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9/19/2022

Treasure II in progress

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Treasure II oil on panel 16x12” in progress.
I have so much to say about this new series but I wanted to share what hit me when I was listening to Seth Godin’s pod earlier.

I think a lot of artists fall into the trapping of chasing perfection. And a lot of art collectors would be keen on having art that could have been generated by an inkjet printer by itself.

Art is one of a kind. And understanding to be unique and imperfect is actually what makes something special. I’ve been loving following the creatures that have been showing up in my studio, even though most might find them odd or unpleasant. I am so intrigued and concerning myself less with how anyone else likes what I do.

Seth ponders : “What does it mean:
To have the vinyl version and not the CD
What would it mean to have rough edges and the rust that wabi-sabi brings with it?

When we are more organic and more human
When we cannot be easily put into a box, pigeon-holed, instantly understood, discarded and replaced
When we seek to be the Lynch pin instead of the cog
What does that does that do to our work?

There’s another kind of quality: meeting spec of making a promise, not that I can do this faster or cheaper than anyone else you can find on fiver or upwark
The promise is the opposite: that you will pay a lot
But you will get more than you pay for
That you will be surprised and delighted.
There will be rough edges
The quality of meaningful work- the work of “I did my best.”
The work of “It is not perfect, but it is unique.”

Each of us, ironically in this moment of industrialization and digitization,
In this race for ever more gilded status

Each of us has the opportunity to do something else.
And that something else
Is to be the person we set out to be.”

The new Treasure collection. I’ll speak on this soon enough.
It's probably the most ' me ' work I've made to date.
it's imperfect and as honest as I can paint at this moment.
​I'm super proud of it.

9/18/2022

"..or maybe you're healing."

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9/10/2022

Little Ghosts, After Heinz 18x14" Commission

ittle Ghosts, after Heinz. Oil on panel 18x14”. Special commission, 2021🔴

I am grateful for those who trust me to bring their commissions to life. I ask for a story and as many photos as they have.
Today for the first time in my life, I saw a magpie in Jackson Hole. (Photo 2) When I was looking at references of a German shepherd named Heinz for this piece, I saw he made friends with a magpie and so this vision came to be:
“The pack changed a lot since April, my wonderful boy Heinz passed away April 8th. Cancer took him from us. He was the center of our lives.

When he left, my heart broke. He was so special. He healed my broken soul. He was my baby, my shadow and protector for almost 12 years. The dog I dreamed of when I was a child and young girl. But nothing is forever and I try to be grateful he was in my life.

What I give you as an inspiration:
I grew up in a wealthy home but without a connection to my parents, and
without feeling loved and cared for. My mother left when I was 9 and I was sent to a boarding school. I felt abandoned, lonely and terrified of life itself. With my class we visited a wolf sanctuary and I was fascinated by the beauty, grace and size of these animals. There was one young wolf who had to live separately because the pack mobbed him and he got injured several times. But his personality still so strong and unbroken I fell in love with him. Canis Rufus was written outside of his enclosure. Never forgot this. When I played outside, I imagined to be him. Lonely but strong. He was my hero. I had my own reality and in my imagination I was Canis Rufus (Red wolf).
❤️
Decades later when Heinz came into my life, Canis Rufus came back to me with him.

But Heinz is gone now and I want to set both free. 💫🌙 May they fly high.

This shall be my inspiration for you…. 🐾🐺
Every color is up to you and your feelings about my inspiration. I want you to be free in your creation .”

And so I woke up the next day with this composition in my mind:

The little red wolf, the spirit of the magpie who befriended her beloved Heinz, and ‘may they fly high’, words I’ll never forget.
❤️🐾🪶

The little ones leave the biggest holes when they have to go.


I say this a lot but there are really two types of people: people who own dogs, and dog people. Dog people tend to understand this the most🥺

Title is from Mrs. Potter's Lullaby, a song by the Counting Crows: "if dreams are like movies then memories are films about ghosts"
​

This is a really personal commission that I was honored to take on. This is a bit of a ghost story but not the haunting variety.

