MGPaints CA
This DC-based, born and raised East Coast artista is now a West Coast girl. Mustard and I made the journey (his first (and last, si Dios quiere) time flying) about two weeks ago now and, thanks to getting rid of mostly everything I own, everything is now unpacked and in place. Mustie is enjoying having multiple rooms with various window views, plus a patio on which to dip his toe in the water of outdoor catting; and I am loving the mild weather, the adjacent bike path, extra square footage, and of course being reunited with Kyle, my long-distance love of the last 10 months.
I feel super lucky and happy and other than the car battery dying randomly, everything has gone surprisingly smoothly, for which I am immensely grateful.
Of course, while I was going through this transition, the country was, and is, going through a bigger, terrifying and righteous and beautiful transition. I'm still navigating what is appropriate to post on social media during this time of turmoil. Social media is a small business's bread and butter, but I'm not sure how to do it right now without sounding tone deaf to all the fucked-up things that have happened throughout U.S. history and are just now finally being brought to the surface. I want to paint, but I want to paint for the movement. So I'm figuring that out now. What does that look like? What do I create? How do I use my skills and my materials to encourage this amazing overthrow?
I'm grateful for the last two weeks. I'm grateful for my own transition and for the cultural political transition that is finally beginning to pick up real speed. Black lives matter. Black lives are amazing and beautiful and important. I plan to start painting again soon, and to do it in a meaningful way. These links provide a wealth of information and resources to educate ourselves with and to volunteer to do pro-bono creative and design work for BLM. Let's go. Let's see this all the way through.
Crowd-sourced list of resources
Attendees at a peaceful BLM protest in Irvine, California