It's a beautiful November Sunday here in Fort Worth, TX. I'm sitting on my back porch, reveling in the crisp yet still warm air, the perfect fall angle of the sun, and time with my two pups. I'm also on my laptop, building up my website shop so I can transition from Etsy.
I've been very inspired to beef up my presence as an artist lately. The main source of this boost is a podcast called Creative Pep Talk by the contagiously enthusiastic Andy J. Pizza. He lit up that part in my brain that's always wondering "what would being a successful artist look like?". The podcast provides actionable, tried-and-true ideas for emerging creatives.
Don't get me wrong. I love my full time "day job" as a commercial interior designer. I still get lost in the flow of a space planning session and every time I receive a Material Bank box, it feels like Christmas morning. Every. Time. I know I am very fortunate to experience that much joy in my career. What's more, the patterns, color trends, and inspiration imagery for my interiors projects often make their way into my paintings, drawings or photographs!
Lately, on top of listening to the aforementioned podcast, I've been learning about Evolutionary Intelligence from The Gifted Adult by Mary-Elaine Jacobsen, and reading the book Burnout by Emily Nagoski, Ph.D. and Amelia Nagoski, D.M.A. All of these sources say it loud and clear: the universe gives us unique gifts and skills to share with the world to make it a better place. And when we tap into that magic, we heal, too. That is what painting feels like to me.
So I'm going to keep doing it. And I'm going to keep sharing it with you to connect to that something larger and together we can move mountains, okay?
I’m grateful the world has given you the gifts you have to share with the world. You make my world a better place!