9/9/2022

Post Script, New Thoughts

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Post Script, 18x24” oil on canvas. 🔴SOLD. Another revisit from 2021, but some new thoughts.
Photo 2: a v large custom 5’ canvas print!
Photo 3: “The Enchantress” a fav from the Nat’l Museum of Wildlife Art


☝️DM for custom prints / originals

This was a series of 3 letters painted to put back together the pieces of a broken heart.

But being around all these bears in Jackson Hole and these incredible wildlife painters at national wildlife museum, I’ve been considering these a bit more.

When I look at paintings with images of mythology, I just feel that there’s a story that is common to everyone - but we may not even know the story. There’s something to it that’s universal to our subconscious and painting about that… is finding our way back to through history to our origins. When I see a painting or hear a song there’sl this feeling of ‘Ah, yes, that there is in my bones,’ Sort of like cave art, you don’t understand what happened but you know it to be truth and there’s a magic to that.
I would like to trace that gray area in my own work. These aren’t spun tales, I want truth in it.
Animals have a huge part in who we are. I think Nietzsche said something about the truth of the dream life of animals-and thats what I’ve been more curious about as well.
I seldom remember my dreams but in January 2020, I had a vivid encounter following a crowd of polar bears into the sea and I knew if I followed them I’d probably drown. But I wasn’t afraid.There was just acceptance, like “oh ok this is how I’m going to go out, but this darkness I’m going into doesn’t feel like a bad thing and there’s a familiarity to it that is strangely comforting. I’ve been here before.”
And I woke up with that feeling that it’s okay to revisit this place, it didn’t actually drown me the first time. It’s okay to remember these bears. And it’s okay to follow them to that dark place they made lead.

9/8/2022

Back to the O.G. Jerboa 1.0 5x5" in progress layer 2

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Jerboa 1.0 layer no. 2  Mini creech in progress
Oil on panel 5x5”.

A lot of making art is listening to the tiny voice that says “this might not work,”
and knowing in your heart
It already did.
Because you were brave enough
To start.

You’re doing great.
Working small creech for a moment as I adjust to the new palette and finishing up a few old haunts before really starting this new creative endeavor.
I’ve got some stories to tell.

And can I just say wow, I’m visiting Jackson Hole for the first time and the contemporary wildlife scene is something else!

9/7/2022

On Becoming (revisiting old friends)

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“On Becoming III: After the Velveteen Rabbit.” Tiny oil painting on panel 5x7”. ‼️SOLD. 🔴circa Dec 2021 . All moon gazing chaos bunny minis are sold!
‼️Ltd ed prints Limited edition, signed prints available from 🦊www.alizaandhermonsters.com
“I hope you allow your life to be bigger than you thought it could be. I hope you allow yourself to embody more beauty than you ever thought possible. I hope you don’t get trapped by the small stories, ideas you had about what the future may be. I hope you don’t long for things you’ve outgrown just because they’re familiar. I hope you don’t consider everything you lose to be a loss. I hope you don’t define yourself only by the limits of what you’ve known. I hope you don’t cap your potential at what others have said is possible.
✨Most of all,
I hope you recognize the light when it hits you.
I hope you let yourself do more than you ever thought you could.” - @briannawiest

If you never read The Velveteen Rabbit, it’s a story about growing up.  This bunny is trying to find himself and his worth. This is like when you grow up and you’re trying to figure where you fit in. People resonate with this story because it’s a universal aim of everyone to become real, authentically ourselves.
Out of fear of rejection, pain, or loneliness, we learn to become false. To curate a perfect appearance online is all too easy these days. It’s imperative to be real with ourselves, to love who we really are, and offer this to others so we can find out who can love us for whatever we are.
You don’t need anyone’s approval.
Validation is for parking tickets. ✨

9/6/2022

Upside down is right side up here

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Chaos Bunny Portrait Large Format no. 4. 36x24” ALMOST DONE. … This one drives a lot of people nuts. Whatever. It makes me smile. It sparks me up. I used to get nervous sharing these creatures that some people don’t understand. It’s risky! People are judge-y. ….I’ve learned over time, the biggest risk you take by sharing your work isnt humiliation -you’re going to be embarrassed I promise. You are failing by not showing up for yourself and letting yourself be seen.

