Wow! It has been about nine months since the last post.  Too much has been going on at work that posting what I am doing in the studio and in the exhibit halls has taken the back burner.  I have been trying to set time aside but to no avail, the time escapes me.  You all know what I am talking about.  Just when you think you have the time to paint, write, update files, etc., etc., etc., the time seems to pass so fast that it is time to go to bed.  Well, that is how it has been for me since mid-June.

My regular job has taken the front seat since the division is short staffed.  When you are down one person, all the others pick up the slack.  I was balancing all my time perfectly; regular museum work, artwork in the studio, artwork in the exhibit halls, working out (got to stay healthy people), and time with family and friends. Probably the only thing I was not able to keep up with were my blog posts here.  Keeping the Facebook and Instagram active is easy.  Basically, you take a photo of what your working on and post.  Not much work there, lol.

Painting and drawing, I have had no problem staying focused all summer.  Focusing on updating my posts, website, and blog, that is where my biggest problems have been.  As many of you know, I consider myself a working artist. To me that means, I work my ass off to do my art but have a regular job to pay the bills (which I wrote about here, “Yes, I do have another job to pay the bills…”).  Well, the full-time job has needed me more than ever this past October through February.   We had an unexpected tragedy happen to someone we work with and someone I look up to and admire as both a mentor, boss and friend.  I have been helping out with taking care of what he used to do with the other three members of our division.  It has been hard but when “everything happened” I went into a slump, a kind of mini-state of parent neglect to my artwork.  Yes, this “mother of drawings” (pun intended) placed down her pencils, pens and brushes and forgot to finish work that I wanted to have finished before the end of the year.  Many things have been left on the sidelines, oil pastels needing glazing, mini-ink paintings needing layers added, drawings looking for pastel to start covering them.

Well, since the first of the year, everything has slowly been coming into place.  I have been able to go to my Artist at the field drawing dates to continue on paintings and drawings from this past couple years.  Slowly but surely, artwork will get finished this year.  I do not know how many posts I can write to update you all on the progress but I will try.  Until the next posting.  Happy days!