Whoa! I have a baby!

Created using the ZenBrush application on iPad

Well, as you probably gathered by my subject line, I had my baby! A beautiful, healthy baby girl born October 29th.  I expected it to be an adjustment, but wow...I feel like I'm really just now getting my feet back under me. I haven't gotten to do any art since she was born, but I think we're finally getting into a groove. I'm loving being a mom, but I can't let what makes me, me completely disappear.

With the new year and new life stage, I've also had some new thoughts on art. As a fairly new artist, I've been trying to follow all the rules. One of those rules being, "Your art must have a consistent theme." I agree that themes are good and I agree that it's best if my art all looks like my art, but that's not something that can be forced. I've got some new ideas that I'm excited to explore- new textures, new painting surfaces, new themes. I'm not the same person from minute to minute, so how can my art be the same for the rest of my life? There are different aspects to me and there are different aspects to my art. With time, I believe those different facets will all join to form one big, consistent, crazy quilt of a picture... with time. 

And as usual, my attitude about art and about life change in sync. I'm not a super-organized person, I'm not a super-schedule oriented person, however I tried to make myself that way believing that that was the way to be a productive artist. Instead of being productive, though, I usually was just frustrated that scheduling was not working out as planned. I've realized in the last couple of months, though, that I need to capitalize on the fact that I'm flexible and enjoy.

So, here's to life and all of its changes and stages. Here's to art and adaptation. Here's to 2012. Happy New Year!