Actually…it wouldn’t have been my weekend project had I not procrastinated. But isn’t that a typical characteristic of an artist? Anyway…I mentioned several weeks ago about a piece I was doing for the Alumni Show at Spring Arbor University (where I graduated from). My original idea was to create a piece that reflects the art I do at this point in my life which is mostly in my journals. I read somewhere recently that journaling isn’t art…it’s playing. Well, I don’t know if I understand the difference…and I came to the conclusion after much stressing about this piece I wanted to create…that it’s ok. This is where I am in my life. I am a busy woman. I work full time. I teach a class in the evening once a week. I am involved in my church and my family pretty much demands the rest of my time. Yet, I still try to find time each day (and somedays that isn’t possible) to capture the moments of my life, of which I consider every one of them a gift. I decided it’s ok that I don’t create a paintings or drawings that can be entered in competitions or hang in gallerys (although that’s not totally out of the question). In five or ten years, or maybe at this time next year (who knows?) my perspective and priorities may be different. I hope that someday I will have the opportunity to spend more of my time creating artwork…but it is unrealistic for me to expect myself to be able to produce paintings or drawings that demand 30+ hours to complete. So my idea was to take some of the actual drawings/sketches from my journal and I put them into a grid that captures “snapshots” of my typical everyday life. Nothing fancy…just me. This is who I am and for me right now, this says everything about who I am and the kind of art I create at this point in my life. I have to tell you…it was SO hard to take my knife and cut those moments of my life out of my journals…but I love the piece as a whole. What do you think? Here is what I wrote in the last square.

I seriously would like to know what you think of this piece since it is a little different than what you might expect to see at this kind of show…It’s going to be hanging next to book illustrators and some an artist who has had paintings commissioned from the Pentagon! Yikes!

I should tell you the reason why this took all weekend. This mat that I needed cut on Saturday, well no one would do it… and even with a week to do it they would have to charge at least 100.00 for it! So I bought a piece (actually 2 because I didn’t have a lot of confidence in my mat cutting skills) and some new blades for my Logan mat cutter that I bought when I was framing my Senior Art Show in College! It took me a couple of hours to measure and draw it all out…and lots longer to cut it. But I only messed up once and it was able to be fixed so I only used the one piece of mat board. It looks cool but trust me it WAS a big project.