Honesty

I'm often asked how I manage to create so much work annually but I have to be honest...there are definite lulls and times that the work feels like absolute drudgery and times that I feel that everything I do is garbage and I wish I was like somebody else, anybody else.  But art also saves me. 

I struggle with setting boundaries on my time and on how I expect to be treated by others plus, with a family history of clinical depression and addictions I know that I can self-sabotage and end up feeling awful, I often experience that gut-wrenching feeling of inadequacy and non-belonging...and when I feel that way I know that all I need to do is hit my studio. 

I bring a cup of delicious tea (these days if it isn't Starbucks matcha tea latte it's Cream of Earl Grey at home), light a beeswax candle, turn on CBC Radio and pull out canvas and paint.  And it doesn't matter the time of day or night, if I can't sleep I head to my studio, if I'm away from home I always carry a Moleskin and pen or pencil or watercolour pan with me.  I write and doodle and paint and feel much, much better.  It's the cure for everything that ails me.