2/19/2022 All I Need Series“All I Need, III” Oil on cradled pane 18x24”. ‼️Original SOLD.
🐯NEW LTD ED PRINT RELEASE! Available directly from my site (→bio) Don’t be fooled by this “All I Need” series: These are not paintings, these are love songs. Stephen King says “all novels are really letters aimed at one person.” I don’t view my work much differently. Similarly, the artist who does my tattoos, Jeff Cornell (Hidden Hand Tattoo, Seattle) once told me something I’ll never forget, which speaks to this series in particular. Mind you, he’s not only the grand daddy of the Seattle tattoo scene, but he’s a brilliant musician. ✨“Doesn’t matter what type of music it is, I think every song is a love song.” And initially I was a little distracted by the fact he was drilling my elbow (OW!) but the more I thought about it? I couldn’t agree more. This collection is telling my stories, singing my songs and The “All I Need” collection is about having the courage to show up and let yourself be seen. Connection is why we are here. This is me, Telling my stories Singing my songs Writing my letters ✨for you. And most importantly Letting you know, no matter where you are You are not alone. ✨ And what could be more important than that? For me, not a heck’in thing. ✌🏻 The title came from a song, as so often is the case in my work - Awolnation Reminder: if you see something in one of my stories, unless it’s a commission you can definitely DM to snag it before it gets posted! 💜 Sign up to my newsletter (bottom of page) to receive a discount code tomorrow evening to use for my site-wide sale Feb 20-Mar 6! 2/19/2022 Fox & Finch SeriesThe 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. 2/19/2022 The Tiny Chaos Bunny Portrait SeriesOil 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. 2/16/2022 Rabbit-Tober 2020[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. 2/16/2022 With Clawmarks[Original Post: January 25, 2020]
[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. I'll be going through my posts working to transfer my work, thoughtful captions, etc to my own blog, The Easel Weasel, link in bio! This is a visual autopsy of sorts until we get caught up to present day! Some of these I will repost to the gram as I think it’s insane to look back on my journey these past 2 years.] Everything I ever let go of has claw marks. Acrylic on canvas, 3x4ft. SOLD and hanging in Hidden Hand Tattoo, Seattle WA. The best things in life. aren’t things. --- When the piece sold I posted September 9, 2021: nd the snarly boi is SOLD - I couldn’t ask for it to go to a more perfect home with instagram.com/horijefe Jeff Cornell in his shop, Hidden Hand Tattoo Jeff owns the tat dojo and he had a front row seat to this giant tiger operation when it started almost 5 years ago. It’s funny thinking back on all the conversations we had where I was floundering over all sorts of things related to color. It’s cool to have someone follow my art journey from the very start. It’s even cooler to give a tiger back to the guy that put one on my thigh! Before I found my way back to oil paint in 2018, I spent 1 year with 2 colors of acrylics: Black and white. I had no idea how to simplify an image and make the marks I needed to and had no idea what to do with color. But I still did it. Listening to the voice that says you can’t do something, you’re not good enough? Well, if you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them. I never thought these would ever leave my studio. Shoot, I never thought *any* of my work would leave my studio or the homes of very close friends and family. From 2020-2021, the 5 giant tigers have been shown in 3 venues in Seattle. I can’t wait to see this one hang in the new remodeled shop. I’m not sure I’ll continue to feature these as my style has drastically evolved, but I will never ever stop painting them. Over time, I’ve learned how to translate better the monsters that wander around in my head and heart. I want a symphony of value, color harmony and texture- that to me is the full language of a painter. All of the colors of my paintings are orchestrated and heightened to help you understand what I want to say. And I’m here to tell my story as honestly as I can. 2/16/2022 January 24, 2020[ORIGINAL REPOST FROM: January 24, 2020 ]
