I often write these posts n the morning, coffee hot, still dark outside. I’m an early bird. Always have been. I like this quiet hour because all is fresh. No plans, no jolting out of bed, nothing frantic, no to-do lists yet. Just possibility of the day. To paint or not to paint. To write or not to write. Work is rarely an option, must do that, but those “extras”, those creative paths that we trick ourselves into thinking our luxury paths, are really the essential fuel that keep me going. If I didn’t paint, I couldn’t work. If I didn’t write, I couldn’t express. So really, these stolen hours at the crack of dawn, aren’t stolen at all. They are the log on the campfire that keep me warm.
There is a lot going on right now. More than usual. Just home from a string of trade shows, the order packing and follow up that comes after, an art show at a local winery, a reception, a commission for a series of paintings for a local shop tied into the Shakespeare Festival. All good. And. And the time to take extra special care of my creative hours. This is when it is so easy to slip into more of a “business” role, an administrator-sales-organizer-marketer girl and less of an artist. Because making art is luxury! Right? Wrong. At least for me, it’s a little white lie I tell myself. I can paint tomorrow. I can write next week. I can sketch tonight. True, I can do all those things. But I need to do it today. The business of my business will only get done if I show up for the art. What a topsy turvy concept for someone like myself who has subtly been brainwashed into thinking art is frivolous, the thing you do on the weekend, or at a workshop or an afternoon. Even now, or maybe especially now, when other parts of my business are calling me, I have to remind myself that it’s ok, no permission slip needed to go and create.
So here’s to a fresh 24 hours to show up for our art, our “thing”, whatever that looks like. Cooking, writing, painting, sailing, running, sculpting, drawing, weaving, rowing, gardening, baking…all of it. xo
