The Riot of Flowers Fox/Finch series: Two of these (first two in top row) arrived at their forever home this week and the loveliest fox-loving collector posted them together:
“it’s not just a fox thing, it’s an ‘Aliza’ thing!” 

It’s incredible to have such wonderful collectors of my work.
-Original caption-
“And my soul saw you and it kind of went: oh there you are. I’ve been looking for you.”- @realiainsthomas


—About the Fox&Finch Riot of Flowers series---

Our wounds can be the openings into the best and most beautiful part of us.
This series of foxes and finches is not about two people.
It’s about one broken girl finding herself in this  
 sometimes dark and lonely world.
🦊🐥
I think there’s a thousand monkeys with paintbrushes in my heart and each one of them loves you too much to find words tell you.
So they just keep painting foxes and finches
about you.

Paint what you can’t help but paint✌🏻
These are all about you
if you know, you know.
Limited edition prints of Dandelions I & Daisies available from alizaandhermonsters.com
No. 3 and 4 are the only originals left! DM or Message for inquiries about original work.
​

Oil on panel, 4x6" miniature paintings. All sold. 
​Bunnies 1-5 June 2021, Bunny 6 special commission request February 2022.
Bunny 7 February 2022.

"I am very aware of the fact that I'm not right. I know hiding under tables and in bathrooms isn’t normal. I know that I’ve carved out a life that lets me hide when I need to because I wouldn’t survive any other way.”― Jenny Lawson
It was my biggest hope that by being vulnerable in talking about hard feelings it would show others that it is perfectly okay to do so.
To see that aim has been reached atleast on a small scale is really everything. 🐰
…to be honest, I never know exactly what to say to people in these moments. But the more messages I get, the more Im realizing… it's not so much my response that's important so much as it is that I listen and see you, taking your turn at expressing yourself as you need to.

Rabbits represent my childhood in so many ways - I'll speak more on this when I go into the Hare-O-Naut series. 

[Rabbit-tober Day 28, 2020. Work of the Day: "Float"]
It's been brought to my attention that my content, everything I've ever put on instagram, I don't own. 
​If social media collapses, so does everything I've written about my work.
So I'll be going through my posts and working to transfer my work, my thoughtful captions, etc to my own blog.
This is sort of a visual autopsy of sorts until we get caught up to present day!
Original Post archived from Inktober 2020 where I drew 31 rabbits for the month, I posted each one just for 24 hours
Original caption:

To leave, after all, is not the same as being left.
Sometimes to keep yourself together, you must allow yourself to leave.
Even if breaking your heart
is what it takes to breathe. - EH
​----

So what’s up with all the rabbits? Hang with me here:

I come from a magical island full of bunnies. It has been said that perhaps many years ago a few escaped from the island county fair, and well, you know how rabbits are.

We had a rabbit as a pet when I was really little, it had free reign of the house and was even litter box trained.
My great grandma was an artist, a maker. She gave my sister and I wooden rabbits that had wheels for feet and a string to pull them around. It was our version of a little red wagon, I guess.
Maybe you’re familiar with this, but I wasn’t raised with barbie dolls. I had a stuffed animal bunny named Hoppy VanderHare (I’m not making this up, it’s a collectible now!) that would come along wherever we went.
I don’t have many fond memories growing up, but rabbits were always a small way out of the chaos and represent the childhood I couldn’t wait to get away from.

As soon as I could, I left.
And I’ve been leaving ever since. Every relationship, every winter, every opportunity to really let people in.

The whole leaving thing?
It’s in me.

I’m working on it.

When you let people see you at your worst, you don’t have to wear the mask so much. Sad people often look exactly like happy people. The most exhausting activity is pretending to be what you know you aren’t.
We are so tangled up in a world of toxic positivity that I think many are ashamed to actually feel anything else.
I don’t know if I can count how many times
I was sad
But I told everyone
I was tired.

This collection of mask portraits is probably the most dangerous and revealing work I have done to date. It started with a portrait my sister had taken of herself. It was a mood, there was feeling but it was only telling half the story of this woman. There was something missing.

Every body has a little bit of goodness and a little bit of brokenness. Lightness and darkness. Ignorance and knowledge. Human and savage.  Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde.

The dual nature of humanity is something that has been explored by mankind for thousands of years.

“Some days
I am more wolf
than woman
and I am still learning how to stop apologizing
for my wild.” -N.Gill

There’s a Cherokee story where a grandfather teaches his grandson an important lesson:
“There is a battle going on inside all of us. It is a battle between two wolves that live inside us.
One is evil: anger, fear, envy, sorrow, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, ego
The other is good: joy, courage, peace, love, hope, stillness, compassion, love.
Which wolf wins?
...The one you feed."

Whatever wolf you choose there will always be someone to tell you that you are wrong. Fear and self doubt will eat you alive. Don’t give your power away. Stay aware of how you allow your thoughts to affect you. You always have a choice.

Feed the good wolf.