📸credit: instagram.com/somerrunner tattoo: instagram.com/horijefe [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. I'll be going through my posts working to transfer my work, thoughtful captions, etc to my own blog, The Easel Weasel, link in bio! This is a visual autopsy of sorts until we get caught up to present day! Some of these I will repost to the gram as I think it’s insane to look back on my journey these past 2 years. “All I wanted was to live a life where I could be me, and be okay with that. I had no need for material possessions, money or even close friends with me on my journey. I never understood people very well anyway, and they never seemed to understand me very well either. All I wanted was my art and the chance to be the creator of my own world, my own reality.”🖤-C.E. Hi, everyone in and around my world🐅 let’s catch up. What a year this month has been. As some of you know, I don’t consider myself an “artist”, I never thought any of my work was worth showing, but I still did it. To be more exact, I don’t “do” art, I feel it. Talking about the hard feelings and showing them to everyone is probably the scariest thing I will do. This week I started to challenge the fear of being seen. I launched this public Instagram account for my art. the responses from people I have never and likely will never meet is overwhelming. As if that wasn’t enough, 4 days later I received an invitation from a talented local artist (who would later become the greatest mentor) to show my work with the Emerald City Artist Collective. I’d be lying if I said this week [January 24, 2020] is going down as the most raw and vulnerable time of my life. I’m not ashamed to say, I am just happy to be here. This is me in my small world, with my big paintings (3ftx4ft)💫. PS: I’m so sorry if you thought this was going to be all octopus and elephant sketches. You don’t know this yet, but i like tigers. I identify with tigers 🐯 I can’t wait to show them to you. 2/15/2022 The First Post, January 2020It'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! Here's a look back to my very first post. I started that account without telling anyone I knew. I wanted it to be a true litmus test to see whether there was any genuine interest in what I had to say. Your friends and family are not your niche. They will love your work because YOU made it. Not necessarily because they think it's valuable. I didn't want to play any games. I don't follow anyone on this account, I didn't want any 'follow 4 follow' type of variables to play into the success or failure of this endeavor. I could not have been more proud, shocked and just amazed at everything that has happened as a result of just taking that first small step in sharing my work online. 2/15/2022 Monster Monday IIOil on canvas 18x24”. Circa January 2021. SOLD
[original caption] Let’s talk about documenting vs expressing, which is what I’m becoming increasingly more interested in as I develop my vocabulary in painting. Painting is personal and I think it exists on a spectrum from completely abstract to hyperrealistic. Where we position ourselves on that spectrum is where individuality comes in, and where expressing our own personality comes through. There’s no right or wrong here. For me, personally I’ve been walking a tightrope between describing the things that I see on the one hand, and expressing how I feel about them on the other - and trying to get all of that into the painting at the same time. If I wanted to approach painting in a more documentary way, if I wanted to be more literal about where things are, I would just have to paint in a slightly different way. But this painting isn't about that. It’s not documentary, it's not about saying this was here and this was here at this particular point in time. It's much more personal. So there's a lot of marks in here, which are very much about how I was feeling at the time, feelings I can only assign color and shape to that I can’t say any other way. Things I just don’t have words to speak about, but, need to say. So you’ll notice my “style” changes as I learn how to make the marks to communicate more effectively. You are not trapped, either. You are free to change. And, you should. 🐙 2/14/2022 Monster MondayMonster Monday. Oil on canvas 18x24”. Circa December 2020 . Original SOLD.
