I have not used Adobe Lightroom since Spring of this year, when we returned from our Northeast trip to Maine. I stumbled around an unfamiliar interface while looking for a particular photograph that I wanted to use for this post. Perhaps I will need to spend some time to relearn a software program that I had previously mastered and used for years. I have been away from the creative realm for way too long.

Beginning in 2008, I embarked on a creative adventure as I worked through a myriad of personal issues with the intention to reinvent myself. I wanted to leave the rat race of business and all of its associated stress behind. I wanted to embrace my inner creative and live in a place of promise and bliss. If you have been following me over the past seventeen years of art production and blog posts, then you are familiar with my adventures. I produced thousands of artworks across a variety of media and penned more writings than I can recount. I chronicled my adventures and discoveries, shared my realizations, and produced the intimate collection of work titled “Comfortable Speaking”, which has yet to be released. I gave myself a full decade to “make a living” as a creator. During this time I figured out how to live poor and be happy. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I camped out under the stars for more nights than I was inside a dwelling unit. I nursed an old 1999 Ford Pickup Truck with 400,000 miles on it everywhere I wanted to go. I really did not have a good grasp on what I was doing, but I knew that all I needed to focus on was the day that was right before me. I made terrible decisions and then again I made some really good ones during this period of my life. Somehow I remained alive and I learned something new everyday. I was selling art, I was gaining followers, things were working out pretty well. But it was not enough.

At the end of my ten year experiment I decided that I needed to “grow up” and take life a bit more seriously. I had purchased a house, yes a real house to live in, with my girlfriend at the time and then I married her. I proceeded to spend more time working a day job to pay the bills and to ultimately put a few dollars away for a rainy day. Together we starting “adulting” and were doing a pretty good job at it. We fixed up the house, built out the back yard into an oasis, even purchased a new truck when the old one finally kicked it. We did continue our shenanigans during this time of renewed adult focus. We traveled, we camped, hiked, floated rivers and found new places to explore. We rescued two Doberman Pinchers and welcomed them to our family. Our kids are furry and have four legs each and I absolutely love them to death. I continued to create art all along the way. I no longer had the time to invest on the business side of the art spectrum, so there was absolutely no marketing activity taking place. So, no sales occurred. But I was making money at the day job. Then the day job took over.

I recently found myself yearning for something new, something different. I have been feeling exhausted and severely burnt out. I thought to myself that perhaps I needed to reinvent myself once again. I contemplated on this for a spell and came to the realization that I do not need to reinvent myself, I just need to go back to my roots again. This time with a bit more balance. While I was chronicling my blog posts from over the years, it dawned on me that I have not substantially written a post for a couple of years. I have not posted on Instagram or Facebook in this same time period and I am not certain that I know how to do that anymore. The one thing that really got me was the challenge that the software that I use to process and organize my photograph library presented to me today.

Over the past few years I have placed a growing focus on my day job building and renovating houses. I sought out opportunities for new work with the same vigor that I had placed into my art. During this time I managed over three million dollars in medium sized residential construction projects. I make a responsible living and am saving for the future. I can afford to fix or replace things when I need to and I can afford some luxuries along the way. That is all good, but I have not traveled much and I have not created anything substantial or with significant meaning. The photograph that I used for this post was made in March of 2023. I am pretty sure that this is the last work that I have created. I am interested to bring some balance back into my world and add a bit more color to it. I hereby toast the end of 2025 and celebrate the hope and promise of 2026. At least I got a post in before the end of the year!

We never exactly know when it falls apart. Sometimes the realization comes only when the weight of exhaustion mixed with a certain numbness and confusion lies far too heavy upon our shoulders. When I begin to break down I start to question my purpose in life. I then seek to fill the void that I believe has swallowed me. In a panic, the search ensues for something that will make me feel alive again. Something to reignite the spark that keeps me moving. My imagination is not necessarily my friend in these moments of despair because it will conjure up the most outlandish and ridiculous means to trick myself into feeling alive again. This time I was hell bent on purchasing a new racing motorcycle and scheduling track days again, even though my body has been off the bike for twelve years now. Jesus, just bring me another whiskey.

