I haven’t had a lot of time to create new work lately or when I have had it, I was overwhelmed by the clutter in the room that I work in. The room is a decent size but, painting supplies, furniture, a work desk, a television, a couch, and a stack of old paintings combined with my busy life add up to a room that could be visited by the show “Hoarders” at any minute. Obviously, painting regularly, freely, and whenever I wanted without having to clear everything in my way so I could work wasn’t a whole lot less intimidating than using a toaster while taking a bath. Okay, that may be a bit extreme but, to an artist things like that can be incredibly intimidating.

What I’m getting at is this, I had re-discovered the artist that I buried in the years between undergrad and grad school and haven’t been able to let him loose. I’m not even remotely complaining or saying I didn’t learn anything in   because I probably learned about half of my artistic knowledge there. I’m just saying that sometimes we realize there’s more in ourselves than we see and others can only do so much to draw it out of us if we’re dragging our heels, oblivious to the world that awaits if we just stop resisting.

I’m really enjoying my new work and looking forward to making more; a lot more. Very soon, my space issue will no longer stop me from working whenever I have free time.  Increased space and freedom to create will surely bring about changes to my art. I’ll divulge more later and leave you wanting more, or at least leave you wondering why I think you would be wondering about something that doesn’t concern you. For now, I’ll end by saying changes are blowing directly in my face and I’m walking forward. Perhaps, I will take shelter or maybe I’ll keep walking but shield myself from what the wind carries. No. I will let the wind come, grab everything it sends my way and hopefully grow to my artistic potential while drawing on everything I’ve gained (learned) from the winds of my past journeys.

The mural I’m working on this year is Flint-inspired or themed and will have a very welcome visual difference from most murals you see in this area. It is going to be on the Southside of Flint, large scale, and easy to see while driving in a car. Being the painting part of the project has not yet begun, I don’t want to give any more details for now in case anything changes in the meantime.

Then there’s the orchard/trail project…

I get to create and paint giant cartoon characters on plywood and compose them in scenes. If it sounds like an awesome, creative, and fun project for an artist to do; that’s because it is. It gives me a chance to be fun and free on a large scale and completely make up my own versions of fairy tales and things of that nature. From what I can tell and from what I remember, this is my 7th, possibly 8th season/year doing the project. It amazes me that it is so easy to do new stuff every year and not run out of ideas. Between wear and tear on the cut-outs, things going out of style, and wanting to keep people interested in coming back every year, it has proven to be very important that I make a good amount of new works each season. When I first started the job and even going into some years, I thought it would be hard to not get stale or run out of ideas.  With that said, to be doing it this long and still have lots to do this and every season is a pleasant surprise that I never could or would have predicted that first day alone in the barn.

This year I will be doing superhero inspired fruit, the three little pigs, and Rapunzel, just to name a few. Check back to this blog throughout the summer, I’ll try to post some pics as I work on the project.

Is that a bad thing? No. It’s just how it is. Well, that or I took a brick to the head that I’m not aware of, making me unable to not be stressed.

I put everything I had into everything I’ve done  over the last few years that it got to the point where I stopped doing most things that weren’t somehow related to art or education. I probably have as much going on as before but, I’m learning to relax and not let myself feel so rushed. I now have the confidence to know that I don’t have to bleed (metaphorically) to do my best and to feel accomplished. I’m still teaching a summer painting class and have two large projects I’m working on (a large mural and my annual orchard project) but, appreciating life and stopping to see the forrest through the sink drain or whatever has been nice.

Am I still pretty busy? Yup.

Do I feel like it? Nope!

I need to try to keep this more relaxed mindset and not get carried away.

I think I’ll manage… somehow.

It’ll be like a self-induced Jedi mind trick; “You will not forget to relax.”

(waves fingers in front of his own face)  

lol

I haven’t been doing much with the website or the blog lately and will try to get better about that from here on out. I have a few shows/exhibits I did not post on here but, as always, you can follow my activities on my Facebook page if you want. I have a show in Flint, MI. that will be up for the majority of the month of June at Buckham Gallery. Flint is my hometown and I am an Artist-member at Buckham as well as being on their board of directors. Those two things by themselves make me feel pressure to push myself hard to not only get new works done but, to hit grand slam home runs with each brushstroke. Also, I have not shown more than one to three pieces of my work at a time around the Flint area in two years and am considering not showing here again for awhile. When you add it all together, you have a painter that has spent a lot of time fixing simple mistakes he’d never had made if he hadn’t stressed himself out over the last few months AND a painter that although his confidence is high and he is painting good, is now burning the candle at both ends to make up for the previously mentioned shooting of himself in the foot (metaphorically speaking, of course). All is well now. I’m on track, loving teaching and loving painting… I just wish I had one more week. Okay, two… three would be nice.

Anyway! Happy Memorial Day, everyone! Have a safe and happy one!