It’s incredible to have collectors of my work It’s even more incredible to read how much it means to them. This piece joined a special collection and I couldn't have picked a better home for it. "I must be a mermaid, Rango. I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living." -Anais Nin When I shook myself loose of the endless digital demands of my attention this morning I felt overwhelmed. Absolutely swamped I felt small in the face of all the stuff that is competing for my attention. I felt uninspired and my spark for creative work, which is an absolute force - no fragile thing at the best of the times, was all but burned out for the day. So I’ve taken to social media to complain about social media. When I decided to share my work in 2020, I had no idea the success or the flood of business related activity that would come along with it. Sometimes I’m over the wave and you see a lot of me. I’ve got a handle things. But, sometimes I’m under the wave. The wave of obligations, emails, constant noise of social media that can drown my own voice if I’m not careful. I do not believe we are hard wired to take in this much information. The flood of news from war torn corners of the world, the constant tinnitus of the latest health scares, the fear that I won’t be able to keep up with everything that sets my heart on fire. The fear that one day I’ll be too paralyzed to even start. These are the days where I am grateful for flow. All I need to do is get to the easel and the wave that has me… takes me to shore. The wave is always there. But I refuse to stop showing up. And so should you. Keep fighting the good fight. …But only the fights that need fighting. Sometimes it helps to just know you’re not alone and this is a common struggle. The struggle to wrestle the limited time and attention I have away from the scope creep of everything else is real. Art is my way of navigating the deeper waters. You are not alone, and you got this. Go pick up that paintbrush. I'm in the process of transferring all my instagram posts to blog form- As promised, The original caption for this piece: “We all build internal sea walls to keep at bay the sadnesses of life. We build these walls stone by stone over a lifetime. One problem is to construct a barrier of such height that one has a harbor, a sanctuary away from pain, yet low enough and permeable enough to let in fresh seawater to fend off the inclination toward brackishness. “- Kay Jamison . . . Here’s to being a brackish girl. Even if just one person can understand what I’m feeling on any one painting or even sometimes an errant but clean repurposed napkin if it’s all I have at the time— that makes me feel just a little bit less alone and makes those monsters I’ve made for myself a little less so. 🦑. . After 32 years, I realize not letting myself be seen, not saying what I have to say is perhaps the most isolating thing I could possibly do with my work. Thank you. Thank you for reading. Thank you for looking. Thank you, maybe, just maybe, for feeling this with me.✌🏻. 2/13/2022 Face the WolvesAliza and Her Monsters x Cormac McCarthy collaboration preview April 2022 show at the University Business Center. Available.
“If you can’t face the wolves, don’t go into the forest.” 🐺 Cormac and I have three important things in common: We like to paint, we work super frigging hard to pursue our art, and we’ve both lived on Whidbey Island. he has a beautiful gallery there right off the ferry boat in Clinton, and I was born and raised there. It’s a special little community where we never crossed paths-I moved to Seattle when I was 18 and didn’t start seriously pursuing my art until 2020. When I first saw Cormac’s landscapes on instagram last year I immediately envisioned my monsters inhabiting them. I reached out and an unexpected friendship evolved during the pandemic. We talk about studio struggles, various painting problems and art marketing. I was elated when he agreed to combine forces and see what we could accomplish together. He paints in textured acrylic so it was decided that would be best to paint first as I can layer my oil subjects over it. I did not anticipate the painting problems I encountered or the drama that came into the studio when I was very much concerned my marks might destroy his. It took me awhile to get over that and I didn’t start on these until the fear of messing up his work was out of the studio, or at least quiet enough for me to ignore. I didn’t want to paint scared- I know I’d be holding myself back. When you hold back, it shows. Your marks are timid and the process is agonizing. Now that I’m well into 4 of these, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love every single one. Here’s to facing the wolves in the studio and stepping up to that easel to bring them to life. 2/12/2022 The CallingThe Calling. Oil on panel 8x10” study I did today that I totally fell in love with. SOLD.