I am an over achiever. I want to produce the greatest amount of activity on a daily basis that I am capable of producing. I want things to work out perfectly, according to plan and in the most efficient manner possible. Do not mistake this desire for perfectionism. I am not a detail oriented person. I realize that something that is truly perfect does not exist and I am perfectly comfortable just getting really close to it, as long as it is done the way I have planned. Organization is key to my mental well being. A clean and tidy environment brings me joy. Keeping tools, equipment, vehicles, etc. in good working mechanical order is non-negotiable. I do not consider these traits to be obsessive or compulsive because I do not feel panicked if something is a bit out of whack. I have simply discovered that being organized, in a clean environment with all of my tools working properly provides me with the greatest opportunity to function in the most efficient and productive manner. This controlled environment is where I thrive, as long as I am the one in control.

You can not outrun your shadow. We all know this but yet we continuously do exactly that. When something is not going they way we want it to, then we work harder and faster to change, i.e. fix, the situation so that it conforms to our desire and yields the expected outcome. We will behave this way even if the situation not changeable out of our desire to control it. We may do this unconsciously for hours, or even days or weeks. What we should be doing during these circumstances is stand down, take a step back and breath. Just like the only way to lose your shadow is to rest beneath a tree in shade. For me, the motorcycle is a metaphor of this chasing behavior because on the bike I am in complete control. Even though I know that purchasing a new bike and melting some rubber on a track somewhere is not going to do much for my overall well being, I also know that for just a little while I will be in full control of something and that will make me feel good. No different than drugs or alcohol, it is a temporary high that offers a respite from anxiety. This high won’t last long and will only have me looking for the next fix, soon.

Until today, this blog post has sat in draft form on a server somewhere in the internet for the last thirty some days. I felt that it lacked direction and a cohesive message. I did not know how to finish it, but I was determined to do so. I thought about it often and how I just needed to completely rewrite it. Instead, I left it alone. I don’t need to change it, I don’t need for it to be better, I am satisfied to allow it to be. Maybe that is the message that I was looking for on that day that I wanted to buy that motorcycle.

Rainy mornings generally magnify the creative flow that I awake with. Cold and Icy Winter mornings simply beg for quality studio time. Here in Richmond, VA we are experiencing our first ever official Winter Ice Storm Warning. We have about an inch of ice covering the snow that fell earlier in the week, it is damp and bone cold outside but our aging HVAC units are working overtime to keep our house warm and toasty inside. We have a quantity of leftover chili that we made yesterday to feed us for the next several days, red wine to wash it down and just enough whiskey to make it another day. This morning, just as the previous two, I eagerly grabbed my morning tea and headed straight to the studio to hunker in for a day of creative expression and potentially a bit of actual productivity.

Today I had the ambitious and misguided intention to completely redesign the official Christopher Thomas Limbrick website. The thought arrived as I was working to create a new logo graphic to replace the site title on the landing page. I created the graphic only to be totally disapproving with how it appeared. I then had the idea to change that logo graphic into a hero graphic that would unveil itself as the user scrolled down the page. After digging into the site template I learned that a different template would be required in order to make this work. Doing so would require that I migrate all of the existing structure and content from the live site to this new template. I started to get excited about this new look so I played around with it a little bit. In my world, something very simple can become complicated very quickly. For me, a simple and quick task can become an involved and drawn out production in absolutely no time. I akin this to how my deciding to sweep up the floors and doing a bit of tidying up around the house transforms into a full blown deep clean of each room that includes disinfecting the bathroom and kitchen. Two hours later I realize that my bright idea to change up the landing page on the website is turning into a complete site redesign that would take the next two weeks to complete. I decide that for now the newly created hero graphic is going to just have to be repurposed into something else.

In my effort to use this newly created graphic I decided to write this blog post that you are reading right now. In fact, I wrote the entire post and was doing some proofreading right as the power went out. No, I did not exactly save my work. I really need to learn to save my work more often while using the computer. I continuously tell this to myself. Perhaps one day I will finally learn my lesson. I was able to retrieve first two paragraphs of this writing, but for the life of me I haven’t a clue about what was written past that. I suppose it was just me rambling on about this damn graphic. I can report that the ice storm knocked out our power for most of the day. Rather than a creative day in the studio, I cleaned up the garage and put away all of the camping gear that was strewn over the house from our snow outing last weekend. As it turned out, a creative day was transformed into a productive day. My wife and I finished the afternoon sitting on our patio with a fire in the chimenea, feeding the birds and welcoming dusk as it fell across our neighborhood. All in all it was a good day, and I have this new graphic.

