Back to School & Back to the Studio
It’s the first full week of Kindergarten and I’m back to my regular schedule of work and studio time. It feels so good to get caught up! I’m finally able to organize myself and my calendar. Today was spent setting plans for the fall and winter season preparing for projects that’ll push this creative cog further. It’s invigorating!
This summer, despite my growing desperation to reconnect with my art practice, was perhaps the best one ever. The weather was so perfect and I had a total of around a month and half to two months off with my 5 year old son. He’s finally of an age where it’s easy and fun to communicate with him. He’s more a boy than a baby all of a sudden, and he’s ready to take on challenges and crush milestones. For example, he learned how to ride his bike without training wheels and swim without a floatation device. He’s doing chores to earn money and was quite the entrepreneur with his fresh-squeezed lemonade stand. How proud am I?!
We had so much fun as a family, too. We went to the lakes, river, ocean, stayed at the cottage, went for hikes, went on family vacations, and played mini golf. I reconnected with old friends and family I hadn’t seen in years. … I mean, we really rocked it. Initially, I’d been nervous to lose so much of my studio time, but once I leaned into it and relaxed, I had a blast.
However, by that last week and a half before school started I was so ready to get back to the office and the studio, and it showed! I was dangerously backlogged with work, 6 commissioned illustrations, and I had a scheduled workshop looming on the horizon. Typically, my mantra or my order of business is to 1. say “yes” 2. stay organized 3. stay ahead of schedule, and 4. show up. Usually if I follow those guidelines for success, stuff works out. BUT! I was woefully unprepared for a summer with sporadic childcare and what it actually does to your work schedule and productivity.
I slipped in work after the kids were in bed and during rest times, juggled different projects (and different sides of the brain), and I was constantly shocked at how difficult it was to stay on top of it all. I whiffed on a couple things and learned a sore lesson to pace myself next year, but luckily those missteps didn’t end in too terrible a tragedy. I’m glad to say that there are more exciting projects coming up and more hours than I had this past school year to accomplish them. I took the day to set up my marching orders for the next couple of months and now I can’t WAIT to get painting!
One of my new great loves is plein air painting, and I have a weekend coming up, just my husband and I, where I hope to get back out on this point and finish the biggest panel I’ve attempted to date! With a view like this, one might be inclined to go “big”, figuratively and physically.
Medomak River, Muscongus Bay, Waldoboro, ME
Another thing to look forward to is my agent review day with SCBWI where I get to pitch my book idea while going over the manuscript AND dummy to get some professional feedback. This is lined up for the end of this month. This time I get 15 whole minutes! Kinda makes that 5 minute pitch look like small potatoes. I know, I know… so soon after my recent Zoom debacle? What can I say, I’m a sucker for a do-over! This time I’ve had my manuscript critiqued by someone who does that kind of thing for a living. The bugs are worked out and now it’s time to dig into the dummy. Wish me luck! Rest assured this time my husband will be watching the kids, lest he end up in another blog post!
Don’t worry about him too much. He’s a pretty good sport ;-)
With that rounding out the month I go right into substitute teaching an art class at NYA in early October and leading a new Artascope workshop in November. Who knows? Maybe I can fit in a few little tasty plein air’s for holiday offerings and post them to my shop. Mayybe. For the most part these plans feel pretty doable and well-spaced. Hopefully this time I haven’t bitten off more than I can chew. I’m somewhat sure I’ve learned my lesson…
