I wrote about why I like owls already but it was awhile ago. I had been trying to just get a website up and I thought, “Oh, I guess I should write something on it, maybe in that blog section, right?” So, I did and then I got busy doing some other stuff because I like to make art more than I like rambling on about it (though honestly, I like that, too).
Anyway, I came back to this website, because people ask about my owl stuff and I don’t have much to show in terms of a site. So, here I am again! And when I read through the two articles I wrote, I thought, “OMG, these are so freakin’ dry! What is this, a research paper or something?”
I’m going to leave those two articles up, even though I feel like deleting them. So you can read them if you like, but they don’t really set the kind of playful, enchanted, magical tone that I want here. I have an undergraduate degree in art history and I also read a lot, so I think I was wrongly approached blog writing as if I were preparing an essay or something. It works in school but not for a site where I want to act as if I play all day.
But I will ask for forgiveness from the art gods and tell you, in my fun voice, why I really like owls!
It All Started with a Quiz
Here I am talking about school again. But to be honest, this is how the whole owl as a main subject for me began.
I was majorly art blocked at the time. I had been going through some major grief issues due to my mom passing away then my spouse passing away from cancer and being a single mom of four small children. Before all that, I had always used art to try to maintain positive thinking. I was really into flowers as a subject for awhile because they looked so happy and hopeful. I also liked animals and people. I was also really into realism, even though I had a lot of art school training in animation.
Then it all just stopped. I couldn’t make any of that stuff anymore. I wanted to make art still. I never lost that creative fire thank goodness, but I just drew a total blank on what I wanted to make anymore. I fooled around with various things for a long time but nothing ever really stuck.
Anyway, one night, I was just wandering around aimlessly online one after the kids were asleep, and you know how it is when you do that. You just do random things like read articles on dumb laws that still exist that no one knew about (for example, apparently it is illegal in Arizona to let a donkey sleep in a bathtub and illegal in Georgia to eat fried chicken with utensils) or watch videos of cats falling into fish tanks.
Once I’d giggled over all that, I wound up on a site where you took quizzes to find out other things – this time things about yourself that you may not know about. So, after I took two quizzes, one to find out which Anne of Green Gables character I would be (Diana Barry) and which Disney Princess I am most like (Belle), I landed on “What’s Your Spirit Animal?”
Well, you know where this is going. Obviously, I got The Owl.
I hadn’t even been thinking of owls much until then, though when I do animal art, birds, in general, are one of my absolute favorite subjects. According to the quiz, I vibed with all the symbolism of an owl. Intuition, wisdom, mystery, and clairvoyance. I’m also introverted and most active at night.
It does make sense based on what I know about myself. However, I don’t know how wise I am (who does, really?) and the clairvoyance thing…well, I’ve had freaky things happen where I just knew something, without knowing how I knew it, and then it turned out be true…but that’s just a gut thing, right? Like when you just have a hunch about something? And I have been told before that I can come across as mysterious. I think that’s just because I’m quiet. I’ve noticed that being quiet often marks you as “suspicious” but some people try to make it sound nicer by calling it “mysterious”.
Anyway, for some reason, I kept thinking about owls after that, and the idea of owls as an art subject began growing on me. I love birds and any animal art, actually. Animals are probably my favorite art subject overall. I thought if I was drawing animals I’d go for cats or horses because those were my faves growing up (plus I have three cats). But whenever I do those, I get bored very quickly. Have no idea why.
Owls, on the other hand, have stuck with me ever since that quiz. Maybe because they really do feel like a individual, representation of myself. It occurred to me that most art I have done has been mainly for others. Whether it’s an assignment for school, or someone begs me to draw Spongebob Squarepants or Simba from the Lion King, or being paid to do a portrait of a pet that passed. Even when I was doing all the flowers and things, it was because I was trying to keep everyone full of hope and beauty. And I don’t regret any of that stuff (well, maybe Spongebob a tiny bit just because I remember at that time, I just didn’t feel very Spongebobby. Is that a word? Oh, well, it is now).
For the first time, I was choosing an art subject that had to do with me on a more personal level. I liked it.
So, who says random, weird internet surfing is bad for you? You just never know what may inspire you.
Life can be a hoot.
It’s Owl Me
After writing this article, I just went back and reread my other articles and it’s so different than how I am writing here. Once I dropped the whole serious writing thing that I did for all my art history research papers, and wrote just as myself, for once, it was a lot more fun.
I hope you enjoyed it more, too, and now think of me as more real rather than researched and polished.
Thanks for flying by! Owl be seeing you next time!
-Nikki