Beyond the brush...
Recently when I was branding my business, I was presented with the challenge of identifying exactly what I do as an artist and who I am. My fellow arty friends came up with fantastical and sensible slogans but seriously I was stumped. It has taken me 50 years on this planet to finally come to terms with my quirky nature and begin to embrace the things that set me apart. Isn’t it funny (sad) That even when we are young we all want to be personality beige. We can be shades of beige, and even stretch to taupe or olive. But please... not electric blue or God forbid hot pink. Those lime green girls are just weird....
Beige goes with any decor, matches any outfit, it just fits in beautifully. Some of us are special beige and wear a lustre of satin or pearl, and the most popular beige babes sparkles with glitter. But in general our opinions are neutral , we are dead set on fitting in and just belonging. Unfortunately for some us, this sort of blending in causes immense stress and a constant denial of the colourful wild child inside of us. It causes our uniqueness, our creativity to be voluntarily suffocated to death, as we lock our true identity in the attic and pray the world never perceives we are faking it.
I remember for decades shopping with my friends or even myself to be honest was an anxiety trigger. What style do I like, why do i feel like a dork in sporty clothes. I love boho grunge but also slinky nails and doc martens. Oh God who the hell am I. Why cant i conform to a style, a type, a genre. Shrink....please don’t ask me what music I like. “Oh i love all types of music “ in a cool broad Beige description. What if they discover I listen to country , classical and also punk... oh the shame.
Now labels, let’s talk about them. We allow others to stick them literally on us. Ive worn a few, Rachel the shy nerd, Rachel the hairdresser, Rachel the blonde solo mother, Rachel the artist. Which sucks to be reduced to this one dimensional sticker that is sometimes impossible to rip off. Alternatively we can try our hardest to maintain a label the same as those we admire or covet.
But what colour are we really under our beige nylon stockings, What opinions do we secretly hold but hide? All questions so interesting and brave to ask ourselves. Wouldn’t freedom have a new meaning if we freed ourselves from having to fit in. From having to explain or justify ourselves. We are creatures of unique individual DNA codes... we are not clones, being fabulous is not a popularity contest. Being accepted by others shouldn’t be before accepting ourselves. Is our fear of rejection sabotaging our authenticity ? Shine true my friends. You are far..... beyond amazing xxx
Much love Rachel ….Beyond the brush.
