This summer I shut down my blog of three years. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time and initially I felt great relief. Pretty quickly, though, I felt a tug at my heart. First it was a big gulp of regret (oh my gosh, what have I done?) Then it evolved into brainstorming the possibilities for a new blog, which took quite a long time. Finally, it's evolved to this new home with a refreshed attitude (but tended by same ol' me).
In a year filled with discouragement, putting this new blog together I felt the satisfying click of things finally coming together.
My previous blog began as a way to promote my artistic pursuits. I would rather stick sharpened pencils in my eyes than self-promote and I always felt silly and uncomfortable doing that (even though I did it). Eventually I hit a wall creatively and had to ask myself what purpose my creative pursuits had outside the realm of publishing, selling, teaching, and showing. After pursuing all of these activities for the preceding few years, I suddenly felt empty and bereft. I had to recalibrate my attitude about my creative work.
While publishing, selling, teaching and showing are worthy endeavors (and things that are always on the table - I still teach locally for example), I realized that for me, I'm happiest when my creativity stems from love and serves no other initial purpose than expressing myself, experimenting with materials, practicing my skills, and sharing/interacting with other creative people. Whatever might happen with my creative offerings after that? Icing on the cake; sweet, certainly, but not necessary for a delicious and satisfying creative experience.
So, this new blog is devoted to the things I love: creativity, images, words, introspection, laughter, old movies, cats, cookies, cooking, and, and, and ... well, you'll see ... I love lots of things.
I'm a little rusty at blog posting, and this is a new blogging interface for me, but now that this first post is finished, I'm excited about the next one, and the next, and the one after that ...
