Keep your feet grounded...but always rise above.

I wake up at 3am almost every morning. My body wants to sleep...
my mind wants to create.

We battle.

Blade to blade, tossing and turning.

I have to deliver art today. I'm not ready.

How can I not be ready?

Have I found you? Flightless Bird?

Last month I was sitting outside sketching and a bird swooped in and slammed into the window
sitting next to me. Snapping its neck.  Followed I'm sure by the suck out of air as it hit the ground.

I picked it up, cradled it in my hands and watched it choke on its own blood; dying moments later.

SNAP. The sound your thumb and middle finger make when force-ably rubbed together and momentum throws your middle finger into your palm.
SNAP.

A lot of my artwork is representative of  a moment in time, a movement, a way for me to collect a vision and tell a story with it. Usually its my own. I can ruler the lines, define the content...make it up as I go.

This collection is a bit different. I'm trying to create artwork for a space, tell their story, collect ideas that spring from their water source. It's just new to me.

When the bird flew into the window it just so happened to be at a time when I was studying the swoop. This swoop that the birds made into the valley is the inspiration for the art. I keep repeating this new style of wave I've been painting since last Feb. My lines are becoming easier, the flow is natural, the space fills with movement and energy.

Being consistent and having a body of work that shows evolution - mountains vs. seas. I'm just a little out of my comfort zone.

Study the swoop; pick up the carnage. Move on.

I have to accept the pause in the line, the static on the monitor, the time it takes for the thumb to cross over the finger, that sound...its more like a shift than a snap.

That's where I am at. The moment before the bird hits the window because the reflection was accurate yet false. Misleading. An oasis of doubt before triumph of passing on to something else....
the unknown.

So it was.
Here I am.
Talula
Talula.

Climbing under a barbed wire fence by the railroad ties...

Where I go

Natalie Merchant

Climbing under
a barbed wire fence
by the railroad ties
climbing over
the old stone wall
I am bound for the riverside
well I go to the river
to soothe my mind
ponder over
the crazy days of my life
just sit and watch the river flow
find a place
on the riverbank
the green rushes grow
see the wind
in the willow tree
in branches hanging low
well I go to the river
to soothe my mind
ponder over
the crazy days of my life
watch the river flow
ease my mind & soul
where i go
well I will go to the river
from time to time
wander over
these crazy days in my mind
watch the river flow
where the willow branches grow
by the cool rolling waters
moving gracefully and slow
child it's lovely
let the river take it all away
the mad pace, the hurry
the troubles, the worries
just let the river take them all away
flow away

"Those fishing lures thrown in the cold and clean..."

Sometimes I just walk into a space and think;
I want to put art here.

I want to tell the story of this place, these people, this energy.

It doesn't happen all the time. Sometimes I'm asked to put art somewhere and when I walk in,
I just know its not the vibe I want.

Asheville Adventure Rentals has a GREAT vibe, GREAT energy...I only wish that going into this art project I had personally had more time to use their services and get on the water with them. There is, however, only so much time in the day and I'm grateful that I am as slammed as I have been. I will never complain about this being my work.

So, River Link in Asheville is a big reason why AAR was able to get the funding to get their business up and going. River Link "is a regional non-profit spearheading the economic and environmental revitalization of the French Broad River and its tributaries as a place to live, work and play."

http://www.riverlink.org/

This is the reason why I decided to use 1. Found wood, materials, and "doors" as visuals in the artwork. River Link has opened many doors for the area and for businesses on the French Broad.

That's a pretty great story to tell in art.

2. Dictonary pages for me are always about the value of words. "Choose your words impeccably", speak honestly, mean what you say. The pages chosen for this body of work will tell the story of what it is AAR is doing on the water. Adventure. River. Stream. etc...

3. Inspiration: the inspiration for me for this body of work came from the past month that I spent studying and sketching the way the birds swoop into the valley. The invisible lines they make in the sky. The way they gracefully soar and trail. I fell in love with the movement of it and decided to use it in this body of work.

Still havent decided on a song. I have been listening to A LOT of music hoping it hits me. I think I'm just stuck on the Iron and Wine song Flightless Bird, American Mouth. I'm just not 100% convinced I don't want to use it because of what it means to me, personally, vs finding a song that tells a bigger story about the artwork.
"Now I'm a fat house cat
Nursing my sore blunt tongue
Watching the warm poison rats
Curl through the wide fence cracks
Pissing on magazine photos
Those fishing lures thrown in the cold and clean
Blood of Christ mountain stream"

 It will happen. No reason to force it. I keep wishing Bob Dylan would give me something. Talula loves Bob Dylan. That's on the side of one of my artworks out in the world somewhere. So great. xo

 Suggestions always welcomed and appreciated. xo. Back to work.

Time to pick a song...any ideas?

Time to pick a song.

I've been avoiding this.

The song, in regards to a body of work, always tells the real story of where I am.

