There’s a strange moment I've observed in my life as an artist where the work starts changing before I realized that I was changing.
That’s what happened with Sun Dance. Check out the finished video on my Instagram page here
I started the piece before my trip to Europe—just a quiet acrylic painting, another West Coast landscape like many I’d done before. It was calm, soft and safe. But something about it felt like it needed time… pause.
And then I left. Paris. Bilbao. Lisbon. Museums. Subways. Solitude. Something broke open.
I found myself standing in front of a Van Gogh. A darker, moodier piece—thick with impasto, unapologetic with colour. It felt alive. Messy. Human. And it made me want to explore, I was inspired to make some changes.
When I came home, I pulled Sundance back out with a stash of new oil paints, and that's where my new chapter began.
The brush got heavier. The strokes got louder. I let texture flow, the thickness of the paint guided me in a way I hadn't experienced before.I stopped trying to replicate something beautiful. And instead… I just let it move through me.
Looking at Sundance now, it feels like a relic of a version of me in transition. One foot in the old world—one foot stepping forward. It bridges the jump I was about to take in my work.
I think that’s what creative evolution looks like most of the time.
Not a clean break. Not some big rebrand. Just a slow surrender to what’s already shifting beneath the surface.
What This Taught Me
If you’re feeling stuck, burnt out, or uninspired— maybe you’re not supposed to “get back on track.” Maybe you’re not behind. Maybe you’re between.
Between versions. Between chapters. Between ways of being.
And maybe the next version of you doesn’t arrive all at once. Maybe it arrives in layers.
One messy brushstroke at a time.
“Sundance” will be on view at my Open Studio May 11th, 2025 — alongside some of the first abstract works I made after this shift. If you’re curious about the evolution, I’d love for you to see it in person.
Thanks for reading.
– Jordan
