NOT GOING BACK NOW

I love how words can sway you from one mood into another, serving as a quick portal into a more aligned identity, a better feeling, and beyond. This piece contains the phrase Not Going Back Now, a quote from Rox by The Aliens. Like the best songs, it makes me remember who I am and what I’m capable of. The quote itself extends that feeling, and pinpoints it in such a way that I just had to paint it. It reminds me how far I have come in my journey.

As long as I’ve been painting space, I’ve been adding lettering across the imagined light years. Now that I’m thinking about it, I have been using words in my art for as long as I can remember. I would pull apart books and magazines to remake words and sentences for zines and collages, or add lyrics and phrases to canvases.
I am obsessed with how the two come together and melt into one in these pieces. To me it feels like the words can melt into my subconscious.
I’ve even covered up the words for a collector who wanted a piece enough to ask for me to paint over the words, because they didn’t fit with the vibe of the situation of the person she was gifting it to, and it was like they were never there when I was done.
I loved that piece as it was but her desire to gift it to a friend in need swayed me and I did end up painting over them. It was easy and all down to the techniques that make the words pop but also blend into their canvas. It is a really fun and meditative practice that always gives magical results, whether adding the letters or taking them away. Though I’ve only done the latter once! It might be interesting to do it for the purpose of creating a more subtle, subconscious piercing piece. That’s an idea! I’ll post about it if I try one like that. Which phrase, lyric, line from a movie, or favorite affirmation would you splash across a space scape? Or a different motif? I also love to do it just on a colorful background and I’d like to do more of that as well.

Thanks for reading! Let me know what line you’d want to see on a canvas.

xd