The Artist behind the Blog

Welcome!
My art is my diary. Each piece stems from my personal experiences and expresses a day of happiness, loneliness, sadness, frustration or pain. The viewer is able to take a glimpse into my life by looking at my paintings. Whenever I paint I allow my hand to work with my heart. The canvas or paper is just a means of transferring my thoughts and emotions into brush strokes, color and movement. I can go through a whole range of emotions when I'm painting.

As an artist and art teacher, I strongly believe that the main purpose of the arts is for healing.  They make life a more pleasant experience. Art enriches people in their daily living. My goal is to create paintings that will nourish, delight and fill the mind with a sense of wonder. Holding a brush in my hand becomes an extension of something within, a pouring out of myself, so to speak. That makes me vulnerable in a sense, but my painting is really a wanting to give of myself.

Inspiration for my vivid and bright color palette comes from my native Cayman Islands, where coconut palm trees pervade the landscape and white sandy beaches stretch for miles dotted by quaint cottages of various colors and white picket fences. I have been drawing and painting for most of my life. Also a musician, some of my paintings contain expressions of jazz, others of serenity and calmness. My vivid, colorful work is representational, a blend of impressionism and abstract. I specialize in simplifying forms, utilizing color to express the essence of the subject matter. Working toward simplification of ideas and form, objects or ideas are reduced to a few elements that complement one another.

I look forward to sharing with you.

You can find my work here:


http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/gina-hulse.html

http://shopvida.com/collections/voices/gina-hulse

You can also follow me on Facebook.

The humble paintbrush

Over the last few weeks I have been recovering from a major surgery that has kept me in bed a lot.  Needless-to-say, it has been very challenging to even hold a paint brush, much less paint.

Neuropathy in my hands and feet cause my fingers to ache, the joints to swell as a result of lupus flares, and the cold weather that we have been experiencing has been really difficult to handle.

A few weeks ago I had an art show. Since then I managed to paint a little...just one day actually.  My paintbrushes, I am ashamed to say have been sitting in soapy water since then.  I have looked at them several times and told myself that I really need to take care of them before they are destroyed.  Today I finally broke down and washed and cleaned those brushes.  They are fine, but it got me thinking about just how little respect is given to the humble paintbrush that provides so much beauty for us.

Not too much emphasis is placed on the importance of the paintbrush that shapes and forms each stroke of the paintings that I create.  I actually took the time to search out each one, spending some decent money on them because I wanted them to last a while.  I did not want to skimp and end up with brushes that frayed, leaving bristles that become part of the paintings.

Each one of these brushes have created magical work for me. Each brush has brought my thoughts, adventures, experiences into reality.

Let me not forget their significance once again!

Why I became a VIDA Voice Fashion Designer and Collaborator

As an Artist, I have always had big dreams. One of those dreams was to have my art become "wearable art." I had always admired artists like Bob Mackie and Antthony Mark Hankins who had their own clothing designs with original art. Why not me?

So when I received an email about collaborating with a company called VIDA, I was certainly intrigued.

Erica, Artist Relations Manager from VIDA, stated in her email, "I am writing today regarding your artwork, with the hope that you will consider collaborating with us. I am writing from VIDA, a Google Ventures backed company that brings artists and makers together from around the world to create original, inspiring apparel in a socially conscious way. We are looking for artists with amazing technical skill and truly original work. We came across your artwork, and we’d love to work with you to translate your art into fashion.....converting 2D art into beautiful, quality apparel and accessories."

I took a couple of days to think about it....and to research the company. Of course I wanted to make sure that this company was legit. It turns out that VIDA was "a socially conscious, fashion platform that connects with makers around the world and digitally prints their artwork onto scarves, shirts and t-shirts."

You can read more about my journey and reasons for becoming a VIDA designer here.

http://hubpages.com/style/Why-I-became-a-VIDA-Voice-and-Designer