February Featured Artist - Alex Ferri of Blossom & Bone Designs
Alex is a phenomenal artist whose artwork inspires me deeply. It evokes a feeling of connection to myself and something higher, and it will do the same for you, too! Perfect altar and magic space art. Check out her magic, story, and words of wisdom.
TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOURSELF!
Hey! I'm Alex from Rhode Island and I am the creator of Blossom and Bone Designs. Art and creative expression have always played a huge role in my life. I was an active dancer for 15 years, and majored in Graphic Design in college. However, my helping nature won out, and I ended up perusing a career in Higher Education and completed my Master's Degree in Counseling. Throughout grad school and my professional career working in Student Affairs, there was always a part of me that wanted to continue flexing my artistic muscles. I began with some tea dyed homemade paper, a set of Pigma Micron pens and India ink, and started sketching and making art to hang in my apartment. After my walls could no longer hold any more original pieces, I started making art for friends. After years of drawing, painting, wood burning, positive feedback by family, friend, and strangers (thanks, internet!) Blossom and Bone was willed into existence. The fulfillment that this outlet has given me has been nothing short of spiritual. Each time I complete a piece I know that someone will love it as much as I loved creating it. Beauty should never be taken for granted, and it should be shared as well as coveted. I hope to share my beauty with others, with the hope that they covet it and spread that beauty and inspiration with others as well.
WHAT INSPIRES YOUR WORK AND CREATIVE PROCESS // WHAT MOVES YOU THE MOST? // WHAT DOES CREATING DO FOR YOU?
When your 9 to 5 job is really a 24/7 job, you use the spare minutes you do have to decompress and do something meaningful to you. For me, the creative process involved with drawing and painting makes me feel a sense of relaxation and an internal calmness. A lot of my inspirations come from natural elements, human anatomy, feelings of wanderlust, and the supernatural. Once in a while though, there are defiantly times where bands and music have inspired me in creating specific pieces. I never work without a killer soundtrack. Lord Huron, Fleet Foxes, Death Cab For Cutie, Day Wave, Real Estate, Beach Fossils, and Nada Surf are defiantly on heave rotation whenever I'm working.
Inspiration is a hard work for me sometimes though. I work with thing and I create things that I feel connected to. Forrest animals, especially deer, are important to me because I was actually able to feed wild deer in Texas and I felt a genuine connection to that animal. My art also features a lot of mountain imagery. After only a month of being together, my now husband and I climbed Mt. Washington together and it was an experience i will never forget. Mountains to me also symbolize the simple but grand and overwhelming beauty that is found in nature. It shows us our highest highs, lowest lows, and everything else in between. And I would say just as much as eyes, are hands are huge gateways to the soul and our metaphysical selves. Touch is sense that is constantly used but so often takn for granted. Our hands express emotions a clearly as our faces, and I use hands frequently to express a certain emotion of feeling in a piece.
DO YOU EVER FEEL VULNERABLE PUTTING YOUR WORK OUT THERE? HOW DO YOU OVERCOME IT?
I think that with anything that anyone creates, there is a very personal feeling attached to each piece. That emotional attachment can definitely make someone feel vulnerable when they are showing their work, their inner thoughts, feelings and experiences expressed outward. But I think the way to overcome that is by knowing even if there is one person in this world that sees the same inspiration, or can appreciate just the surface beauty of something that you crated, it makes i all worth it. Art is subjective. And that's ok.
DO HAVE ANY ADVICE OR WORDS OF WISDOM FOR OTHER CREATIVES?
No matter what is going on in your life, make time to do what you’re passionate about. Create things you love and others will love them because you do. Because you are putting all of your love into what you do, it will show.
WHAT DO YOU WANT YOUR ART AND PRODUCTS TO DO FOR THOSE EXPERIENCING IT?
I want my art to unlock a sense of adventure, a sense of intrigue, a sense of something else out there. I want it to transport people to the naturally supernatural, or the space beyond the beyond. I want people to see the life in the dead and the beauty in the macabre.
I can’t wait to see you all out on the trails, wander often!
Alex