To every single artist out there who is struggling to get recognition, this is for you xOXo

So after MONTHS of low productivity and feeling icky about myself and my future as an artist I put on my new running shoes and went to the gym, I immediately started to feel better about myself and as I was running on the treadmill it hit me: I am an artist, a living breathing artist - I can do whatever the hell I want!!

I realized that subconsciously I have been stressing about what others think of my work: Why am I not getting into competitions, I worked so hard? What do they want from me? What is the art world looking for? Why isn't my work good enough for the big bad art world? Why am I not getting recognized? All of those thoughts were poisoning my mind and my desire and even energy to be creative and express myself and paint - and even write! Because why would I want to express myself just to be burnt down by a lack of recognition. Yes, I walked into this life after my four years of BA Fine Arts with starry eyed resolve and reality hit me like a plank in the face.

But then, out of the blue, I sold another one of my paintings, through The State of the Art online art gallery, and during that time I was working on an exam project about the Spanish artist Joan Miró and that was a turning point for me because, in one of the readings I had to do, I read:

"Persistence is absolutely fundamental, since creative people typically experience repeated rejection because of their tendency to push the limits and to perceive things in a new way"(Nancy C. Andreasen, 1996)

That was just, wow, I  mean nothing could hit closer to home for me at this point. It still took a little while but two days ago, on that treadmill, I thought to myself I really just want to take a sharpie and play around on a canvas, and then play with paint and who knows what else, I just want to draw and paint and play, and I don't care what "THEY" say, or think or whatever ("they" being the leaders, critics, judges, rulers in general, of the art world). I want to be ME again. Without limitation. So I started working on something completely different from my "known" style, because I wanted to. I'm not famous yet, I can do whatever I want! And I'm having a blast! So to all aspiring young artists who are also struggling to get recognition and "make it", remember Persistence is key, we cannot give up, it might just take a while for people to catch up to our way of seeing the world and expressing it on canvas, or paper, or what have you. It does NOT mean you are not good enough. You are. They just don't get it yet. But don't make that stop you from creating.

xOXo

What are you excited about? Here are a few things that are making me smile at the moment:

Hello all you beautiful people out there! Oh my word, so much has happened since I last wrote on here. I should, I want to, write more, and from now on I am going to make a point of it to dash down my thoughts and feelings about my creative journey and the art world more often. 

I am expanding my horizons, getting my feelers out into this scary, daunting, exciting, constantly changing art world, and soon will have much more to write about it! I would also really love to hear back from my readers so if you get a chance drop me a comment so I can know your thoughts as well :) You can also ask me anything, or what you would like to read about and I'll make a plan!


This post is all about things that are exciting me and one of those things is that me and my awesomeness boyfriend recently celebrated our 2years&8months montheversary and it makes me so happy that we have come so far and climbed over so many mountains and grew so much together. We obviously celebrated by playing pokemon cards for two days straight and it was amazing! Because we tend to always work or watch series in our breaks and we haven't played a game together in forever. So that's the first thing that excites me. Now lets turn to art related stuffs shall we?

As I mentioned before, the Sasol New Signature art competition is coming up pretty soon and I am psyched, I have chosen the paintings that I want to enter, with a little help from my Instagram and Facebook page friends! Haha, if you would like to go put in a vote for which two paintings you like the most and think I should enter just go to my Instagram or my Facebook page :)

Also, although I didn't get a chance to enter the actual competition, the Absa L'Atelier Gala Event is coming up soon and I am going and am excited to be a part of it in just that way. I'll get to meet and talk to some artists and curators and it fits in perfectly with my top secret mission that I am on, that I can't give away yet ;) But it is awesome. And I get to show my artist face and have a presence in the actual real life art world. Exciting - I think YES!

I have a thesis (for my art intervention class) and a lot of other assignments (for my top secret mission) to write at the moment so I am struggling to make time for painting. But time-management skills - I will concur you!

