The finale is here! Towards the end of the challenge, I definitely ran out of steam and skipped more than a handful of prompts. On top of that, I didn’t end up taking many photos during these weeks because I got hit with a relentless onslaught of shit in my personal life. I did manage to grab some quick process photos for a couple of the pieces I completed. I snagged a couple cute ones of Yuki too (if you’ve been missing her cute face, stick to the end) and one snap of my veggie sushi lunch! It was my first time making sushi of any kind and I was unreasonably proud of them.

The prompts I completed in the last two weeks of Februllage were: “Prison,” “Paint,” “Chair,” “Ideal,” “Disco,” “Close,” “Hair,” and “Rose Flower.”

If you’re interested in Februllage prints, stay tuned! They’re on the way!

My approach to Februllage was to treat it like a practice challenge. I tend to be a maximalist and a perfectionist, which means I take forever to make anything and I end up going BIG. Februllage challenged me to put out smaller, less involved work. I think it served to help me understand that not every piece has to be as complicated and layered as possible. Sometimes, slapping together two or three elements can have just as powerful of an effect (and even if it doesn’t, it’s great practice).

My goal was to only skip five prompts and I ended up skipping seven… To be honest, I did much better than I thought I would, and that was assuming no unfortunate circumstances got in the way. Haha. But that makes three solid weeks of almost daily work! I still feel that churning out work daily remains an impossibility for me; generating art daily is draining and doesn’t jive with my personal creative style. I admire artists that can do it, but it’s not for me. I need that recharge sequence in between to get inspired and experience life!

Going forward, I’m going to take from Februllage that concept of artistic exercise and commit to doing at least one smaller sketchbook piece a week, for practice! Weekly on the blog, you’ll get to see my experiments. It’s about time to embrace imperfection in my work! The “Chair” piece was a good example of this, super easy and simple pieces. I’m going to try to take the approach that the material, more than the method, does the talking, in the future!

The “Disco” piece was so colorful and fun to make! It really gave a cheerful, carefree vibe that I think had been missing from my work lately. Laying on a shag rug and listening to disco records is a great mental space to inhabit!

This “Paint” prompt piece (ppp wow such alliteration) was messy to make, but using acrylic paints was a nice way to add to the challenge prompt. I had a lot of fun hand painting the girl and splatter painting the wedges for the background. My garage floor gets prettier every day, paint splatter everywhere you walk!

I won’t lie, these past couple weeks have been tough. Real tough. Like I’m talking, “change your whole life outlook and heal your trauma” kind of tough. But I know I’ll make it out the other side stronger. I won’t announce what’s happened or get into it beyond a surface level, but I have big changes coming and a lot of opportunities for personal growth.

Something that made me happy this week was this perfect vintage orange 70s ottoman that I thrifted for the house. As soon as I set it down, it was immediately claimed by Yuki as her new favorite spot in the house! She looks like the whipped cream on top of a warm slice of pumpkin pie. It made me smile through the pain this week and I hope she puts a smile on your face too!

See you soon with big changes— Stay safe out there, friends, thanks for looking!