Well, unfortunately, the virus that has passed through our household, taking us down one by one over the last few weeks finally landed on me this week and I’ve spent most of the last few days in bed! I feel the pull of gardening work, I’m excited about doing some Spring Cleaning and home projects, and I have dozens of panels and reference photos waiting to be painted and instead I’ve been littering my bedside with spent tissues. Well, this too shall pass.
I didn’t have the mental clarity to write a blog post yesterday, but I already had this one partially done so it was pretty easy to polish it off.
As a reminder, my next original art sale goes live tomorrow, Friday, March 28, 2025, at 1:00 pm Eastern. You can find the sale preview HERE.
what I’m reading
I shared earlier in the week about the new book Interiors of a Storyteller and that’s the book I’ve been reading this week. You can read that review HERE. I keep going back to it, looking at the rooms with fresh eyes, taking away new nuggets of inspiration.
what I’m watching
Jeff and I watched Race to Alaska over the weekend. I’ve had it on our Amazon Prime watchlist for a while and we finally decided to watch it. We didn’t have high expectation of this documentary about an obscure boat race, but it was so wonderful! The race is from Port Townsend, WA to Ketchikan, AK, over 750 miles in unfriendly and unpredictable waters. You can enter any sort of boat you want in the race, manned by a team or an individual, but you cannot use a motor of any kind. The boat has to be propelled by nature and humans.
Early in the documentary, one of the creators points out that the most interesting thing about the race isn’t the race itself. He’s right. It was so fascinating to follow different individuals and teams who entered, their reasons, their goals, and their approach. You see everything from teams who sail professionally to a guy on a paddle board. It’s crazy and fun to watch unfold.
Jeff and I loved watching the scenery and, though snippets on a screen, going along on the adventure.
what I’m loving
My mom and I had a conversation about the ability to draw last week and it was right along the lines of the Instagram Story I saw just a day later. So many people carry wounding around creative work. My mom’s story is she drew something on the chalkboard for a first grade class as a young teacher and they didn’t know what it was. My mom decided that she couldn’t draw based on one drawing on a chalkboard judged by first graders. It speaks volumes that she’s still telling that story decades later.
It doesn’t mean you have to draw, especially if it’s not something you’re interested in. But, if you are holding yourself back because somewhere along the line someone told you that your art wasn’t good, maybe you should revisit it. Maybe we all need to be open to redefining what art is.
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what I’m working on
I wish I had more to report on this front, but I’ve just been trying to keep things in the house running between movies, naps, and cough medicine doses. I did manage to finish up my taxes and sent off the remaining painful checks this morning. That’s something.
I hope to have more to report next week…
7 Responses
Get well, first of all. Thinking you can’t is real. I painted for year, beautiful roses and bluebonnets, other things. I couldn’t draw. wouldn’t try. For years. But, I found I wanted to draw. And, I did. I wouldn’t do watercolors because it was so unforgiving. It is not. I have allowed myself to do what I could not. I understand your Mother’s feelings. Completely. I love that book!
I hope you are back on your feet and feeling 100 % soon. You’ll be back in the garden quickly I’m sure. I am adding this comment to you from a vacation in Jamaica where I broke both wrists on an unfortunate fall on our first night. Two casts … no spring gardening for me this year in our new home.
I’m so sorry. That’s horrible!
Hope you’re feeling better soon! Thanks for the encouragement about your mom. I used to take hundreds of pictures with my camera until I had a person tell me I was no good. Maybe I will try again!
Oh no – you caught “The Crud!” That’s what we call it in my family. Just bleh. So sorry. Hope you are feeling well soon – one thing it does is steal energy like nobody’s business. Your art for tomorrow’s sale is amazing.
I loved the pic you showed of that sailboat in the race……I see an inspired Marian painting of that in the future….and wow on your mom’s story about drawing. That is very poignant, and important to see the reasoning behind those little lies we tell ourselves. Thank you for sharing that – and thank her for not minding. ♥♥
Marian,
I hope you rest up and are back feeling like yourself again soon.
Sadly, early negative comments about our young,creative endeavors can last a lifetime. My maternal step grandmother informed me around age eight that my drawing of a girl’s face was poorly done because the eyes were cockeyed. It crushed me but my parents and my older sister told me to ignore her criticism. Thankfully, their opinions were more important than hers so I did. I took art classes all four years of high school and sold my first painting in a school art show to one of my teachers.