Man the world seems crazy right now. Ok, maybe it is mostly the United States that seems to be out of control at the moment. Yes, we have some serious issues at hand right now that are creating a lot of stress for a lot of people. If I were to wage a bet, I would up the pot that the majority of us are feeling a higher level of stress and anxiety than ever before. I know that I myself am not immune to this because I am feeling it too. Creatives and healers have a tendency to be more susceptible to reacting to strong energies which makes this particular moment in time a bit more challenging to navigate for many.

How do we cope through all that is happening? How do you cope with the multitude of stresses born from the ongoing pandemic and related financial and economic pressures, the political divide and strife created by our waring party extremists, the rise and direct exposure of white supremacy and black suppression? The statistics show that Americans are leading an increased sedentary life, drinking significantly more, and spending more screen time with the television and their social media presence. These activities may help to make us feel better for a short moment, but they do nothing to help mitigate our stress and anxiety. In fact, so often what we reach for in terms of release or escape will actually make our problems much worse.

Studies have also proven that time spent outdoors in the natural environment relieves stress and anxiety. The relaxing of the mind and body begins immediately with positive effects lasting for many hours and days afterwards. There is a powerful sensation that I personally receive with each foot step that I place on a trail, with each turn of the crank on a winding single track, or simply sitting on a riverbank listening to the water flow and the birds carrying on their discussions through the trees. Ever since being a child I have spent my life outdoors. I yearn for it. If too many days pass where I find myself cycling through the daily grind of work and life that captures me between commuting to job sites, working the job, house chores and related responsibilities, I will start jonesing for some nature time. Absolutely nothing else is an adequate substitute. I have learned that when I am balanced with enough physical exercise, exploration and exposure to the nature environment I spend less time with scrolling through social media feeds, watching television or picking up another drink from the bottle. I feel better in my mind when nature is integrated into my life, and when I feel better in my mind, I feel better in my body as well.

My wife and I took a hike up Crabtree Falls in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia last weekend. We were a creative and a healer on a mission together to spend the day in our wonderful and beautiful natural environment to receive the positive vibration and energy that only Mother Earth can provide. We left our warm home in the city that was going to reach a nice high of 55 degrees to spend an afternoon at 32 degrees with a slight breeze and frozen water mist. We hiked a short 1.7 miles to the top of the trail and then an equal distance back down again. The sun set just as we reached our car and we were both freezing cold with fingers that had all feeling evaporate from them. We had cold ears and runny noses and were ready for another snack to eat. We also both felt incredibly good. Our minds were clear and our hearts were light. Our day hiking the falls through the beauty of nature restored our level of Chi energy that had waned during the course of the preceding week’s work and life grind. We drove home feeling balanced and invigorated, ready to embrace the week ahead. I believe that we retired for the night around 8:30 pm that evening feeling deliciously exhausted in the best manner.

During that hike I created a total of ten new artworks that are now a part of the Departure Collection of Abstract Photography. These works were added to the Volume III and Tree Studies Galleries. The image featured at the top of this post, “Angel Circles” captures the defining purpose and moment of our day perfectly. If it is God’s intention for us to be happy, that happiness we must create on our own. We will get signs along our way to let us know if we are going in the right direction. I could not imagine a more direct sign than angels dancing in the waterfall.

The beauty of our natural environment is always there for us as long as we respect it and take care of it. It is what we all need right now. I encourage you to introduce some nature into your life if you are not doing so already. I would love to hear how you feel after a nice hike, mountain bike ride, or a river walk. Like I always say, “go outside and play”!

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We took the iconic black fist logo that is traditionally used to represent the Black Lives Matter movement and put our very own creative spin on it. We created three new graphics that we feel express our thoughts and support for this incredible revolution. The best part…..we made them FREE! Yes, all three of these graphics have an open license, i.e. no copyright, so that you can use them yourself to show your support for our brothers and sisters.

