And it has been a very long time indeed. I feel like I've been hibernating for ever so long. Last winter and through the spring. I briefly woke to write a single post in June after attending Squam Art Workshop in New Hampshire, on the shores of Squam Lake, and then fell back to sleep. Writing of any kind (except for work), took a very long hiatus. And now, here on the last night of Winter, I start again. Well, I hope to start again.
I have not been a total slacker. There's been the random knitting, the random photography, the random drawing and painting. But nothing big, nothing unusual, nothing consistent. And then...then something happened to break most of my creative blocks free. On a bit of a whim, I started taking specific flower essences as part of a six-month course called Flowerevolution by Lotus Wei. I've taken flower essences before, but never noticed any big changes. Maybe I didn't take them consistently. But this time? There was change, and it was big. Knitting projects flew off my needles! Seriously, I finished more projects between October and February than I had finished in the last couple of years. I started painting again (I didn't start writing again). I started working with a potter friend to make wool appliqué coasters and trivets to complement her pottery. Math became easier; I actually saw what was happening with the numbers in a knitting pattern!**
Did the flower essences remove the creative blocks? Perhaps. Perhaps it was just coincidence. But I also became more confident in my creative Self. I don't think I would have even dreamed of making a single example of an art form I had never done before and submit it to a juried show. I'm teaching myself to draw and to paint with watercolors. I feel like fear and self-imposed limits (I can't; I don't know how; it's too hard; I'm not good enough) have started to dissolve. And I discovered again that in order for me to be truly happy, I need to create, to design.
April promises to be an interesting month. I joined Susannah Conway's April Love 2015, a two-part challenge where the theme is LOVE: Love for ourselves, our lives, the world around us. And LOVE expressed in gratitude and kindness. (Those are Susannah's words.) There are daily prompts for photography and daily emails to inspire.
And on the weekend of April 18, I'll be sharing my friend's pottery booth at the Leesburg Flower and Garden Show. It's my first juried arts and craft show! Actually, it's my first arts and craft show, period. Will my work sell? Stay tuned.
So now, it's off to bed. It's supposed to snow tonight and tomorrow, a delightful Spring snowstorm. Despite that I'm tired of Winter, I still get excited over the prospect of snow.
**I suffered a major math trauma in the fourth grade and it has dogged my existence ever since.
