Notes to Self: Seeding by Evan La Ruffa

Seeds are simple & powerful.

If we seed now, something will grow after a little while.

We also have them in spades.

You can seed a bit, and even if every one seed doesn’t take, you can be sure some of them will.

If we don’t seed now, we’ll have no comrades beneath the surface, steadfastly working their way to the top where they can sprout and take life.

Which is why we should always be seeding.

Seeding for purpose, love, connection, passion, and alignment.

If we seed consistently, life creates life, even if slowly, in the margins, or at the periphery.

Seed because it feels good. Seed for the sense of potency, vitality, and practice, as much as any one result.

Seed every day.

Because that is how things come to life and grow.

Notes to Self: Stay gushy by Evan La Ruffa

Stay gushy!

Ok, maybe don't spill all the beans at work or with clients...

But definitely be YOU.

Being you means:

1) not veiling everything
2) being a bit vulnerable
3) answering honestly before you know what the room thinks
4) speaking up and speaking first
5) wearing your values on your sleeve (sometimes tattooed permanently)

Too many of us are scared to show our hand. A bit timid to reveal ourselves.

We have to be a bit brazen. A bit bold.

We have to dip into the space in the middle and risk the chance that we might have to take in new info, feedback, or listen to others.

Gush as long as it's real and in-pocket.

There is something differentiated, beautiful, and disarming about people who just give you the real deal.

Show us the real deal.

Notes to Self: Real differentiation by Evan La Ruffa

Who someone else is doesn't matter.

Lean into who YOU are.

Why? Well didn't we all learn about differentiation?

If you wanna build a better Kleenex box, be my guest, I'm just not sure doing what others are doing is going to produce decoupled results.

In this sense, decoupling means blue water. New heights. Real innovation. Not just incremental iteration.

Every time I lean into being me, it works.

Every time I try to be like someone else, it really doesn't.

$250 OFF by Evan La Ruffa

Use the code EVMAKESART for $250 OFF any order over $999 in my shop through December 3rd.

Make my day and buy something! 🤣✌🏼

https://www.evanlaruffa.com/shop

Moon and Sunlight by Evan La Ruffa

I love the way art makes everything melt way for me.

It likely happens most often with music and film despite being a visual arts kinda guy - moments where I am transported, time stops, or the things that bother me no longer do.

At least while I am experiencing that art…

Hood Hymns by Tobe Nwigwe and more specifically, the track, Moon and Sunlight, has been the art that has most frequently made me weep from sheer appreciation of beauty.

It’s happened at least a handful of times in the past month.

I listen to it, and I almost fall to my knees.

Harder to do when driving… lol …

But suffice it to say, highly recommended.

Find something that is so beautiful that it brings you to your knees… humbling and joyful doesn’t even begin to describe it.

‘They made you think the moon is sunlight
But it don't shine the same
It don't shine the same
They made you think the moon is sunlight
But it don't shine the same
It don't shine the same’

We're out here... by Evan La Ruffa

Art isn't just for galleries.

It's also meant to exist where we live, work, and play.

You know, the places where our lives occur.

Whether in our hobbies, our homes, our decor, or our state of mind, art is an option. It's a way for us to appreciate, express, and customize.

A way for us to be, do, and exist in a way that feels authentic to us.

Find out what you like, and make it ... research it... find it... buy it.

Because leaning in to the art YOU like is about the 99.999999999% of the world that doesn't exist in fine art museums, galleries, or collection storage.

At the end of the day... we're out here.

Notes to Self: The Secret to Investing by Evan La Ruffa

Work, testing, learning and becoming better at what we do and who we are, is the investment.

You must have known I wasn’t talking about stocks and bonds.

If the investment is the time we spend on the things we care about, then maybe the nonlinear growth of an investment portfolio is actually a good example.

Some days we are up.

Some days we are down.

But long term investment means taking our lumps, staying determined, and moving forward with the plan.

The plan can change (what stocks we invest in) but the approach (investment) stays the same.

The secret to investing is knowing that that’s what we’re doing.

So let’s go ‘head now…

Invest.

Notes to Self: On Noticing by Evan La Ruffa

Making art means noticing.

Noticing color, line, shadow, texture, & light.

Another big thing you notice when making art is an internal compulsion to propel a certain perspective into making it real.

Turning a thought about approach into a series of actions producing the art itself is a lot of fun.

It feels like cooking.

Or magic.

Don’t forget to notice…

(Inside and outside ourselves.)

New Art Available Today + Life Update by Evan La Ruffa

I am releasing a bunch of new artwork that I have made over the past few months in places like Chicago, Los Angeles, and Oaxaca.

EvanLaRuffa.com/shop

The process of going from advocate to artist is more about which seat I am sitting in and what project I am working on, than it is the actual assessment of a new title or role.

I have been making this Post All Bills series for years now.

It’s felt like an organic extension of my perspective of being a human on this earth.

I love life. I love feelings. I love richness. I love texture. I love people. I love breathing.

And I love art.

I love watching it, seeing it, hearing it, tasting it, talking about it, selling it, finding it, and sharing it.

Since the days when we were spending time in NYC often, going back and forth for Lindsey’s work stuff and my sheer love of the energy, art, and action of it offers, I began working on this fun idea to recontextualize these tiny urban vignettes by finding them, then manipulating them digitally, using a tool we all have access to, to create something that never existed before.

Downtown LA is a playground for my work, and I am super happy with the 4 Kobe Bryant inspired pieces included in this drop... here is one of them...

Post All Bills No. 8 & 24 (Kobe Bryant, RIP - Purple - Lakers Edition) - 1/1 (30x39in)

The thread pulled has taken me to more cities, to more decayed walls, to examine more tattered paper, exposed wood and grit, perhaps a sticker, some spray paint, and a letter here and there.

