Troy Stith - The Journey of An Artist
Hello everyone! I'm happy to be apart of such an amazing growing community of progressive thinkers. Let me start off by telling you a little about myself.
I'm originally from Columbus, OH but I just recently landed in Bend, OR after a 100 day road trip camping across the United States with my wife. We're a at a point in our lives where we didn't have children or a mortgage and we wanted more from our day to day life. Anchoring to that thought, we began the process of preparing for a HUGE change in our lives. Long story short, for now, we sold most of our belongings, put the rest in storage, quit our jobs, packed up our car, said "goodbye" to our families and hit the road to explore our country's beauty and to find a new home.
Besides our journey, I plan on sharing and telling you more about my art. I'm a traditional oil painter exploring the subconscious and the source of creation through intuitive paintings (and monotypes sometimes) that blur the border between surreal, abstract, portrait, and landscape genres. Not only will I be sharing my work, but also the process that goes into their creation. From thought, or the lack thereof, to the actual process of working with materials. I'm looking forward to opening a conversation about the source of creativity and what it means to "turn off" during those intense moments of creation.
Flyer from my first solo show.
I'm sure I'm not alone on this one, but I tend to keep my Instagram more up to date than my site, so check out both to see my current and past work. Enough about me for now, here's some of my art and pics from the road!
Happy creating to all of you Steemians!
Art from my solo show:
The Subtle Nature of Being - Oil on panel - 18" x 24"
In Praise and Appreciation - Monotype - 11" x 14"
A few pics from the road:
Badlands National Park - South Dakota
Wyoming
Zion National Park - Utah
Bryce Canyon National Park - Utah
Joshua Tree National Park - California
General Sherman at Sequoia National Park - California
Creating on the road:
Sawtooth Mountains - Idaho
Hell's Canyon
Since landing in Bend, I've been busy job hunting, getting settled, teaching myself to code, and of course painting!
Macrocosm - Oil on panel - 8" x 10"
Destitute Defiance - Oil on panel - 8" x 10"
Mentalscape 01 - Oil on panel - 6" x 8"
Mentalscape 02 - Oil on panel - 6" x 8"
WIPs (Work In Progresses):
Well, that's my life in a nutshell at the moment. I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you better and sharing my constantly changing journey as an artist.
Nice pictures.... and welcome to steemit...
Thank you!
Welcome! Love the pictures, and the artwork!
Thanks a lot! I really appreciate it.
welcome to steemit @citizenboredom, best regards..
hopefully you feel at home here. 😊
Thank you! It seems like a great place.
Welcome and I’m so glad I stumbled upon you here. Your work is amazing and what you write about the creative process is very interesting and inspiring. I sold off all my belongings about two months ago and am in a fairly similar situation as you. Happy holidays and enjoy Bend (it’s such beautiful nature there!)
Same here! It definitely seems like our lives are on similar paths. I've also been into spirituality for quite a few years now. Congrats on freeing yourself from the shackles of the norm. Thank you, same to you! Bend is a great place. I definitely plan on writing more about my creative process, so I look forward to continuing the conversation.
I am following you and looking forward to your future content. I’ve somehow been trying to do this for so long, and now I’m here, for about 2,5 months and then heading to northern Spain to rebuild a farm my friend bought. What teachings or philosophies of spirituality do you follow or practice?
I've studied everything from Pagan traditions, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shamanism, and quite a few other paths. I've found that most foundations are the same throughout and most are trying to tell you the same thing, in their own way. Have you ever read any work from Joseph Campbell? He really delves into all the similarities shared from myth to religion and how it's all tied together. One of my favorite authors on the subject of the Hero Journey.
Sorry for the late reply... You have indeed studied quite a broad field of teachings. I’m glad you say that the foundations are mostly the same, because this is my observation also. The works of Campbell seem interesting, will put his name on my to read list. Hope you had a relaxing xmas time!