Today is big. Today is one of those days that weeks and months and bad moods and euphoric highs and naps and stubbed toes and runs to the post office, painting sessions, late nights, unicorn pony tails, laughter and girlfriend coffee talks, have all added up to. I am showing my art for two months at a retail store in Seattle (Capers, 4525 SW California St.) and hung it today. I also drove 450 miles, had a variety of traffic and direction adventures, visited old friends and had some retail window shopping therapy. In one day.
This is where I say I’m tired. Overwhelmed. It’s also where I say I’m so incredibly grateful that my life has taken this artistic u-turn. It’s not the way I would have done it. I wasn’t “ready”. What does ready mean? It means doing one tiny microscopic thing every day that brings you joy because those days add up and eventually you have a whole pile of Your Thing, whatever that is. Pages of a book, a collection of landscape paintings, a cupcake menu, a food truck, a book of poetry, memoir. This creative life does not have the security or certainty I’m fond of but the freedom and genuine happiness I feel doing the thing that lights me up, blows me away.
So I’m doing what all artists do on a Friday night in a fabulous city: watching Hawaii 5-0 and eating See’s Candy. Obviously. And I’m happy tired. Hung 40 paintings, talked to countless people, walked all over the city tired. Feet too sore to walk anywhere, muscles aching, zombie land, brain drain, the “good tired”. I have filled my 24 hours to capacity. I think this is what it feels like when you jump off a cliff and you get the first sign your parachute just might open.
Good night. xo