We have created both a JPEG and PNG version of each graphic that are easily downloaded. We have also made the original Adobe Illustrator file available if you are interested in using the graphic for a product such as a T-Shirt, or heck, a billboard! We have made it super easy to get these files, just go to https://www.christopherthomaslimbrick.com/blm-graphics/ and just go through the normal check out process. We set the price to $0.00 so that you can put them in your cart and checkout without any payment type.

We hope that some of you awesome people out there like the images that we have created and have some creative ideas of your own about how to display them. We would love to learn what you think about them and how you are using them! Drop us an email at chris@bohemianculturehouse.com or send us a shoutout on Instagram using #bohemianculturehouse or #christopherlimbrick. Remember to Love Yourself Always and Love Wins!

I painted this triptych entitled "The Emperor Paintings" in 2014, one of my last years living in my hometown. At the time I was not living in the happiest frame of mind that I knew in my heart that I could, should be living in. I focused my energies on personal discontentment that was outside of me. Being an artist I painted my way through this strife and in doing so, a powerful learning experience. I painted this series of work to express my view about how the industrialized world had become a prison for the innocent and underprivileged, but that there would ultimately come salvation. The final three pieces became the "The Emperor Paintings". What I learned through this series was the prison that I was fighting against was my own, that I had chosen to remain there and that I could decide to rise up at any moment and seek that salvation. These paintings that expressed my feelings, created by my focus on the world outside of me, was simply a mirror. I was looking out and painting right back inside of myself the whole time. With this realization I learned that no one was going to do it for me, it was solely my responsibility. In order for things to change, in order to restore balance to my life, in order to re-enter into the happy frame of mind that I was desperately searching for I was going to have to become brave and face my own personal fears. I would have to find the strength to be brutally honest with myself and choose to turn my newly realized thoughts into positive action. That would be the only way the prison that I had created for myself would crumble. Crumble it did.

The world right now is very different than it was seven years ago when I made these paintings. For one, personally I am in a good place, in a happy frame of mind, healed and able to be beneficial to others again. But my heart weighs heavy as I am watching wonderful people across America and throughout the world rise up against an industrialized system and oppressive society that has effectively created a prison for many who are innocent and underprivileged. The prison that they rise against is very different from the one I reference in my story. They did not create theirs. I am proud of each one of these beautiful and brave people. I am proud of their strength and resolve. I fear for them and I support them. Through the power of their voice I found the strength to share this deeply personal story behind a series of work that has become a powerful positive influence in my life. For this, to them I am thankful. Perhaps day is arriving where we will all be free from our prisons. For this I pray.

These paintings currently hang at Nile Restaurant in the Church Hill neighborhood in Richmond, VA. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic that we are experiencing, these paintings can not currently be seen by the public. As we move through the various phases of re-opening and once restaurants are able to fully open to their supporting patrons, I hope that you will visit this wonderful establishment to see these paintings and grab some of the best Ethiopian cuisine outside Africa. Nile Restaurant is located at 306 North 29th St   Richmond, VA 23223. You can call to order curbside pick up by dialing 804  648 - 0791.

We are just about to jump into the Holidays full swing come this afternoon. It is a lovely morning in the studio with the sunshine flooding through the windows warming the air. We are wrapping some artful gifts for Santa to drop off tomorrow morning and enjoying just being in the studio surrounded by all of this wonderful color. We have something exciting planned for 2020! We have created a new gallery right here on the Official Christopher Thomas Limbrick website that will feature original works on paper for sale. These works will be around 14” x 17” and 18”x 24” in size. They will be mounted on a backer board with a mat and enclosed in a protective plastic sleeve (acid free materials, of course). They will also be available for between $100 and $200! We are excited to present a super affordable way for you to own an original artwork by the artist Christopher Thomas Limbrick! We will begin photographing the pieces that we currently have in inventory and uploading them to the gallery in January. For now, you all have a wonderful holiday filled with love and laughter!

Chris

Exploration into the Fire Studies

Eternal life is often represented by the flame just as fire is associated with life.  Conversely, the extinguishment of flame is associated with death. Life is literally impossible without fire. Earth itself would die completely without the Sun. One of the five basic elements on earth, fire stands equal to water, air, earth and wood. Each one of these elements exist in harmony with the others, never standing alone, for their singular existence is reliant upon the whole of their existence. Life is not sustainable in a world without the existence of each element living together in harmony. While the extinguishment of any element, therefore, represents death, it is fire that provides us with the most dramatic and identifiable essence of the duality of life and death.  

