Overcoming Challenges

There are days that are definitely more challenging for me...not only as an artist, but as a person.  Choices I make and personal experiences in my daily life definitely affect my work though I hope in the end it's in a positive way.  In order to create, I often feel as though I need to be in that calm, content state, but it seems that often when I head to my studio in spite of the anxiety or frustration that I feel, just the act of doing the work helps me not only to feel better, but to push forward on anything that I am working on.  One piece that I created the morning of 9/11 ended up travelling in an exhibit across my province for three years and I heard a lot of positive response to how it helped others with healing from the terrible event.  It was a day that I didn't know what to do with myself and I knew that I had to channel that negative energy into work and to flip that feeling through creating something peaceful, though sad.  The woman who eventually purchased the painting recently told me she still feels peace every time she looks at it and for that I am grateful.