A Thousand Steps

San-Marí van Wyk, Let it Go, 2014.
Acrylic on canvas, 122 x 91.5 cm.
The State of the Art Online Art Gallery

We are in the middle of the year now, can you believe it? The past month I broke away a little from painting realism and went crazy expressionism OUTSIDE on a drop sheet. I felt so much more freedom being able to paint outside - I didn't have to be scared of splattering paint all over my "studio space" in the little room by the front door of the cottage we are renting... 

If I get a fan heater I will for sure continue my realism over my expression paintings because it gets flippen insanely cold in that small room at night! I tried, it is very very difficult to focus and paint when you are freezing yourself into an ice cube.

The Sasol New Signature competition is coming up soon and I am torn between should I do the whole realism over expression paintings, or just do my expression paintings... It's a very difficult decision to make, because I believe in my expression paintings and the power they possess, but who knows who the judges will be and if they will 'get' my whole concept and have an appreciation for my type of art. This competition could help shape my career, get my foot a little further in the door. I guess it all depends on how much I believe in myself.

I read that successful people are those who never gave up. So if I try and don't get in, I just have to keep working harder and harder and try again next year. Keep trying until they notice me.

"Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough"

Don't ever stop dreaming, or give up on your dreams, don't ever stop fighting for your dreams. Even if at first no one else believes in you - as long as you believe in yourself you will show them. You are actually way more awesome than you believe. 

In other news, most of the time our paths won't work out the way we planned or go the way we thought it would. But we have to learn how to deal with the curve balls life throws at us. Maybe we end up doing something we never thought we would, but maybe it actually works out pretty awesomely. Maybe we really want something, like right now, but it seems there are a thousand steps still to take and things to check off a to do/ to achieve list before we can finally have it. I am a very impulsive person, it came with my personality, so I can be very impatient and want to have what I decided I want right now, but I need to take all the steps first, one by one, tick them off, grow, learn, achieve what I need to achieve [perhaps things I never thought I would achieve] and I've got to learn to be patient. The road trip to the destination can be awesome fun you know, and besides in the meantime I have awesome time to prepare for the future and what is to come. Am I the only one going through this? 

Me :)

A look back at April... and what's to come...

Let's see, April... I prepared and gave a bunch of seminars for my "art and intervention" class... it was sooo much work, but really fulfilling work. At the moment we are doing seminars about all the other creative interventions (besides art therapy), I had to prepare dramatherapy and psychodrama and I'm busy finishing up my play therapy seminar. It is so interesting. I wish I had gone to a play therapist or sandbox therapist when I was a kid! I'd even love to go to sandbox therapy now.. but I don't think it's for 'adults'... although I still feel like a kid I guess 24 puts me in the 'adult' category... hmmm... what a weird thing that is. 

This is a summary of April in pictures:

Creating a studio space outside my Mom's house...

Done in 2 minutes... so much more to express.. neeeeed bigger canvasses!

I still need to think of a title for this one...

#Detail... Beautiful cracks...

#Detail...

Got my degree!!

Me and my best friend = *Epic happiness for surviving this tough degree
and kicking its ass - both of us with distinction!!

It was her birthday and (of course) I put a whole heck of
a lot of sparklez in her birthday card which she rubbed all over my face, and hers...
and threw them obviously all over our boyfriend's and on my Dad... it was awesome...  

I think everyone should always where sparklez all over their faces always...
that is how nature intended it to be... I would love to have sparklez all over my face daily...
 It's just so magical... 

I accidentally broke my labtop screen - whilst I had seminars to prepare for -
and my boyfriend came to the rescue hooking up the big computer screen
 to my labtop... this has absolutely nothing to do with my art but the whole set up
 was just so funny and awesome and I just had to share it...

Going from 190 cm x 190 cm to this little bitch canvas was a tough challenge...
but I had the extra canvasses and I just had to use them...
I'm definitely not buying canvasses this small again though... 

San-Marí van Wyk, Remembering, 2014. Acrylic on canvas, 40.64 x 50.8 cm.
I do like the end result though... what do you think?

