Hi y'all; how are ya? Things are going well on my end, just got a new papasan chair for my living room, and it is so comfy! Speaking of comfort – it's been storming over Texas for a week or so now, and I don't know about y'all, but I love the rain. Stormy weather always gets me inspired; something about the juxtaposition of the chaos outside to the coziness that can be found inside just gets those ideas flowing, I guess. Through that inspiration, came this strap: She Was the Storm!

This strap was a storm in and of itself; I went through a lot of trial and error (as I'm sure you can see in the beginning of the video haha) before I got to the painterly style I wanted to capture. It's normal to go through stages of a project where the piece just... does not look the way you want it to, and it's your job to figure out how to make it work. Art is a neverending task of compromise; trying to marry the picture you have in your head to the actual piece you're physically creating. I think the same can be said about life; we all go through stages where fate keeps dealing punches, but it's up to us to decide how to react – do we let circumstance overtake us, or do we become stronger because of it?

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." - Gandalf

We can't change the cards we're dealt in life, but we can control what we do with them and after every storm, we can come out a little bit stronger. Sometimes storms feel like they'll last forever, but they will always pass and the sun will always come out just a bit brighter than it had before. Through our storms, we discover just how powerful we really are, and after all, flowers need both rain and sunshine to grow.

Now for the strap! As I stated previously, this one gave me a bit of trouble in the beginning, but I'm glad I kept going with the idea I had in my head and by the end of the process, I really enjoyed this style and this strap. Kind of wild how, as artists, we have all these styles we fluxuate between, but somehow it can always be recognized as our art. Anyways, I had a lot of fun with this one, and I am always game to draw some pretty clouds haha!