPRESSING MYSELF.
I am resetting my body, mind and soul. I am resetting practices. I am resetting mentalities. I am making myself rest. I pushed myself to limits I hadn't been to before and crashed out at the end of 2024. I can't get to that place again. It was a very tough lesson to learn but I am figuring out how to take better care of myself. Being an artist means the work ebbs and flows with how you feel and how you can function. I want to create a sustainable business and creative life and that has to built on balance.
I am excited to bring back Bow Jackets, not sure when and at what speed they will come out. I made and posted to my website one jacket a day, which was inspired by fast fashion brands speed as to how they add to their website. It exhausted me, I think of the people working in the factories, I can't imagine how hard this is on their bodies. I was not sewing anywhere near the hours you work in the factories. I think about it so much as I able to take space and rest my hands. How lucky I am to get to do that. Clothes are not worth what we put people through to make them.
Upcycle inspires me so much, I think it is the technology of the future. As I watch in LA as people's overconsumption becomes the donations to help other people that lost everything, I see something there. I think this is going to be so much of our future, excess needs to become functional. How will we make that happen? What systems need to be put in place in order to make that happen? How can we use our creativity to make use of it all? I love making new ideas with old things.
Making art has taught me the importance of expressing myself. I never knew how to do it very well. This project has taught me that it is important. I learned I like to do it. It is scary but outcomes always override the fear. No matter what comes from what I express I always feel better because its not stuck inside. I found it was so fun to express myself on social media, epic things came from that as well. I am going to continue to play in those realms, as well as on this blog. I am looking to print as well to put tell tales of what I have been up to, print outlasts it all. I have been going back to my college portfolio works a lot recently. They feel so applicable to this moment, and I am so glad they are in physical form as well as digital. It has been so hard to get the digital portfolio from my old ipad to my current phone, this tells me everything I need to know.
So in conclusion, looking forward to 2025, I have no idea what is to come but one thing I know is I will be UPCYCLING + EXPRESSING MYSELF, I hope you do too, its more important than ever.
Love, Courtney