Friday, September 16, 2022

Artist, Business... ARTIST

 


From today's Instagram post: I’m in my studio working on holiday card designs. I couldn’t resist doing Merry Chrysalis. I’ve had a good number of monarchs in my garden this year. Milkweed plants are treated with utmost respect and allowed to grow anywhere without disruption. It’s late summer and my favorite morning glories are creating a symphony right outside my kitchen window - an inspiration to do my dishes!


This has been the longest break I have taken since starting my blog 11 years ago. To be an artist, hopefully making a living doing so, one needs to appear on social media and share one's self - ON A REGULAR BASIS. Ah, but in there is the rub, or contradiction, or perhaps ruin. For me, being an artist means climbing high in a tree (metaphorically speaking) to be alone with my thoughts. Precious or perhaps ridiculous, my vaguely formed ideas are not yet ready to see the light of day - these ideas can not be shared or they will almost always FREEZE into the time and space when they were exposed like a camera flash. (Remember camera flashes?!) Imagine yourself on a path in the woods. If at some point you see a lovely tree and stop to shout to the world 'Look, here is a lovely tree!', you will miss what might be further down that path. This is what social media sharing is for me. Speaking too soon, stopping at the lovely tree, not letting ideas mix in the creative batter and soup of inspiration.  Artist, Businesswoman, it's a tough juggle if you ask me.  

So, dear universe, if you have found this humble blog coming from a little farm in Maine, and IF you were wondering where I went, know that I have kept to myself so that I may freely roam creative paths for the past several months.

My flower gardens had a wonderfully flashy season this summer. My phone is reminding me that it can not take anymore pictures of flowers, I need to deal with that.
This is a card design I created earlier in the summer. It's called 'Strawberry Jamming'. I'll add it to my Etsy Shop today. Happy autumn to you!