Creating Any-Way
Wow – the Holy-days can really take the wind out of your sails as life briefly tacks off in another direction. Christmas and New Year’s have been great celebrations, but I’m raring to get back to art-making
I don’t know about you, but for me being productive right now is a real challenge. We’re living at the estate of my in-laws, tending things and helping to mend and maintain. And while that’s a joy of service, it doesn’t leave much room to set-up my own studio space. Not being our house, we’re not able to do all we’d like to while living here.
The garage is a great workspace, when it’s not cold. I have trouble concentrating when I’m cold and while some might suggest that shivering could produce some good art, it’s just not my thing. So I wait for warmer days and the work stands about on hold.
In the dining room however, I’ve a different situation. I have an art table set up where I draw, mostly. It’s something I can do without upsetting the house with a big sprawling mess of creativity. And when we have guests, it’s all really easy to neaten up and “hide”. I use one of my white (bedsheet) drop cloths. It all ends up looking kind of mysterious.
I know I’m not alone. I know there are gobs of other artists out there working, as Eleanor Roosevelt said, beginning right now, with what you have, right where you are. I love that concept because no matter how many excuses I make, in some way – where I am, using what I have, doing it now – I am able to continue to create highly skilled creative expression.
Happy Art-Making!
Moved On. Moved Up. Moved Again.
I have moved a great many times in my life. I relate to military, and missionary kids. They’re always moving somewhere else. By the time I’d married I must’ve moved, oh, at least eleven times. I’m sure that’s nothing for mil. and miss. kids.
This time we took seven weeks, one carload at a time, to relocate back in Seattle proper from the South Seattle “burbs”. We’ve merged homes, and lives, and in the process we’re becoming a stronger family and richer persons.
We live with my father-in-law who’s in his latter eighties, and dealing with the debilitating effects of Parkinson’s. He needs help, watching over, lots of love, and family in his life right now. We’re here to be that support for him.
This is a rich time for us as a family. My bride of thirty-plus years, and our three children, are transitioning from a twenty-plus year homeschool experience, to the kids getting ready to fly out on their own, and to our helping add value to Dad’s life. We see it as an opportunity, an enrichment, for all concerned. He loves having his grandkids around, and doesn’t mind someone else doin’ the cookin’ either!
This union of lives in this very close proximity makes an environment of very creative harmonies. My wife told me at the beginning that it’ll be a little like the families went through in The Diary of Anne Frank. Many people were living in tight quarters, learning new ways to live together with their tiffs, and their celebrations.
It’s one thing to move. It’s quite another to blend two full households of stuff; memories, needs, wants, and hopes. So we’re all sorting, re-prioritizing, discarding, and streamlining. We’re all becoming something new in this wonderful, somewhat stress-filled new life with all of its own set of creative harmonies.
That’s why I’ve been neglectful at posting, and may still be so.
Thanks for your patience!
