New beginnings

Thank you for landing here. For looking at my art. For taking the time to read this.

I have been an art teacher for years. Er, a decade. I have been doing graphic design for mostly non-profits since I started in 1998. I created a studio space for myself when we moved to Rockford in 2008 and I basically dust it.

I had this kid. This wonderful, mysterious child. He's a lot of work. I wanted to make this house a home. I wanted to be a great mother. I strive to also be a fantastic teacher. This is a lot. There wasn't a lot left to be much else. Let alone a painter or an artist of any kind.

I decided to garden. First it was out of necessity. I am lucky to live in a beautiful neighborhood and I refused to have only sod. My desire for something more became something else and then something else. Now I have over 300 feet of gardens. I don't think I ever knew how much I would get into it. It steals my summers. I am perfectly ok with this.

I have told myself, my students, everyone...that this (gardening) was my creative time. And it was, but it was more like something new. Landscaping improves one's home, it's good to be outside and I have learned SO very much. All of this 100% true, but it was also quite removed from what I went to school for, etc.

There are a million things I could say about why I haven't made actual art since art school. Grant (my son) and work are the main reasons why I have collected art supplies, but haven't use them much in a very long time.

I made a painting, currently for sale, for my home and then I made another and another. I am adoring the process and then it hit me that I have been missing this. I feel like a child again. Letting the paint ebb and flow. I miss this, plus I need this. I mean, after all, Minnesota doesn't have many months to be a gardener.