Play me a fiddle, Sing me a song

Anybody, please. I'm not picky. 

Have I told you how much I love music? If not, I LOVE music. Love love. Super love. Adore. I live in music when I hear it. 

You heard me. 

I said live in it. 

I've always wanted to be able to play an instrument, mostly the violen. There is nothing more beautiful than the sound it creates. It is the epic double rainbow of the music world. 

Unfortunately I live in tiny town, nowhere, so violens are not common place. 

I did however fiddle with a guitar once. It was very short lived and not educational and I regret that it somehow walked out of my life. Sad face, insert here. 

While I never mastered the instruments I have been experimenting with lyrics. I'm hoping some of my guitar pickin friends can bring my words to life in the near future. 

I'm super excited about this, which means I'm on the verge of mini panic attack. Nerves of steel baby. 

If I overcome my ridiculousness I might share them with you. But in the meantime I will bringing some of my friends words  to life via art, so be on the lookout in the near future. This might be one of the not interesting projects I've ever taken on. 

Until then I leave you with this picture. Because it reminds of a song. Particularly, a violin. 

Acceptance & Mending

I came across some tough decisions this past week. I'm gonna be honest, I'm gonna be blunt. I had to make a choice of whether or not I was going to continue with Freedom Runs. 

I had some serious thinking to do. I debated with myself all week on what the smart thing to do was. 

The smart thing, of course would be to quit. This past year has been anything but profitable. I haven't had an order in months. My etsy shop is collecting dust. 

My hopes were dwindling and I was almost ready to throw down my brushes. When I couldn't make a sell for a charitable cause it almost broke me. 

But then I realized that sometimes the smart decision, is not always, the best decision. Where would anybody be if they lived their life soley based on numbers and the safest options? How many had to get to where they wanted with a little bit of recklessness and a whole lot of distant day dreaming? 

I couldn't walk away from this thing I had grown from nothing, only to leave it to become nothing again. 

I also came upon a second realization. That my poor judgements and self criticism was the cause of this downhill climb I was doing. 

Freedom Runs had a quaint start, but it was a start. I made some serious bad calls and lost the trust of two clients and I will never forget or forgive myself for the silly mistakes that caused me business. 

I have tried my hardest to do better since then. Except that's not true. I did not try my hardest, which is why I was left making this decision. 

I want to apologize to everyone who believed in me. To everyone who has supported me. To everyone I messed up with. 

I was not putting my all into this dream of mine. I almost gave up. I let myself fall into a rut of "what ifs" and "could haves" and that is a deep hole to dive into. 

I promise from here on out, you will get nothing but my best. There will be no half assing and no procrastination. You will only see what I have poured my heart and soul into and nothing less. 

I'm giving Freedom Runs a new start. 

I'm giving myself a second chance. 

I hope you will do the same.

Be reckless with me.

Let me paint you a day dream. 

Sincerely, honestly, whole heartedly,

Meagan Statton

Founder, creator, dreamer 

of 

Freedom Runs 

Epic Failure #1

Two words. Face painting. 

You heard me. 

As an artist, I have to tell you that was the hardest, most disheartening thing I've ever had to do. You want to feel like a failure real quick? Go face paint a child. 

Yes, it was THAT bad. 

I was asked to have a face painting booth for a benefit, so I thought I would practice on the children at a family birthday.  Mind you, I had never done this before. But how hard could it be, right? WRONG. IT'S HARD. REALLY, REALLY HARD, OK?!

Mistake number 1: don't buy the cheapest face paint you can find. It's that cheap for a reason. Seriously, some if the colors didn't even show up. I did multiple layers and the skin still showed up underneath even with the dark colors. 

Mistake number 2: don't think you can get away with just any random brushes you have laying around. That was my biggest no no. You need make up sponges, and a variety of different good acrylic brushes to get the effects you want. I was stuck with three fairly small brushes trying to paint children's whole faces. Wasn't. Happening. 

Mistake number 3: do not underestimate the art of face painting. It's not as simple as you might think. Painting a face and painting on canvas are two different worlds baby. If you have mad face painting skills, I have the utmost respect for you. 

At the end of the day though, everyone was happy. The kids were smiling, and that is what's really important. (I was personally horrified at the results, but aren't we all our own worst critics?)

I'll shake it off as lesson learned and hope for better results next time. Until then, some serious face painting research is due. 

Of Adventures

I've had a few adventures since my last post. Sorry for the wait guys, I had a bit of a creative block. Happens to the best of us right? Maybe? You understand. 

To start things off, we took boss hiking, who did exceptionally well considering he can be a little anti social and hard to handle when leashed. Made momma proud, **tear**. Took Gia and the pups to the river, who did not do exceptionally well. We're going to work on that bit though, I love the river too much for my fur child to not also be a river rat.  

I had my first trip to some real Kentucky horse trails on Kentucky lake, and I almost didn't come back. Can I PLEASE just live there? Seriously, you can't possibly understand unless you were there in that perfect 70 degree weather, with all of that fabulous wilderness. If you have not ridden a horse in these conditions, I'm convinced you are not truly happy in life yet. 

Then I ventured back to the farm and had a lovely week of sunshine and animals. Got my monthly dose of beautiful fields and old barns. There is no better medicine than being out in gorgeous weather surrounded by what you love. It is good for the soul, of this I am sure. 

I have also started on another piece of my wild art series. This is one is back to canvas and acrylics, good old trusty. He isn't finished but he's coming along nicely if I do say so myself. I have never been more excited for the art I was doing than for the art in this series. This is my baby, my first real creative collection that is all mine. I am proud to share it with you. 

I also decided that since I was gone for so long I would share a few pictures instead just one, because who doesn't love a good picture or five? Exactly. 

