Home » When Life Gives You Lemons…Keep Making Art

“Art is a ripening, an evolution, an uplifting which enables us to emerge from darkness into a blaze of light.”
– Jerzy Grotwoski

Over the past nine months I’ve been pouring a lot of time into creating a new collection of vinyl record mandalas. The first collection (Volume 1) sold out online a few years ago. I was amazed and humbled by the response and delighted in sending each unique piece to a new home.

Months ago I was booked for a solo show at a wonderful gallery in the town that I live in. Unfortunately, I found out that for a few different reasons, the gallery was closing suddenly at the end of this month. Therefore, my solo show was no longer happening in October.

After receiving this news, I spent that day feeling a variety of feelings. I was shocked at first. My mind went to the months and months of time I had put into preparing for this show. As the show date approached, I had devoted even more time to getting ready and finishing the last pieces as I prepared press releases. These were my ‘babies’ that were waiting to be born and presented to the community. Next I felt frustration and anger over the canceled show. I followed my thoughts as they spiraled into a cycle of self-defeating thoughts and a negative outlook on my art career.

At some point in the day, a little switch happened in my thinking. I realized that all of my feelings about the show were valid and needed room to be felt. So I let them have full reign, but I gave them an internal timeline. I told myself, ‘ok – feel everything intensely today without judgment. Then tomorrow, figure out your next step and get creative.’

I realized that no time or energy had been wasted in creating this collection. I will always make art, whether or not I have a specific show scheduled. It’s my daily medicine. It brings me joy and imbues my days with a greater sense of purpose and connection. There is a good chance I will find a new place to show this body of work. In the meantime, I will keep creating…because that’s what I do!

Like the changing seasons, I find that my approaches to art making in terms of theme, materials, surfaces, and size is constantly in flux. However, there are certain bodies of work that I continuously return to, such as my mandalas, wood burning, and textural layered paintings on canvas.

Working within the parameters of the vinyl records has brought me a new perspective and way of working on other surfaces. A couple of weeks ago I began working on square and rectangular canvases again. It had been so many months of working within a circle, that I was very interested to see how my work has evolved and adapted to new surfaces. I feel even freer in my paint strokes and in the playful ways I am exploring layering and line work. Below are a few new pieces that have come out of this transition and my temporary ‘setback’ with my canceled show.

After finishing this blog post I plan to head up to my studio and dive into some more painting. Perhaps I will work on some more vinyl record mandalas, and perhaps I will work on something else. Either way, my art is like an old friend that still constantly surprises me.

Have you had setbacks in your own creative process, whether it is art or a different modality? What gives you the motivation and drive to keep creating despite obstacles?