A lot of the time I’ll doodle to just process things, I notice that when I’m using my hands sometimes it allows me to feel into what’s going on and often let whatever emotions are there flow. So then my sketchbook becomes a space where I can relax, de-stress, (or turn up - sometimes I get hype off making art), work on ideas, and generally have a good time.

With this piece I was just making random marks until I saw something that could create a form. That turned into a figure, then I added a background. When I started to hit the pencils with lite gouache layers I kept asking, “what would make this piece more interesting to me?” And I got the idea for the talking Catfish. How I used to think was that it was better to come up with an idea and then execute the idea. Now I realize that you get ideas by doing the actions and it’s cool to build things up piece by piece. I feel like I learn a lot building pieces up in sections. And I still work ideas both ways, but I’m not as strict about it. There are multiple ways to approach making pieces or just working in the sketch book.

Now my sketchbook is a space where I can learn and have conversations with myself that benefit me. I think it’s interesting that the more I use my sketchbook the more it unfolds and offers me benefits.

I finished the line work for my sticker and I’m going to color it with illustrator soon. Right now I’m just designing stickers for me. When I pull out my sketchbook or something that has my stickers on it, they either make me laugh or remind me of good ideas. I took an online drawing class where the instructor found a new style through thinking “what if I was drawing while on vacation.” I thought it was an interesting concept and wanted to make a sticker in the vein of what if things that were considered hard became easy with a mindset shift.

I’ve been thinking about digital art more, or at least at the time of these drawings. I’m at one of those points where I’m connecting different mediums in my head and having them influence each other. Just Drawing in general has been more enjoyable and I’m starting to see how it really can be a foundation for so many other mediums. I enjoy doing digital drawing in photoshop, but found that it was difficult to take my computer around and work on pieces. Then I decided to get a tablet and explore procreate. Procreate is a great program and I’m still learning it. I’ve started putting money towards art supplies instead of random shit. Procreate pocket is a good investment if you rock with procreate. I took the drawing below and turned it into the drawing above on my first experience with the program. I’m excited to use the pocket version of procreate to make my IG stories. It’ll allow for for more hands on presentation that I design and curate. Also I think it’s just cool to do a little digital drawing on my phone.

Recently I was listening to a video on YT and it was talking about art and specifically art in the time of AI. It was talking on how AI will displace a lot of artists from their jobs, but also how art provides a role and service among the community. I think that a certain kind of futility can present itself, especially for digital work. I think for me it’s just important that I practice my skills and be open to the flow of creativity. When I went to art school I just wanted to get good at printmaking because I knew that I may not have access to presses outside of college. That was a good and bad thing, because the focus had me get good at printmaking. Though after college I wasn’t sure how to go about making my art. Now I’m having myself try different things and stay with what I like. It’s interesting how often working in other media brings back information to use in my favorite traditional mediums. There’s a affirmation in Julia Cameron’s the artist way “It’s safe for me to open myself up to myself up to more creativity.” I have often had concerns about that phrase because of low key fear of burn out. Now though I see balancing and living multiple aspects of my life currently I think it’s important to keep trying things and making work till it starts to click and align in life. If anything I keep making work because of what it provides me on an internal level.

I’ve been working on this digital painting for a few weeks and it really started in my sketchbook. The story is of a young man whose been having trouble connecting with the joy of life. After a night out with his new acquaintance he has a moment where he connects with the beauty of life and connections. The piece is called “A spark” and I used some of my own photography to add texture to the piece. I liked that. I’m still looking into how I can continue to develop a digital work flow, but also incorporate other elements to provide more substance to pieces.

02.11.25 Painting More

I Started working on this painting again. It’s been something that I’ve wanted to finish but didn’t quite know how. Thankful I’ve learned how to use procreate and Kilonotes on my iPad to try out different ideas before actually committing them to the Canvas.

Right before Thanksgiving of 2024 I realized that I wanted my YouTube’s and fine art to be more cinematic. Having my work have more depth and poetry so that I would like to look at it more, and just enjoy it more. My work has operated in Narrative and story telling for a long time, especially the clothing, the story telling just occurs differently.

With this painting it started with a story I heard about the water Lillie. How the Mayans would use the flower to see if their water reserves were good to use. The story went if the water was corrupted, the flower would not grow or would die. I wanted to use that symbolically, thinking about water as frozen emotion. The melting of frozen emotion or the clearing of the waters so new growth could happen.

Recently I bought a digicam off the Internet. It ended up not working, but it reminded me of the fun of taking pictures. I’ve got different projects in the works. Like a large run hoodie release, and some other things. But I know I’m going to be doing more photography this fall. I’ma keep exploring different cameras, but it’s been cool to see what I can do with what I already have. Also zines just on low heat.

Finished this series of 3 shirt designs in September. These were the last shirts I printed while working at the print shop. Now I have a new gig and I’m working towards building my own diy home setup. It was dope making these shirts because I knew what I wanted, but I didn’t know how to make it better so I just bounced the ideas off friends until I got some cool concepts. I incorporated those ideas into the design and got to play with text more. This is definitely a step in a advancement of design skill for me. Now I know to have more fun with it. Low key it became a group thing, even though I made the gear solo. Based on pictures of the homie.

Working on this painting. Every time I look at it I think to myself that I should focus on something else in that moment. But recently I’ve decided to work on it for ten minute increments, and I’ve been enjoying the sessions.

Some concept Sketches. I would build these up in real life through layers with silkscreen print on the top.

Put out a video flipping through the Pilot Run issue No.1 on my YouTube. If you search for “make more Zines” or “Tay Tay Pierre” you should be able to find it on YT. Another video about the cover construction will drop this week in August, 2024. I appreciate everything the zine has generated so far. Thank you

In the past I’ve struggled with getting photoshoots going. Recently I’ve just tried loosening the grip and trying more spontaneous photo shoots.

Just seeing if the people around me will not only model but also do the photography. I like the idea of getting different perspectives in the photos and I feel like other photographers can bring different things out of people. I think it’s a way to give props and credit to other people and make the process more fun.

I still like directing people as a photographer, but I also am excited and grateful about the results I’ve been getting lately.

The hoodie collab project with Orlando is going on an interesting direction and I’m looking forward to continuing to develop it.

I got these sweatpants online thinking that they would be cotton, they turned out to be polyester. Last night I was printing on them with water based ink. I like how they turned out.