I took this picture on horseback, IN the lake. You really can't beat that. It is the definition of lovely. 

Hello farm, I love you. Old barns never go out of style in my book. 

I forgot to mention I found my FIRST and ONLY four leaf clover in 24 years. I'll take that as a good sign. 

Until next time ❤️

Wild in Color

I've started a new series, inspired by my watercolor wolf (see previous posts) and I've finally decided to name it. Wild in color.

I feel like this fits. I'm rolling with it. 

My newest addition is my portrait of a lion done with prismacolor pencils. I'm pretty fond of him. He's not perfect, but I'm still learning the ways of the colored pencil. Bear with me. 

I'm going to be experimenting with different mediums throughout my series, and perhaps I'll find a favorite. So far, I'm diggin the Watercolors. 

My next adventure will be a tiger on canvas, done with acrylics. He's already looking pretty awesome. I have a lot of these lined up, be prepared for more colorful awesome headed your way!

Busy. Crazy. Happy. Order that how you will.

Here's to those crazy busy hectic omgoodness what am I doing kind of weeks. This has definitely been one of those. It's gone something like, pack, move, unpack, pack, pack, visit house to do murals, pack, unpack, load car, unload car, research murals, pack, pack, clean, pack, start on sketches, pack, unpack, clean. 

This is my life. 

And I'm super excited about it. 

There are all kinda if new beginnings happening in my life right now. The idea of moving and getting a new start, refreshing my business, getting some steady income, and moving my horse closer to home, and now to have an order for four murals, is almost too much for me to handle. In a good way. A fantastic I'm so happy I could burst way. 

It's a lovely sight when things start looking up. 

Stay tuned for more mural adventures, pictures of current projects, and a lot more happy bursting. 

Here's a picture just because it reminds me of the words happy and burst. <3

Hooray for happy bursting! 

Fields&Farms, my two favorite "F" words

Excuse my abcense of blogging these past few days. I made a much needed trip to the farm. 

Oh the farm. Where does one even start on the love I have of a good farm? Fields and open skies, stars as far as you can see them. Old barns and rolling pastures and cool creek beds. The animals, the woods, the rustic-ness. It's all one big cluster of easy peaceful feelings and beautiful messes. 

Farms are unbelievably photogenic. Relaxing, inspiring, warm bubbly feelingy. 

You name it. I never run out of good things to say. Ever. Try me. 

The country does something to me. Something wonderful. If it doesn't do wonderful things to you, you're not doing it right. Perhaps you've never had morning coffee looking over a sunlit field. It's, life changing. 

I have a thing for fields. It's kind of an obsession. Expect lots of beautiful field pictures. That's a thing. It will happen. 

Also expect new adventures in field painting. 

For some odd reason, I have never painted a picture of one...

I feel like this is a thing I should fix. Right. Now. Maybe tomorrow. That's probably more reasonable. 

In the mean time, soak in the beauty of blurred Instagram goodness. 

And find yourself a field. Lay in it, photograph it, dance in it. Enjoy the simpleness of it. 

You'll be happy you did. Don't question. Just do. 

To properly define "Happy"

Because sometimes you don't need words, you just need a smile. 

(For curious minds, this goofy mutt is my wonderful dog Gia, one of my three fur babies. Gotta love her) 

Spring time, Sunshine, & Watercolors, a love story.

I love spring. I love the smells, the freshness, the light, the life it brings back. The closeness of summer.  

Today I stood in my kitchen with my shirtless toddler and ate a whole half of a watermelon. It reminded me of camping at the river and cooling the watermelon in the cold river water. Which just reminded me more that warmer weather is coming.

I cannot express to you how much I love warm weather. 

If I have a favorite hobby, it is walking barefoot in fresh grass and basking in sunlight. It makes me inexplicably happy inside. Words don't do it justice. I simply feel alive again.

Springtime brings out a whole new me. I am inspired again, ready to go see what I can do. Take on new projects and shake things up a bit. The sunshine and warm breezes have brought about a change in Freedom Runs. I'm excited to see where they take me. 

I began this journey with an experiment in watercolor pencils. Which by coincidence  seem very springy to me. They're so light and airy and they flow together so nicely. I kind of love them. 

This is still in the sketch phase, but I can't get over this picture. There's something about a colorful wolf, it just speaks to me. 

This painting (drawing? A little of both maybe?) made me so giddy that I decided to do a series of colorful watercolor animals. It's a work in progress and I can't wait to share it with you! 

Expect them soon. Until then I will keep you entertained with my pretty Instagram photography and previous artworks. It will be fun. We'll laugh, we'll cry. There will be popcorn. (at least on my end)

Can't go wrong with a combination like that. 

Until next time, enjoy the sunshine ☀️

Of Rainbows and Filters

Because you can't go wrong with a good rainbow. Am I right or am I right? I'm right. You're welcome. 

I have to say that I love pictures. Taking them, painting them, drawing them. Me and pictures have a good relationship. I plan on sharing that relationship here. 

Speaking of relationships, Instagram and wood camera, we're best friends, as you can tell. They add a little oh-la-la to my photos and my mood. You should try it, and embrace it. Love it. Hold it and never let it go. It's that good. I have intense emotions about filters, don't judge. 

This particular beauty I took last summer down in Alabamy. It was morning. It was on the beach. It was epic. You haven't seen a gorgeous sky until you've been to Alabama. True. Story.

I have way more feel good moments and intense emotional connections with photography apps to share with you, so you need to come back. Follow me, read my blog like, every day, whatevs. And you'll get to see my art that I coicindetally get the inspiration to do just as I'm supposed to mop my floor or fold the laundry. Odd how that works out in my favor. Anyhow.....

Here's to my first official blog post as Freedom Runs, and to many more to come! Enjoy the rainbow folks.