Fire is the element associated with the third chakra that is located at the solar plexus. This chakra is called Manipura, which is translated as “lustrous jewel” and is the energy center governing inner strength, self confidence and power. Manipura is the “fire” within us that motivates thought into action and moves us forward.

This third chakra is governed by the Vedic God of Fire, Agni.  Agni is represented by the color red and is a non-discriminating two headed god who treats all beings as equals. He is the messenger between the celestial realm and the human realm and is definitive of the Ayurvedic concept of fire. Agni is the force of intelligence within every function and system of the human body, and as so is the governor of all that enters our cells and tissues and what must be removed from our system. According to Ayurveda, death is the result when Agni no longer exists.

The fiery nature of Agni is represented by each of his two heads.  One is characterized as the benevolent head that is a part of bonfires, kitchens and jovial gatherings. Stories tell about how people would toss prayers into the fire to be carried to the gods by Agni. The second head is described as destructive as it destroys the emotions of the ego. In this practice, Agni incinerates fear, jealousy, control and anger into ashes that are then reabsorbed into the earth.

Fire is an integral part of our lives. Whether we are fascinated by it or pay little attention to it, we are reliant upon it and carry a programed respect for it. Fire is a perfect visual ambassador for the concept of duality.  While fire is often used beneficially to comfort us, to cook our food or to provide warmth, it also has the ability to cause absolute destruction. Both the creative and the destructive force of fire is born by the same life that is the fire itself.

It is this life of fire that I am interested to explore with this new photographic study.  I am interested to explore the dualism between life and death as represented by fire and to determine what that looks like.  Fire exists only as long as it is alive. The moment that there is no living flame is the precise moment of its death. Fire can not be captured, it can only be fed. For example, putting a candle into a glass jar and sealing it with a lid will starve the flame of oxygen, ultimately resulting in its death. Another approach to this would be to capture the fire, for a precise moment, using a device that can transfer it to another place where it cannot exist. Again the result is death.  If a camera is used to carry out this second approach, then we have captured an image of the fire at the precise moment that it ceased to exist in any place other than where it was alive. This image represents a precise moment of death.  

I have spent the last decade exploring the natural elements of the Earth through the lens of a camera. The ever growing body of work that I create is called the “Departure Collection” and it contains an expanding array of original art that transcends how we perceive the natural world around us through our senses. This most recent exploration into the element of fire I am calling “Fire Studies” as a working title.  In the same manner as with previous studies, I am interested to witness both the masculine and femenine qualities that inherently exist within the elemental subject. My artwork is largely conceived by thought that is guided through spiritual practice and created in a meditative fashion. After having created work about the elements through the “Water Studies” and “Tree Studies” (Wood) collections, I feel that working now in the realm of fire that I have expanded my exploration of these elements to a deeper level. 

The Mechanical Process

Photograph a small fire created in either the chiminea, campfire pit, charcoal grill. Process this photograph in the traditional manner of developing film.  Rather than processing the photograph as a positive image, process the photograph as the native negative image. The photograph needs to be made at night, the darker the background the better. A black background could be used as an alternative, but does not allow the camera to capture as wide of a color spectrum of the flame, sparks or smoke.

Begin processing with Adobe Raw and make normal initial adjustments making sure to increase clarity and checking for preferred white balance, then convert the image to black and white. Make adjustments as desired to both the whites and the blacks. Remove the black background to reveal transparency. Create several layers using selected parts of the image, the gradations of greys and the hard whites and blacks.  Begin to craft the image using the various individual parts as desired. Once the final image is made, save the image file in native format then flatten the layers and export as a high quality/ resolution TIFF file. This is the final artwork that is ready to be printed.

Keeping in mind the desired look/ feel of the final artwork, select the paper to print the final image onto.  This would typically be a cotton rag paper or a hot press bright white paper. With the image printed, determine what parts or areas need to be accentuated. Using a combination of ink, pen, and/ or graphite outline and/ or fill in these areas by hand. An alternative to this last process is to print the image in reverse so that a transfer can be made on to media with an underpainting layer such as canvas or paper.