How are you? What has changed for you? So much, I expect. It feels like the last 2 years have been a blur, punctuated with some big feelings, pivotal and beautiful moments and a lot of down time at home for me.
Having a small child at the beginning of the pandemic was enough to make a mama panic for sure. I was wanting to try for another, but ended up putting that off while we waited for information about how things were going to impact pregnant people and infants. As we got things figured out, we were able to navigate short, safer outings and lots of outdoor time meeting up with friends and family. We were so lucky to have been traveling for my husband's work in Oregon when things hit and we had found ourselves in a secluded RV park, on a private beach of the Columbia River, down the road from berry farms and wild bird sanctuaries. If there was ever a time for connecting with nature again, it was during the pandemic. There is something so grounding about being outside, and it was amazing to watch the flourishing of so many animal species, uninterested and even benefited by the forces impacting humans all over the world. The weather included heavy windless rains, misty fogs, and bouts of glorious sunshine. The world around us was green and mossy with twisting trees and vines, glorious flower blooms, myriad birds, seals in the river, and so many other creatures big and small, wild and domesticated. I have a thousand photos and so many ideas for new works of art!
My art! oh yeah... so being a cautious caregiver with the privilege of flexibility, I chose to pull my little boy out of childcare and thus a hiatus from consistent, dedicated swaths of studio time. Things slowed down for me substantially though I was still able to snag moments for painting small works, and in the summer of 2021 I felt safe enough to do an outdoor art show in Billings, MT. I have added my work to the walls of Craft Local, an amazing non-profit watering hole, music venue and gallery in Billings and continue to bring new small pieces for them to sell. I also built another human in 2021 and my second son was born in November. We hunkered down for the winter and worked on finding our groove. Infants, you may know, are constantly changing in very big ways so the groove we find gets uprooted weekly-if not-daily but I have more confidence with my second child and more of a sense of keeping other aspects of my life intact. So, with some limitations on time, I am back again, looking forward to more projects and making, more opportunities to greet the public with my art, and of course, more time introducing my little ones to new experiences out in the world. It feels like I am waking up again after a long period of going inward. Like a blooming after cultivation. I am growing a victory garden this year and planting the seeds of future success in Art and motherhood.
For those of you who are grieving, struggling to thrive or anxious from the past two years, I am with you in my heart. We are all in this together and I hope we will come out of it transformed for the better, in spite of and because of our losses. Sometimes we need a little pruning in order to bloom again.