Studio Windows

This blog is the last piece of my new website I’m trying to establish before sending it out into the world. I’ve been hung up here for longer than I’d like - to blog or to substack? What do I even share? It’s complete paralysis, also sometimes known as procrastination or perfectionism. When I started blogging, sixteen years ago, I didn’t hesitate. I didn’t have an iPhone, and I didn’t have any social media then. I also didn’t have four children and this amazing home studio with a view of my garden directly outside of my beautiful tall windows.

I knew immediately when I saw our home that this old sunroom would be my studio because of the windows. The windows let ample natural light in and also let me gaze out into our yard. Both are essential for me as an artist: the give and take, the output and input, the giving and receiving. And so, a website, with a blog?, maybe even social media, is a necessary part of my work as an artist. So much of my creative work is in solitude, which feels beautiful and life-giving. However, if I never face outward and share my work, the work doesn’t seem complete. It’s just that this sharing comes with some risks; it’s vulnerable. Sixteen years (since my first blog post), but eighteen years as a professional artist, brings more experience, more reality, more struggle to find the time, more pressure – enter social media; it also brings more validity to my calling, more assurance that the fight is not only worth it, but necessary, and more understanding of my need for rest, grace, and gentleness – all things worth laboring in the rocky soil for. More on working in the rocky soil outside my studio windows in my next post!