Ultra Violent

This piece is called ‘Ultra Violent.’I specifically chose the imagery to represent a very dark mood I was in.

Over the years, I’ve learned that you have to embrace all emotions. I used to try to ignore or suppress uncomfortable feelings. Distractions are temporary (like Netflix, drinking, or working out), and sooner or later you have to face whatever is bothering you. Instead of running away from the things that repel us, we must go towards what hurts.

Sitting with those icky emotions makes them less sticky and more temporary. It’s kind of like ripping off a bandaid. If you ignore the task of ripping it off, you may induce anxiety of the act. Instead, even though you know it will hurt, you just have to rip it off. Once you do, you realize that it wasn’t that bad.

Take sadness as an example. With this emotion you just have to sit with it and become comfortable with it. Instead of trying to pretend like your not sad, familiarize yourself with your current mood’s contours and textures. How does it feel? If it had a color, what color would it be? When have you felt this way before? Having an understating of these emotions will help define its limitations and make them more fleeting.

This is totally just my opinion of course. The painting above was inspired by an angry phase I was going through. I tapped into it and guess what? That feeling is now gone.