Looking Forward: 2024 Studio Work & Changes

I’m eagerly looking forward to being more active in my Studio in 2024!

There are threads of fascination, curiousity and creativity that I can’t wait to follow. I hope you’ll join me in the journey!

Finding the thread in my work:

This is a Hydrocal cast from my original sculpture of this wild-spirited horse. I love the textures revealed by ink and the lightest brushing of white paint. I’m going to follow my gut on this intrigue and see where it takes me. The plan is to go LARGER!

Touchpoints for my Studio work in the coming year are taken from the work I’ve done previously, that I want to explore further. Emotional responses to my subject conveyed through the use of texture, tone, dynamic energy, a sense of history and detail will be the watchwords upon which I build a foundation for my Studio efforts. I’ve shown a few photos here of work I’ve created recently that speak to me of these things and that will become part of my process. I’m pretty excited to devote some time to curiousity and exploration! I’ve highlighted some of my thoughts on the images I’ve shared in this post. As you read them I’d love to hear your response so please leave a comment or send me an email (or hit reply to my newsletter - I’d love a real conversation!)

Yes my work will be for sale and I’ll post it to my Shop here on my website when its ready for a new home. I offer my work to my Studio Friends email folks first so please Join Me via this link:

Story Telling, Symbolism, Heart:

These two, Wolf and Bear, are part of my Story-Telling series. They each represent one of my four kids. I have more to sculpt to finish the story series. I’m so looking forward to continuing my sculpting journey in 2024! I have some ideas that are a bit BIGGER than wearable objet d’art!

Along with happy anticipation for current and future Studio work I’m needing to reconsider how I bring my work to the world.

Recently I nearly lost my Instagram account so I’m slowing my activity on that app to consider how to best use it: honestly I do not trust that platform.

I have limited energy and need to use it for productivity. IG is more like a demanding, abusive partner than a true friend to most of us. I can't freely grow as an Artist if I'm distracted by the "should's" and "comparisonitis" of trying to keep up a presence on IG. I'll post there only occasionally for a while I think. Maybe I’ll be sharing insights into what I find inspiring in my IG stories? Walks with my dogs, snuggles with my cats and visits with my horse sound so fun.

I'd rather take a break from the mental pressure to perform there and go back to writing here on my Studio Stories blog on my website and sharing a curated experience with my Studio Friends via email.

Instead of trying to appease the algo for now I’m may build my portfolio on Flickr. Flickr remains a beautiful platform that showcases the artist’s photos, offers the ability to categorize, organize into albums, join groups of like minded artists and supports the artist by supporting links in image descriptions and more. At the moment Flickr feels more like building a partnership and (hopefully) a community than anything I’ve seen so far.

Besides all of these things, I really need to settle in to my Studio work; exploring, developing and growing as an artist is my priority at this time.

If that interests you please join me on my Studio Friends email newsletter via the link below and even share it with someone you think might enjoy it too.

I also look forward to hearing from you! Feel free to hit Reply and lets have a conversation.

~ Renée

P.S. You might notice I'm sending my "news" to you via a different platform going forward. I'm experimenting for the next little while to find a good fit for my business needs and budget.

For the foreseeable future I'm planning on using Mailchimp instead of Substack. There are other email service providers that are more beautiful (hello Flodesk ;)) however I can’t justify the expense at the moment, when I only intend to send an email to my Studio Friends once or twice a month.

“Epic Love”

My most recent sculpted fine silver horse pendant has helped clarify my path forward in the Studio. Not strictly because it has been crafted in timeless precious metal but the intertwining of emotion, texture, detail and dynamic energy are my guiding values.