✨The risk you take in sharing, is connection. That is the only metric of success to me.

✨You never know who ’s life you could inspire. Your work could turn a light on for someone stuck in a room they didn’t know was dark.
That’s the power of sharing your work.

‼️I’m telling you take that risk. Tell your story as honestly as you can. You are here for a moment in time.
Hang that rabbit head upside down. Paint those weird little rodents that make you so happy.
Be your weird little self,
the world might just love you for it

9/5/2022

Courage Doesn't Always Roar (tiny creech in progress 5x5")

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Tiny creech in progress. Oil on panel 5x5”.

As expected, working a holiday in a clinic was wild. I am easily overwhelmed by too many humans. And yet, I choose a career (as an ARNP) where I can help them within the capacity I have.❤️

I’m going to come home tonight and bury myself the blissful escape of my studio, making tiny creech that spark me up and bring me hope…and then tomorrow I’m going to decide what’s next. If the future is too much for you right now, it’s okay to just tackle a day. Or even an hour.

Reminder: you have survived every single thing you thought you wouldn’t.
Keep fighting the good fight, even when the fight is the tiny creech that says: I’ll try again, tomorrow.
Courage doesn’t always roar.

9/1/2022

Be Where Your Feet Are

It's 3 AM. 
I've been lax about keeping this updated. 
I've been in rabbit purgatory trying to finish up this 36" x 24" Chaos Bunny for a special show in a few weeks. 
It was shelved for the last 18 months, in a sorely half finished state.  Here's where we are at presently:
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“Aliza… you were born in Everett.” My mom said, trying not to laugh while also looking moderately puzzled.
From the age of 6 until I was 12 I remember telling people I was born in California. I have no idea why I thought this was true, but it wasn’t until my mom read over one of my school forms  she discovered my mistaken identity.
I’ve never felt like I belonged to where I was from. I was born and raised on a tiny island you’ve probably never heard of about 40 minutes and 30 years away from the city of Seattle.
A misfit:
Born on an island, yet I can’t swim and I’m terrified of vast open waters.
But I enjoy running in the mountains that are about 2 hours away. Scrambles with exposure bring me to my knees, though.
No matter where I am, there is an element of ever-present fear.
It shows up in my work, in the form of bears and bunnies. Bears, the threat. Bunnies, the fearful, always trying to stay a step ahead of that bear.


It shows up in other ways, too.
I am easily bored by traditional landscapes, florals, portraits. I might be the only painter alive who doesn’t believe in a still life.
I want to capture the aliveness I feel when I’m at the easel. Give me movement, give me motion dazzle.


Yet, here I am, still.
Still life, quick heart.


While I’ve never felt rooted, I remain.
Even though I know I am solar-powered and struggle through every long dark winter here, I remain.
It’s not that I like being miserable.
It’s not that I like the rain or the cold.
I know that when I away from the sea or when I can’t see the mountains I feel unsettled.
And so I stay.


I paint my way through the place in my heart where it is always winter and the night seems like it will last forever.
Because, you’re here.


I have learned that we cannot choose who we love in this world.
I have learned you cannot trade your love for someone to love you back.


I have learned that there is a tiny keyhole in my chest and if you unlock it, paint and canvas and brushes fall out.


I have learned that there is a little girl with a paintbrush in my heart, and she has painted thousands of foxes about you and only you.


Be where your feet are.

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