It is invigorating to finally decide to dedicate your life to what brings you joy. Being an artist is a vulnerable path. You create something intensely personal and then open your heart to the world. Not everyone is so fearless. It’s actually not about being fearless. Don't let anybody tell you you can’t, or to not be afraid. It's okay to be afraid because you can't be brave or courageous without fear. The idea of being courageous is that even though you're scared, you just do the right thing anyway. By pursuing my art despite the risks and fears, I hope to inspire at least one person out there to do the same. I am acutely aware the support from everyone in [the instagram] community has encouraged me to continue sharing my art, and has been integral to my growth along this journey. I cannot believe that as of today, there’s now 10,000 of you following along on IG @aliza.and.her.monsters. But dont think it’s because I’m talented. I didn’t get here because of talent. Talent is a myth. It was hard work, putting in all the time and effort to study, practice and develop these skills– things that are so much more complex than ‘talent’. So you tell me you tried to draw but you can’t after making your first sketch. You decided that you had ‘no talent’. What if you had kept trying? Art is a skill like playing an instrument or driving a car. Given a lot of hard work and time, you can improve over time. And, like any skill, it requires practice; hours and hours, and days, and weeks, and months, and years of practice. Practice can be absolutely no fun- it is riddled with failure and self-doubt that make you question whether you can ever improve. Sometimes practice makes you feel like trash. It can feel scary because the prospect of failing can be paralyzing. It's okay to be afraid. Go pick up that paintbrush. ✌🏻 11/1/2021 All I Need VII, Tiny format“All I Need VII, tiny format.” 5x7” oil on panel, SOLD.
Part of my solo show January 2022, The Riot of Flowers @revolutionscoffee Sing your songs. Make your paintings. Write your love letter to the world.💕 Don’t be fooled by the All I Need series. These aren’t paintings, these are love songs. Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.- John Burroughs 🐰 11/3/2020 A Bear That Wasn'tNovember 3, 2020
Portrait of a Bear That Wasn’t Supposed to Be.Oil sketch on panel 12x16” .You can’t always plan for when bears will invade your studio. This panel was slated for something entirely different. And yet...🐻 Remember: a good idea doesn't always make a good painting. The novelist Nicholson Baker said that all art should answer one question: is life worth living? you and I already won the greatest lottery on the planet: We were born- if that's not a permission slip then I don't know what is. Hope you’re all staying safe, sane and healthy 10/24/2020 Finn, the second Cat Portrait, 10x10" SOLDOil sketch of @syrahfriend ‘s little monster
on panel 10x10x2”. Don’t ever apologize for the fire in you. Never say sorry being real. I don’t do many commissions but I love surprising people with pet portraits no one asked for 🤣🐱. For the record, this is a dog outfit over here. See studio gremlin highlight reel on profile for proof of this canine jurisdiction 🖤 10/22/2020 The Little Prince, 8x8" SOLD*** UPDATE: sold!*** “After the Little Prince.” Oil on cradled panel study 8x8x1”. .🦊.🤴. “Where are the people?” resumed the little prince at last. “It’s a little lonely in the desert…” “It is lonely when you’re among people, too.” Antoine de St Exupery . I have lived a great deal among grown-ups. I have seen them intimately, close at hand. And that hasn’t much improved my opinion of them. . . . This was a favorite growing up and worked well for my purposes trying to understand light this week. 10/21/2020 Hope begins in the dark II, study 8x8" SOLD**** UPDATE: Sold!🖤🔥****
. Art is the highest form of hope. Gerard Richter If we don’t have art, if we don’t have culture, then what the flip are we going to talk about? These are our stories right now, and these are all we got as far as I’m concerned. . I don’t care how you do it but I truly hope you have your own language to do so and the courage to share it. . I’ll just be over here, continuing to paint my own. 10/20/2020 Hope begins in the dark, study 8x8"10/17/2020 Do the Dance, base layerWORK IN PROGRESS. Baselayer acrylic and metallic on canvas 3x4’
