Inspiration

While I haven't been posting, I have been thinking a lot about posting-- and I justify my lack of actual updates by saying that when I do actually post, I am going to have a lot to say. But for now, to continue with the trend of just brief updates, I recently came upon this Ira Glass quote via Lost at E Minor and wanted to share because it's an important message:

"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through." — Ira Glass 

3 days til depature

Whew, it's been a busy busy week on my end-- I swapped out pretty much every portion of my bike to prepare it for its 3,000 mile journey, added nine new prints to my etsy shop, finished some pieces for a group show I'm participating in while traveling (yay for doing things in abstentia), packed up my art studio, finished writing up an interview I conducted with Justin Kane Elder, and was extremely flattered to have some really lovely posts on a number of art blogs I respect and admire. You can take a peek here at Lost at E Minor, Pattern Pulp, and Hard Feelings.

I'm most excited to have been mentioned on My Love For You Is A Stampede Of Horses-- I have had a huge art crush on them forever, so it means a lot to me that they liked my stuff!

Annyywayyss, it's been busy, but good busy, and I am really, really ready to spend four months with nothing that needs doing except hopping on my bike and biking about 50 miles every day. And, dear friends, I think I might have decided to relent-- I think I'm going to bring a small watercolor set with me. But only a little one. With one brush. It's strange to have all my paints and brushes boxed up; the thought of not touching them until July is too strange to wrap my head around.

I realized I haven't done a great job of posting images lately, so here are some pictures of some smaller pieces I've done in the last month or so. I've been wanting to devote my time to working on large scale projects, but haven't been able to with all my last minute preparations, so I've mostly been working small.