This is why I paint and why I should be painting a lot more often

This weekend provided the first opportunities in months for me to really invest some time and paint in my home studio. Here are the fruits of my labor...

Both were done in Gamblin oils on stretched canvases that are 36x36 in size. Both are completely original works for me and this is a huge first for me. Both were also done - start to finish - within less than 48 hours of time. I have no titles for them yet but I am working on that. The inspiration for the subject matter should be obvious enough but largely it is informed by my Christian beliefs and experiences so far in my life.

My secret about how I "do it all" is...

Here it is: I don't.

Yesterday, was mother's day for mothers the world over (including me) but I wasn't celebrating it because I had to travel hours out of state to a funeral. Yesterday, I also had to finish up another graduate studies course for my MAT program that is still at least a full calendar year from being able to be completely finished and today starts yet another class. Yesterday, I also had to do various other things like inventorying my current textbooks so that I could have them ready to sell to fellow grad students and while this seems like a minor task, it's actually not - at least if you want to actually make money off of the books rather than just selling them back for a pittance. The day before yesterday (so, Saturday), I was up before 6am to help my husband with a major event he was helping to spearhead at the school where he teaches and after that I had 3+ hours of school work (for the class that officially ended yesterday). I also spent 7+ hours dealing with an issue affecting both my husband's phone and my phone that basically was rendering our phones as very fancy paperweights. Attending to the issue required one very involved trip to an Apple store and another very involved trip to the cell phone store that ended up derailed for reasons way beyond my control and I ended up eating some delicious frozen yogurt instead while on the phone for a third time that day with a customer service rep for the cell phone network I am on.

Here's something you should have noted in all of the above that is only really a typical (seriously) two days of my life beyond blogging here: I did not once mention cooking OR cleaning. For this I am not necessarily proud and I won't say I didn't clean or cook at all (because it happened partially in the midst of everything) but for the most part? It was hardly a priority. Another thing that was very much a priority but just plain wasn't mentioned was my my almost five year old daughter. She was attended to plenty I just really don't remember how, what, and when I did for her amidst all of the... well, everything that I did.

Some weeks ago I was checking into Pinterest (I do this sporadically when I need to rest my brain mostly) and I stumbled upon this from CraftSnark.com...

source

It made me laugh so hard because it is absolutely the truth! Because here's the thing, even if I didn't have teaching full-time, graduate school full-time, and being a wife and mother to a young child, my life would still likely be exactly as the above describes. And this is because I would end up indulging my creative inspirations, spurts, and seeking to satisfy my wandering curiosities a whole heck of a lot more than I would be making and keeping up a well-oiled and tidy household.

Anyway, I know all of this is pretty unrelated to this blog and everything and I know that I haven't been blogging lately but I just wanted to pop on here and let you know that while all of the aforementioned applies still to any given day of my life, I am working on getting some content on here to be published soon enough. In the past week since I have been not actively publishing fresh content, I have had so many hits and connections made to this site and I am so grateful that you all are finding what you need AND liking it enough to keep coming back for more. I suspect that many of you are art educators because that's what my stat counter indicates you are more often than not and I want to encourage you all to never hesitate to contact me with any questions or comments about what is posted here so that it is useful to and for you! This is the whole point of this site afterall.

And that's basically it for now at least. School is wrapping up for me over the coming three weeks and this week is actually my last one with this year's graduating seniors so their grades are due and I am definitely behind on that. I can hardly believe that another school year has gone by and I hope it has been good and fun for you all, my fellow art teachers, bloggers, and creatives.

See you in a bit (though I can't commit to exactly when that will be) with some stuff other than just explanations of why I can't actually be here. Thank you again for continuing to bear with me.