Hi Everyone!
All my hurricane refugees are safely back in their homes at the coast now. Life is back to whatever normal is. I don’t ever wish for a hurricane, but they do bring my kids home for a visit and we got some MUCH needed rain here. North Carolina and South Carolina still have several areas dealing with severe flooding from Hurricane Matthew. Our prayers are with them as they deal with cleanup and rebuilding.
Now for an update on my new “studio” situation. If you are new to this crazy blog go HERE to see what I am talking about.
I do believe that each human being has gifts or talents that they are supposed to use during their time on earth. And I guess we are supposed to be grateful for those gifts/talents because in most cases they are what brings us a sense of peace and joy even during total chaos. I will admit that I wish I had gotten at least some skill in math and science or even a half way decent singing voice. But that is neither here nor there so I will continue on my creative way.
From the time I could hold a crayon until high school graduation I could find time to just sit, draw, paint, etc. and improve my skills. As an art student concentrating in graphic design I began a downward spiral. Instead of improving on my skills, I lost ground as there was less and less time to do the painting and drawing. Design does not require artist skill in the classic sense. Enter a design career, marriage, kids, house, yard, dog, a printing company, a divorce, two jobs and teenagers and twenty-five years were gone.
In that twenty-five years I attempted to carve out time to draw and paint and sporadically managed a few paintings here and there. I even sold work occasionally, but the time needed to seriously work and drill down and find my artistic “voice” never happened. What I now have piled up in my storage unit are half baked pieces. There was a good start of an idea, but never the time to really do the work right. They were rushed to finish most of the time and lack the skill and thoughtfulness necessary to really make the good finished pieces.
Enter empty nest, a streamlined design business, a slower country style pace of life and a meat processing business with extra space and required attendance. Life, God, the Fates, have put their foot down and demanded that I get to work NOW. And you know, it’s working!
Right now, business is slow so I have eight hours a day, three to four days a week in a building with no wifi, no tv, not even a good radio. I have hauled most of my supplies (especially as the hurricane refugees were making their way here) over there. And I am working and thinking and making messes and just having a blast.
In my attempt at procrastination and avoidance of the cruel voices in my head (you know the ones – “you can’t do that”, “that’s just weird”, “that looks like crap”) I started out sewing stuff, but the call of paint and pencil became too strong. The paints opened up yesterday and here is where I am today. Basically, I am having to relearn all the stuff I used to do effortlessly in high school. It makes me mad, but at the same time, to do what I want to do, it has to be done.
Yes, I may have one of the weirdest studios in history. Ugly, yes, but it has good natural light during the day and I’m stuck there with myself. So, I will carry on and see where it takes me. God works in mysterious ways. Who would have thunk!!?
Gotta go do some laundry and make some dinner before I head out to my evening shift at WSE (Weirdest Studio Ever).
Have a lovely week!
Pencils, Paint & Paper 