2022 March Update
Happy first day of spring! I love seeing the daffodils bloom, and I'm looking forward to viewing the wildflowers along the trails. But I want to make sure I take the time to write an update about what's been happening.
First of all, thank you to everyone for your orders during the 2021 holidays. I appreciate it so much, and I really enjoyed sending special gifts to you and your loved ones. My husband and I had a lovely Christmas, and one of my new favorite toys is a little indoor trampoline. I feel like a dork, but who cares! I finally have a no-excuses way to get my lazy butt doing some cardio.
The biggest change going into 2022 is that my husband and I moved to the countryside in TN. We are so thankful to be out of apartment living! But the actual process of moving was kind of a catastrophe...we happened to get a snowstorm on the weekend we needed to move, one of our mattresses flew out of our friend's trailer on the highway, we wisely decided to leave the bikes as one of the last things to move at 2am in the dark, I deep cleaned the entire apartment on maybe 4 hours of sleep...sooo yeah, by some miracle, we pulled it off. We did get our entire security deposit back though. Worth it? HECK YES. But next time we are definitely renting a Uhaul.
Amidst getting used to the new place and discovering its quirks, I've been working on commissions. I'm super excited to share the most recent one, but I need to wait for my client's approval...so here are some test sketches. I'll give you a hint: Disney-style forest animals!
The Watauga Valley Art League has also been revving up with new leadership and ideas this year, and I'm preparing pieces for the summer art show in June. I also joined FemCity, which is a group of women entrepreneurs who love to help each other learn and grow while making new friends and connections. One of my new friends actually got me into essential oils, which I've always been interested in but never tried before. Now I have some super cool diffusers and essential oils that are helping to remind me to take care of myself better.
I think my theme for this year is to keep trying to grow personally, artistically, and business-ly (?). Art-wise, one helpful concept is thinking more in terms of the purpose behind the time I spend on artmaking. For example, 50% of my time should be focused on work/what am I getting from this, and the other 50% should be for fun art. The idea is to be productive, but also make sure you're still having fun with art. I learned that from Drawabox, which is a fantastic online resource to review the methods behind drawing. It's helping me be more disciplined with my process and also actually give myself time to have fun again. If you're struggling with art, this is a resource you could try too! I can't promise that it will help, there are so many techniques out there and some are more helpful than others depending on how you learn. The trick is to keep exploring and eventually finding things that work for you. So never give up! I'm still learning and it takes a long time, but I'm trying to remind myself that that's ok.
I think that about covers everything. I want to keep doodling little things when I feel like it, and this was one of those times (all for that theme of making time for fun art again!). Thanks for reading, wishing you a happy springtime ahead!
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