Nice to meet you, I'm Marin...
This is me.
My name is Marin Alexis and I fancy myself an artist.
I say "fancy myself" because I am more than reluctant to call myself an official artist when I can't put it on my my tax returns... Yet. I'm working on it....
That is what this blog is going to be all about...
How I move from "fanciful/reluctant art hobbyist"
- to -
Official Art Professional Extraordinaire
So let's begin...
Here's the genesis of "Marin The Artist"
(which also happens to be the story of why my Etsy shop is called The Ruby Wall.
Its 2004... a younger, less responsible, probably-more-fun-and-definitely-less-tired Marin had just moved into her very first apartment in Maryland... woo hoo!
There she is... (I had to do some digging to find her.... #tbt)
Behind me (besides an unmade bed) is my version of a Ruby Wall...
Two Big A$$ Canvases I painted red with acrylic paint and ZERO knowledge of anything art related.
OK, not zero.
I always LOVED art and artists.... not to be hackneyed but here are my greats...
- Pablo Picasso
- Gaudi
- Salvador Dali
- Rembrandt
- Monet
- Manet
- Mr. Big from Sex and the City....
... what's that now?
YES, Mr. BIG... He, and the set designers of that masterpiece of an HBO phenomenon, had me completely dead set on painting one wall of my brand new, first-ever, apartment RUBY RED.
In retrospect, this would have been a TERRIBLE idea... but frankly, you don't need 20/20 hindsight when you have an opinionated and sensible father...
Marin: Dad! I'm so excited. I'm like a for-real Grown up!
Marin's Dad: YUP... welcome to the real world, baby. It ain't fun. Keep your wits about you...
Marin: ... yeah. yeah... HEY... What do you think of an accent wall?! ONE Bright Red Wall in MY new bedroom...
Marin's Dad: Hmmmm... well maybe you ought to rethink that...
Marin: BUT....
Marin's Dad: Hey... what if you went to the art supply and bought two BIG A$$ Canvases and painted THOSE Red and hung them on the wall.
Marin: *Grumble grumble grumble* ..... hmmm.....
So that is EXACTLY what I did. I bought the largest canvases from Plaza that would fit in my little car, two small tubs of red acrylic paint (because it dries the fastest) and a pack of the cheapest brushes I could find.
They started out being just a matte red... simple uniform strokes on the white canvas. Then I started to play with it... have some fun....
Swirls and figures and shapes and splatters and arcs...
It was honestly the most fun I had had in weeks...
(in fairness, I was a paralegal at a law firm working 60-80 hours a week - the bar was set LOW...)
BUT... a few days later I went back to the art supply.... and back again..... and again....
I didn't know it but I was discovering my passion... and isn't that how it always is?
You don't find your passion... it finds you.
You don't actively seek it out... how could you? Most of us stumble upon something that makes our breath come a little faster; heart beat a little harder...
That is what this website and blog are about.
My pursuit of becoming more engrossed in and occupied by my passion for art.
I am not classically trained. I am not technically savvy. But MANY of us are not.
I want to use this forum as a way to start a dialog with you. To learn what you know and teach you what I have have learned.
I want to show you all the unwitting, unknowing and deliberate professors I have had along the way that have shown me how to be the fanciful artist I am, and will lead me to becoming the artist I want to be...
Each of us has a Ruby Wall... a starting point...
now... lets take a walk and see where we end up...
See you guys soon!
-Marin
