Momentum
Over the past few days I have been thinking about where I started this year and where I am now. To be honest I would be nowhere without Alan Condrey of Azure Image Studio.
I had surgery on my hand about a year ago, and I had not been able to create artwork for some time before then because it was painful. After surgery in November 2020 I had to take a few months to recover before I felt confident in picking up a paint brush. Once I did pieces like Moment and Voyage were some of the first that I created. I was in tears the first day back in my studio, my soul was happy, my hand was working and I was painting again.
A few weeks after I started painting Alan contacted me and asked me if I was working. He was formulating an idea to exhibit artwork from local artists in a restaurant downtown. How he knew when to call is a mystery, what can I say he has good instincts! Over the next few months I began to display and sell paintings with his help.
By the summer of 2021 I felt my momentum start to pick up and I started creating more quickly and more consistently. I started this website and I took the income from my work and put it right back into the studio to create paintings of higher quality. I also exhibited work with Alan Condrey and Renee Kaelber in August at Gallery 17 in Richmond, VA.
It’s November 2021, it’s been a year since surgery, I may have to go back under the knife again but for now I am rolling. I can feel myself building my momentum with each piece I finish. I paint in my head as I drive down the road, I think about painting when I should be focused on 100 other things. It can be stressful to manage studio time with a family and a full time job but I have never felt more whole, more complete as a person. I feel that my art is finally taking priority in a way I have never been able to do before.
My husband and daughter have my back, they are my cheerleaders, my studio helpers. I would not be where I am today without the help of my family or without Alans insight and instincts as he pulled me out of my studio and into the world. I have also felt so blessed to have so many friends and family members that have not only complimented my work but also purchased it. It is such a good feeling when someone else can look at a painting I have created and say that it makes them feel something. That is the ultimate compliment to me. If someone else can enjoy my work as much as I love creating it then I have truly accomplished something as an artist. This is what it is really all about, sharing joy and ideas with other people in the way I am capable.
As I move forward and towards my show in March, I am hopeful that I can keep this momentum going, that I will never feel uninspired and that my hand will hold out just a little longer so that I can do things that were just dreams a few years ago.