#Detail.. More beautiful cracks

#Detail.. Paint is awesome...

So I planned on using these brushes and stuff... but I ended up just using plastic spoons..
I found that spoons (the backs of spoons) make excellent brushes...

I just like this photo...

So what's next? Well I entered 7 of my big 190 cm x 190 cm works into the "Future Generation Art Prize" international competition... but we only hear from them in June... I am super excited about it and very hopeful, I hope and believe my artworks will find their place somewhere in this world, and an international competition is maybe just what I need... So hold thumbs... 

I'm still working on my concept revolving around blindfolds as a metaphor for us never being able to see what's going to happen in the future, where we will be exactly, who will be in our lives... good and bad... we have to make our choices and it's like walking a path blindfolded.. hopefully you have something/someOne guiding you... but it is still blindly trusting and we don't know if we are going to fall or bump our heads or hit a wall, we can only hope there is a door somewhere in that wall that we can find and that will lead us to an awesome place... anyway, point is, life is like walking a path blindfolded. 

But I recently got obsessed with the song "Never Grow Up" by Taylor Swift, one of my all-time favorite songs... it really hits close to my heart.. when I was a kid I use to remind myself to enjoy every moment of playing and having care-free fun.. because I knew I was going to grow up too fast.. and I never wanted to... I never wanted to grow up. So now at 24 and feeling how I am maturing and becoming more and more grown up I hold on tightly to 12 year old (and younger) San-Marí inside my heart.. and the memories of the house I grew up in... my purple room with the blue waves painted in the center and the green stripes above and below... screwing hooks into my ceiling so I can drape linen around my bed and make a secret hide out... my grandparent's home... my grandfather working in his garden... and doing his crossword puzzles... walking outside under the big tree with my grandma... my mom coming to fetch me after work by them and us talking and laughing in the car ride home and seeing the beautiful sunset... riding bicycle endlessly... playing spy with my two best friends... believing the world was just full of sparklez and rainbows... I want to capture that... I frankly can't wait to start painting around this concept... 

    

Intratextual Expression: Part 1 & 2

So, I entered the "For the love of art" competition this past week

... did not make the cut - which only makes me more determined and motivated to work harder and harder and prove myself and my art to all the curators, galleries and art collectors of the world.

So if you are reading this - San-Marí van Wyk - remember the name. 

You are going to begin seeing, and hearing about my work, everywhere you look. 

But anyway, here are some pics from the work I entered into the competition - and the creative journey that brought them to life. I'm off to go paint now - the Absa competition that I missed said blood, sweat and tears, that is what goes into being a successful artist. So lets go, go, go - lots to do, lots to paint, lots to create...

Pouring glue whilst downing some illegal coffee..

#Allnighters - love them, makes me very nostalgic of
studying Fine Arts, especially 4th year..

Always good the morning after an allnighter

San-Marí van Wyk, Intratextual Expression: Part 1, 2014.
Acrylic on canvas, 42 x 59.5 cm.

Work in progress...

Work in progress...

San-Marí van Wyk, Intratextual Expression: Part 2, 2014.
Tissue paper and cold glue on canvas, 42 x 59.5 cm.

Both together

#Details of Intratextual Expression: Part 2

#Details of Intratextual Expression: Part 2

Yes! Let's do this thing!

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A taste of what's to come...

I got so distracted these last two months by my other work, but now I am so insanely focused and determined, it's like a major high! I found a cool quote from Bruce Lee saying "The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus" - and that is my most favorite motivational quote at the moment. So, I am almost done with this one new piece and I am starting a new smaller one for the "for the love of art" competition coming up veeery soon. I had to redo my studio again cause the people we rent from wanted their closet that my painting was leaning against and then they gave us another smaller closet and a big chest... and there was so much stuff in the bigger closet so I had to spend a whole day clearing up the room and making studio space again! These are some pics of the progress and the experience :)

I must say I really miss my 4th Year Fine Arts, no matter how insanely tough it was... I miss the guidance from my mentor Frikkie Eksteen, an amazing painter. It is tough being on your own and having to build a stronger and stronger sense of self discipline and focus - you have to in order to make it in the art world. 