Los Angeles is perfect. Mexico City is perfect. And most recently, I found Oaxaca to be perfect.

A new kind of perfect. A new spin on places where I have harvested these photos. A place where there is more color in the background, interesting lighting (especially at night), and fewer layers, rendering some of the finished artwork potent, stout, and primary in a way that I really love.

Like this one… which is available in a large format on my website….

Amid this new release we’ve also been plotting a big adventure for the family…

Moving to Oaxaca for 5 months in 2025.

We’re beyond excited. We’re doing the thing we said we wanted to do.

But the big plans, my changing identity as a creative person making things and sharing them has felt destabilizing. Or maybe it’s just the nervous discomfort of doing something exciting…

Then again, I’ve done this a few times before… whether closing IPMM’s gallery or our most recent donation campaign to support schools permanently - I try to read the patterns, figure out what feels right for me (us), and make a move that is BOLD.

Whether in my photography, my relationships, or my location.

Here is a shot of me harvesting photos in Oaxaca…

Here is a mockup of one of my prints in a cool space…

Here’s me making a silly face so I have something Instagram will show people… it likes faces more than art…

Here’s some mole that changed my life in Oaxaca…

And my new Etsy shop will have certain releases not available on my website… so check that out too…

Think mini prints and t-shirts! :)

Visit my shop to see every print released today, and please share with anyone you think might enjoy or potentially even purchase!

EvanLaRuffa.com/shop

Notes to Self: On Priorities by Evan La Ruffa

Priorities are an editing mechanism.

When our lists are short, we eliminate the space trash around our work (or life), and focus.

This means…

1. Needles move, they don’t wobble.

2. Anxiety is reduced greatly.

3. Things slow down - something most of us say we want.

3 items.

That’s it.

Noon will be here soon.

No need to cloud our brains and fire off stress responses.

Priorities mean we know what we have to do.

Notes to Self: On DOINGNESS by Evan La Ruffa

As a way to differentiate things a bit, I’m creating a few categories for my blog posts to help readers, friends, collectors, and colleagues tap in to the aspects of what I do that interest them.

Notes to Self will be the types of small reflections I’ve often shared here. Little ditties, takeaways, or patterns recognized. Mostly in myself, but also likely, in us.

Energy transference happens when we give and receive, and a self-perpetuating cycle of reciprocity ensues with most of existence. I have no silver bullet for eliminating all friction, tension, and doubt.

But I do have 41 years of data that reminds me that we get what we put in, and that stimulating this self-perpetuating cycle of DOINGNESS is magic.

Give, take, seed, and work.

Oaxaca by Evan La Ruffa

One word: amazing.

In Oaxaca, art is in everything.

Every door, facade, street corner, in galleries, in kitchens, by the roadside, up above you in the form of papel picado and in the warmth of the people.

We spent 5 days there researching it for a potential move… a move that looks more real. 5 months next year.

To switch things up, slow things down, make art, and push on the next phase of IPMM and my own artwork.

The fall drop will include works I made in Oaxaca and Mexico City… and if you need recommendations on great food and art in either Oaxaca or Mexico City, these links will do you right.

10.10 is coming soon… more art updates to come…

Fall Drop ... 10/10/24 by Evan La Ruffa

I will be previewing artwork I have been making in advance of a fall drop…

Gonna release work in batches… it’s here, and then it isn’t!

Collections, batches, series… ya know! Like with like, so you can buy more than one. This work I just posted was from the night series I shot in LA recently. An awesome turning point for the direction of my work, for sure.

I just posted the next 6 in that first batch of 7 for the fall drop.

Check them out!

Ups and downs + night shots by Evan La Ruffa

….. I know I am trying to moderate between them with more ease.

Sometimes I feel like I am ping ponging between feeling unstoppable and supremely stopped.

But I bet most of us have some version of that.

I just recently, as in, over the last few years, realized that I have anxiety. I just never thought of myself as an anxious person, but I also think it was the product of youth. Being a dad changes who you’re living for.

That said, if I’m honest, I haven’t always been super forward-facing about my challenges. I have often been vocal about the things I like to celebrate or view positively. Again, another thing I think many of us do.

But the reality is that I have the same insecurities all of us do.

But my animal brain still tricks me. There’s no lion hunting me, but shit, sometimes it sure feels like it.

I’ll begin previewing a batch of photos I shot in downtown LA last week… at night. I am super excited about the low light and what has come of these works.

Check those out on my Instagram… I posted the 1st one yesterday and I plan on releasing 1/1’s of each of them in a single drop, likely in early October.

I love y’all.

When in doubt… by Evan La Ruffa

Don’t buy art as a financial investment vehicle…

Buy it as an emotional investment.

The World Health Organization reported that participation in arts can reduce depression and anxiety by 30% and 40%, respectively.

Not bad for a non-medical solution.

We often think of blue chip art as a way the wealthy diversify, but don’t consider why a single piece of art could fetch millions of dollars in the 1st place…

Because of its power.

Because of emotions provoked… by so many people, then supply & demand does its magic.

When in doubt, and as a reminder…

If you need some uplift… ART!

My next art show... 7/27/24 by Evan La Ruffa

Saturday, July 27th from 6-9pm at Storm Print City Gallery in Evanston, IL.

2601 Prairie Avenue, to be exact.

There will be new work, some classic work, exclusive merch, drinks, live printing, and more… we don’t know exactly… we’re open to serendipity.

The text below is part of a design Russ adn I are releasing in limited quantities on premium shirts.

…..

art won’t buy itself SO

be the change you hope to see

and

put your money where your mouth is

because we need you AND

art needs you

AND

each piece of art you purchase is an investment

in A future where

beauty AND community matters

….

Follow me on Instagram for previews of new work that will be in the show!