This is my 2025 entry titled, Die Another Way:
This is an oil painting that will be the album art to our upcoming single, Die Another Way by WTM. It is painted from a picture of myself on the beach in Victor, WA. A stranger took the picture as I was sunning out on the beach in front of our rental house. I now know his last name was Skewis and he was the son of our neighbor I would deliver May Day baskets to. The man-o-war jelly fish and baby seagull wings were added to tell my story and be a voice for all people that have split. This painting shows the resilience or fire in one’s eye that it takes to overcome a split self. I named this inner self Peaches and am working to completely unmask. I have lived a life that has perfect behavior when not safe.
This is the headshot I sent the Luxembourg Art Prize. I took pictures for six months trying to embody my artist self, but finally got this picture by softening my eye and balancing my features in the Frame with my peripheral vision. I like it because I’m using the side of my face that can barely move to smile, which gives off the right vibe finally.
This is our song, Die Another Way! I’m singing, playing the keytar and I wrote the melody and the lyrics. The lyrics describe the split from the perspective of the child, the unsafe person, a dark-humor metaphor of this in nature as a jelly fish and a seagull, and a tribute to surviving secretly through music and dedicated to all those that have died another way through trauma and conditioning to not be allowed to be your self.
my painting is a single cover art inspired by the album art of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, The Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream and U2’s War.
Here is my process and how I start with an outline and layer one color at a time.
The row boat in the background was my first birthday present. I would learn to row my Grandpa Preedy across the puget sound to where I was married later at the Allyn Waterfront. Growing up on the water has given me a great understanding of water and a very good visual memory. I believe this vivid time in my life made me the triathlete and artist I am today.