. “DO THE DANCE, After Murray.” . I don’t have formal art training, but I always watch and read a lot of content about painting and go to galleries and museums as much as I can. Never once in my life have I ever been pulled into an abstract piece of work. I assumed this was a shortfall I’d just have to accept. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago I quite randomly stumbled into a very old article in the New York Times critique of Elizabeth Murray’s “Do the Dance.” The author describes this “as a late painting, made in 2005 after she had received the diagnosis of the brain cancer that would kill her two years later at age 66. It’s made of five separate canvases. In the lower left corner there’s a Gumby figure as a patient, attached to an IV. Above this is.a series of round canvases that are connected by a blue laddered line that might be a spinal column or row of sutures. On the right side are two biomorphic shapes yellow and lavender that occupy their own canvases, forming a couple struggling to stay connected.” And the next part of the article, this is what I haven’t been able to get out of my head. Maybe because the whole thing struck a nerve with imagery of ill patients I am sadly too familiar with as a nurse practitioner in tandem with the life of a painter who told her story in her work the whole way through. I don’t know, but it resonated on a level I didn’t expect: “At the bottom of it all, in the form of a long blue squiggle, lie the waters of Manhattan. “Do the Dance,” Murray tells us, when the end is near. The dance is life. And life, for her, was painting.” I can’t wait to see this one. 10/13/2020 Must've Been the Wind II, 36x24", SOLDOil and gold on canvas 24x36”
That emptiness. Like wind, you cannot see it, but you feel it. Some days, you wake up to a gale force and you must simply endure. and you will. and that’s what these horses are about. Sometimes it’s just a gentle breeze and other times the gust brings you to your knees. It’s always there. I am so envious of anyone who reads this And doesn’t understand the wind. 🐴. 10/11/2020 Inktober: the rabbit sketches I actually did all 31 days of this challenge but archived most of them for the sake of the grid 🤣
INKTOBER. Rabbit szn day 11. Word of the day: “disgusting” . You can pick your friends and your nose. Can’t pick your friends’ nose🐰. 10/11/2020 The Snarly Boi Sketch, TrashStudy in progress 16x20” oil and acrylic/gold on canvas
. Reference: @be.still.trev 🖤 . Whatever you’re feeling, you gotta know, is an appropriate response to this world. 10/10/2020 Must've Been the Wind, 36x24" SOLD* UPDATE: this is now SOLD to a very lovely person!
There’s a crack in everything That’s how the light gets in. LC To someone who, inspite of everything ,still chooses to be here. . Work in progress, oil and acrylic and drips on canvas 24x36” 10/6/2020 Ranger and Forest 10x10"Small portrait of two special ladies 🐶🐶
. Oil on fancy cradled panel 10x10x2” This is a lot smaller than I am comfy working with so this was a struggle. I say that in a good way, life is about choosing the struggles you enjoy having some times. . I think it's imperative to trust your artistic instincts. Painting is not about analysis and logic. Painting is about doing and then thinking. There are not many areas in life where you can apply that. You certainly don't want to walk in front of a bus with that frame of mind, but in painting, it's about creating problems, not always about solving problems. The way I get better is by making mistakes. Mistakes are part of the work, every single piece has atleast 1 full day (if I’m lucky) of thinking it’s all gone to hell. Work as much as you possibly can, make as much work as you can and always always trust your guts. And be careful around 🚌🐒 10/4/2020 The First Cat Portrait, Sully 8x10"Quick sketch, oil on cradled panel 8x10”. A Portrait of @sunglassesheadband ‘s Sully.
. 🐱. . I think it's important to work as much as you possibly can because that puts you at the ready for the moments when lightening strikes. This is not often, but when it does happen, your muscles are moving , the paint is workable, the brushes are cooperating. You're ready. (I don’t think I was ever ready for cats, but here we are). When I'm stuck and when the paintings suck and nothing is working - which happens all the time, I don't sit back and try to get inspired. There's no such thing for me. I'm inspired by work, so I keep painting. I will be the first to admit, I feel a little self-conscious when people comment on my level of output. You know it’s a rough time when your friends’ cats show up in your studio. Particularly when that cat is black. 😹 . 10/2/2020 The Second Original Chaos BunnyQuick sketch, oil on canvas 16x20”
. 🐇. . I’ll show you what I do: I paint. A lot. All of the time. But, you gotta understand, I might be the only painter alive Who doesn’t believe in a still life. Rabbit season. More on this to come. |
AuthorAliza and Her Monsters Archives
October 2022
CategoriesAll 2020 2021 Art Journey Art Marketing Business Oil Painting Series Studio Life Thoughts |
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