Meet Summer Lydick | Artist Extraordinaire

We had the good fortune of connecting with Summer Lydick and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Summer, what habits do you feel play an important role in your life?
The ONE habit that helps me reach tremendous success is following my gut. So then all my other habits are based upon supporting my trust in myself and my ability to follow my gut, which means taking the absolute best care of my body, mind, and spirit in every way I know possible. I get up at 5 every morning and spend the first hour of my day setting my mind right. I meditate for 10-30 mins, then I work on affirmations and visualizations, followed by some self-improvement reading, and all before I review my day. It’s often in these wee morning hours that I get my best insights and ideas and action steps. Afterwards my morning shifts to taking care of my body, my relationship, and my dogs. All these things help prepare me to ACT ON my ideas, to trust my gut, and to really GO for IT. By staying intimately connected on a daily basis to the things that matter most to me, I am constantly fueled with the energy I need to achieve my greatest levels of success. My supportive habits of daily meditation, connection with my partner, walking my dogs, yoga, seeing my friends, sleeping 7hrs a night, and eating a healthy pro-veggie diet, while keeping a positive mindset, consistently help me reach new goals and make my dreams a reality.Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I have always been an artist, from the moment I was old enough to hold a pencil or a crayon. My mom still has the portraits I drew of myself and her when I was the ripe age of 2 years old. Growing up, if I wasn’t dancing, I was creating. It’s always been part of me so there was never a question that I would do anything else professionally but create. I went to school to become a “serious artist” and in doing so, I learned a lot about technique and theory, but I lost my voice. It was several years later that I came back to myself artistically and began to hone my style, which is pretty close to what I was doing in grade school! It’s funny sometimes how I had to travel far and wide in many ways, just to come back to my true self. My art is bright, bold, colorful and Happy. I believe in the power of color to UPLIFT and INSPIRE people. Color is like a vitamin for your brain and your wellbeing. It can shift your mood in an instant. I focus on flowers and tropical plants as the subjects of my paintings. Flowers have these incredibly expressive and showy personalities, particularly sunflowers. I love the mass of petals and the way they keep their faces always turned towards the sun. It’s a great reminder for me to always stay positive. As a child of the 80’s, I love hot neon colors, lots of flamboyant patterns, and bold outlines. I painted more than my share of t-shirts with puffy paint in middle school. These elements still feature in my artwork today! The goal of every painting I create is to capture HAPPINESS and JOY. Everyday I take great care of myself and my surroundings so that I bestow each brushstroke with literally My Best Self. Every brushstroke is loaded with caring, loving, positive energy. When people tell me that my artwork makes them happy and makes them feel good, I know I’ve done my job! My goal is to share that with everyone.Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
My itinerary would be heavy in Art, Yoga, Tacos, and Wine! We’d start with some excellent yoga classes, of course! My favorites being BIG Power Yoga, for a sweaty, focused practice peppered with lots of motivation from the most committed teachers. WeThrive studio in Spring Branch is one of my favorite little hidden gems in the city. It’s a funky, music-driven studio surrounded by a mini tropical garden. It has all the best things of a vacation yoga retreat, but right in our backyard! For a more structured contemplative practice, we’d head to the Pop-up Ashtanga Shala in Montrose under the divine expertise and watchful guidance of Sharline Rofail. Then tacos…of course!! My favorites are Velvet Taco and TaQo. Velvet consistency features creative menu combinations of the freshest tacos I’ve ever eaten. TaQo in The Heights has a more traditional but equally fresh and delicious menu with a great outdoor patio and local live music. Within walking distance, I can easily take my dogs for a great time and enjoy a leisurely walk through the lovely streets of my neighborhood. We’d also check out the latest exhibit at MFAH and their newest addition, the Nancy and Rich Kinder building, which is TRULY an architectural gift of greatness for our city and for the art world in general! One of my favorite places here is the Twombly museum. The subtly plastered walls with the open ceiling concept that filter the ever-changing light is the most pleasing space to my soul. I want to dance and meditate and do yoga in this museum. It’s so light and airy and deeply grounding to me at the same time. I’d also head over to Laura Rathe’s new gallery in River Oaks. Her cadre of quality artists, some of whom I’ve met personally, is exciting and inspiring! The amazing SheSpace, Houston’s newest co-working space for women, which was designed by the incredible color and design genius, Courtnay Tartt Elias of Creative Tonic is a must see. If you want real evidence of the power of color to Uplift and Inspire you, go see this place. You’ll leave with an attitude adjustment in the best way! Sooooo many great restaurants and greater wine here! I’m partial to my sweet Heights haunts, like Squable, Alice Blue, Better Luck Tomorrow and Coltivare. Oporto is great in Midtown. I also love La Dolce Vita on Westheimer. And lastly, in ye olden tymes of Pre-Covid, we’d wrap up the weekend at Gloria’s for some sweaty salsa dancing!Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My Mom introduced me to the concepts of positive thinking, affirmations, and self-improvement education when I was a pre-teen. That has become a driving passion of mine ever since. But it wasn’t until I moved to Houston and joined a dynamic community of like-minded folks also interested in pursuing their best lives possible that things really began to shift for me. That community is BIG Power Yoga. The owners, Nancy Perry and Laura Rust, along with all their staff, classes, and community programs have been so incredibly powerful for me over the course of my personal and business development and ultimate success. Their strong yogic principles and practices, both on and off the mat, branched beyond the physical and into the virtual during this time to not only sustain their local community, but to expand it internationally. BIG MAGIC, by Elizabeth Gilbert is one of my all-time favorite books. I’ve read it 5 times, and it inspired me to have a POP-UP art event in Miami during one of Gilbert’s book promo tour stops, which surprisingly led me to introduce her on stage in front of a crowd of hundreds! It’s required reading for ANYONE interested in “Living a creative life beyond fear”, especially artists. It’s packed with solid knowledge on how to work with our creativity, not against it, to bring our dreams to reality.

Website: https://www.summerlydick.com/

Instagram: @summerlydickart

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Image Credits
Bhavin Misra