Echoes was the first song for my very first collection. It was during probably the hardest time in my life...and these lyrics:

"And no one showed us to the land
And no one knows the where's or why's
But something stirs and something tries
And starts to climb towards the light"

My art was the light..and in all of it; I knew that if I kept towards it - I would succeed.

That same summer I was given my first solo exhibition. I was also gifted a cash register that I was disassembling and using as the assemblage portion of my show. The song was "Cash Money" by The Beautiful Girls (who sadly just played their last gig together last night in AUS.). The song represented
a lot of things that I was going thru at that time...I was just starting to do my art full time. I was single, living alone, putting myself out there and fronting as the artist/person I really was. The real me.

"Cash money,
aint got no use for you.
Unless you can buy me true love.
And it's funny,
how many time's they've proved,
that the only true fortune you can save,
is the truth."

I titled my show "True Fortune" and to this day it is still a collection that I strive to measure up to with all "themed" shows there after.


Valentines Day rolled around and even though I'm not a big fan or celebrator of consumer generated holidays. I thought that having a show around this one would give people an alternative option for something to do. "Cant Help Falling in Love" was the Elvis song that I choose because 1. I was trying to appeal to a larger clientele, and  2. because of this lyric; "Darling, so it Goes"...So it goes; such meaning and history with those words. This was a time in my life when I was letting go...and still celebrating loves that I had had..without regret.

The next show was titled "Lost and Found" and the song was Echo and the Bunnymen
"Lost and Found"

"She will tell you her cathedral
has no windows and no doors
and you know she doesn't need you
and that's why you want her more...

As your heart melts down
you are lost not found"

The windows and doors theme is prevalent in my work and as I approach this new collection for Asheville; I am relying heavily on these visuals for inspiration. This was a body of work where I was trying to distract the viewers with color and whimsy...but also emotionally depict the moment in time that something is lost...and the same in the moment that you find something. A split second that weighs heavy on us.

Moving to North Carolina...I was gifted with new visuals - I finally surrendered completely (on my knees) to my art. This was it; no turning back. My first show was titled "Circles" and the Tori Amos song "Cloud on my Tongue" constantly stuck in my head while I was painting this collection.

"Someone's knocking on my kitchen door, leave the wood outside, what,
All the girls here are freezing cold.
You can go now, you can go now, you can go now, you can go now."

Ok..I'm going to start to pull this together so it makes more sense: Consistency is key and the art, lyrics, words, subject all tell a story. I always hope the art is as good as the music that inspires it. That it tells as story..that the story is personal yet universal in many ways. Intimate, evoking yet spirited.


At the Cloud on my Tongue period I was really wanting to be left alone. I just wanted to paint, and work and just...leave the wood outside, - you can go. The reoccuring theme of doors, windows, etc is evident here...
and throughout each collection and each of these songs inspired the next two shows.


Sinew, Fiber, Heart.
I still suck air when I say that. My second (now) annual Valentines Day show.
The song was "Desperado". The lyrics "Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, open the gate"

Its hard to believe this was less than a year ago.  Its hard to believe that I'm still the same person...
that this artist has won; she is steady. She is strong. She believes.
This collection was about the things that hold us down in regards to our heart.

Moving on to July, my summer show. "Black". If you could see me right now you would know that I have shaken my head in the realization of how heavy this all weighs on me. The lyrics, "Oh, and twisted thoughts that spin round my head, I'm spinning, oh,
I'm spinning, how quick the sun can drop away"

Mermaid Down. Is she still down? if it's true that the song and the art tells my story - what will this next collection say? Where am I? I'll tell you where I am right now...

I'm still avoiding picking a song.

The original idea was all about the swoop. The way the birds swooped into the valley. The body of work needs to tell the story of the rivers, and the movement in them. Undulation. Sway.

The opposite of static. 

Originally I was leaning towards Iron and Wine, Flightless Bird...Maybe tomorrow when I start throwing around this wood it will come to me....

..you tinge my spark.

There is A LOT going on in Talula's world.

In gratitude.

I am so thankful for the opportunity to create art. I am equally appreciative in being able to
share this art, and to do this as my  work. I am dedicated. I am focused. I am excited to do this for a long time coming. I would not be able to do this without the constant support of my clients, friends, and family.

Thank you.

Tomorrow is the ribbon cutting ceremony for The Sleepy Dog and The Artful Dog at The Soapy Dog in The River Arts District! The end of this month is the ribbon cutting ceremony for Asheville Adventure Rentals. I am lucky enough to be creating a body of work specifically for their location that vibes off of the River Community here in Asheville. I am dedicating every moment for the rest of this month to creating that artwork.

The holidays are right around the corner. I am booking up quickly and expect to be happily painting non-stop the entire month of November into December to complete orders for clients to gift to their loved one's for Christmas.

I have fallen in love. Finally.

I heart art. You are my surrender. You are my soul. You are the one and only thing that I count on. You wake me up each morning with a smile on my face. You tire me enough that I fall asleep soundly. You gift me freedom of choice. You decorate my palette, you tinge my spark.