I think there are times when life just needs to stop-- not at a dead end but at rest. What would happen if you just stopped doing what you've been doing for years? I don't consider myself anywhere near retirement age; besides, an artist doesn't "retire" from making art, just like a mother doesn't leave the job of being a mom. But both come to places of change in life, transitional periods calling for a re-evaluation of how time is used. My life as an artist is about to take a turn onto a road once traveled years ago: I'm going back to "real" work... you know, the kind with a starting time, quitting time, and a paycheck. My biggest fear is the loss of painting time but before I became a stay-at-home mom, I painted prolifically while working at a full-time-plus job. It was my joy to sit down at my art table for the evening and paint late into the night. That's not going to happen these days, but I think that making the choice to paint during off-hours will be powerful. I don't see going back to work as a dead end for painting but as an opportunity to get back to painting as a daily vacation. It will be interesting to see what comes out of this approach to art work, both in number of paintings and in subject matter. I start in a few weeks so stay tuned for some changes...
No comments:
Post a Comment