Consistency

I painted these tomatoes during a time of my life where I was trying desperately to be consistent in my art. I had had my third baby, dealing with post-partum depression and I needed consistency so much and it just wasn't there. I thought if there was one place I could add it back in would be in art. I saw all these examples of artists who did daily work and thought I could make this very difficult time in my life feel a little bit better if I did something every day as well. I drew pictures of my kids, I drew the flowers my husband brought home to make me feel better and I painted food. I didn't paint food like I do now. I paint it now because I am stretching myself as an artist or because I really want to paint it. I did it then because I felt I had to. The trouble was, I wasn't enjoying what I was doing. It felt good to create, but there wasn't much beyond that. And I felt I wasn't doing it for me, it was to prove that I was still in fact an artist as well as an exhausted mom.

Here I am all these years later and I am once again working on consistency. There is a difference this time and I feel it. This time my consistency is because I LOVE what I do. I love painting food, portraits, lace, bells, glass, you name it because the process is what keeps me going. If you follow along, you will watch my get better. You will watch me grow and get better and better. If you don't that's okay. I will keep doing it anyway. My consistency is now focused on the love of creation. And I will consistently pursue it. If I go blind someday, you can bet I will be doing fiber arts by feel or move on to sculpture or maybe really textured paint. If I can't use my right hand, I'll learn to use my left. If I lose both, well, I still have feet. This is what consistency means to me now.