Oh how I love expression

A taste of what is to come

Getting ready

Before...

...After  ;P

Almost done!

My studio space :)

My awesome tiny studio :P haha

Aaaah! It has been a month! How can this be? *gasp! So this time has passed so super quickly and I think it is highly due to the fact that every Wednesday I drive down to my mom's (an hour away) so that Thursday mornings I can drive another hour to Potch where I am taking one subject - because that is the only place in South Africa offering the subject.. which is called "Art and Intervention" and deals a lot with art therapy and the whole concept of how art can bring healing to people. This, of course, is something I am highly interested in - my final year fine arts practical and research paper dealt widely on the subject. ..and then I drive back to Pretoria (two hours from Potch) where I currently live. So that is a lot of driving smack in the middle of the week and somehow the time from one Thursday afternoon to a Wednesday goes just about like the speed of light. But anyway, I wanted to post some pictures proving that if an artist needs to paint they WILL find a way to convert the teeniest tiniest of spaces into a studio as seen below. Yes I miss my big studio space at the University where I could work as big as I liked on canvasses that encompassed my whole stretched out body... but I am totally making due with what is possible and available to me at this point in time. I actually converted the small deck area by our front door into studio space. (We live in a tiny cottage in a backyard - being students and all...). It is such a challenge working smaller, because when I do my expressionistic part of my paintings it takes like two minutes to finish.. then I'm like... I need twenty more canvasses I'm not done expressing dammit... In my recent works I've decided to mix my two favorite styles and add figures to my crazy expressions... We'll just have to wait and see how it turns out... ;) 

Needless to say I cannot wait to one day have my very own house and have a whole entire big room be my studio space! One day...

Plus, so my whole dream of nurturing a love of art in children is slowly but surely starting to take form.. it is starting with one art and craft workshop but I will turn this into full blown art classes.. focusing on cultivating the unique creative spirit of each individual child. This is very important to me. I think the greatest of artists will be made if they get the opportunity and motivation to explore their own inner creativity and imaginations, with complete creative freedom. Freedom to discover their own unique creative identities. What amazing new art movements may come into existence when young artists are free to dream and explore the magic inside of them? Anything is possible.This makes me very excited!

Chapter 1 - Creation

My first work of my final year Fine Arts body of work. The lecturers thought it was WAY to busy, haha, that's me for you - all over the place in my head. If you go to the link www.stateoftheart.co.za/art-by-san-mar%C3%AD-van-wyk/151 you can view it on the State of the Art Online Gallery where it is for sale.

 In my body of work I was inspired by Art Therapy, and the healing potential of art. The rules are that there are absolutely NO rules, which is friggen awesome I think. You can freely express yourself however you wish, letting go of all your inhibitions. You just go. You are completely and utterly free. That is how I like to create. Absolute freedom of expression.

 I looked to the CoBrA art movement, and artists like Karel Appel for inspiration. They stood for the same freedom of expression as I believe in. Appel believed that "impulse, energy, speed and action" were the most important for the painting process, because it was through those elements, he believed, that genuine, honest expressive outcomes would arise. I believe that as well. 

My body of work for 2013 is a series of artworks divided into three Chapters and each consisting of three phases: Creation, Translation, and Reinterpretation. This one was my first Creation and during the Creation stage I would make a painting as free and spontaneous as possible, focusing on expressing myself and having no preconceived image or end product in mind.

This painting was the first of the year and the first before a heck of a lot of growth and development in my painting skills and process. I'll post more works soon. And I'm very excited because I am home now and I bought a bunch of canvasses today and I am going to start painting tomorrow, so I will be posting some process and progress photos and some new artworks very soon! Super excited!

San-Marí vam Wyk, Chapter 1 - Creation, 2013. Acrylic on Canvas, 190 x 190 cm.

Details: