When Painting… Goes Sideways

While this is my website for book stuff, you may have picked up on the fact that I am in fact… artsy fartsy on multiple levels.  In fact, I’m so artsy fartsy that I now identify as an artisan fartisan.  My original goal in life was to be a book illustrator.  Which would have been fun, but the year that I arrived at college was the year they canceled the illustration program.  Good times.

But life went on and I went into graphic design with a more or less permanent side hustle of writing books.  Painting and other artistic projects were always hovering around, but they got more than a little side-tracked with the arrival of my daughter.  However, now that she’s in the double digits, can make her own food, and steal my shoes (can we all acknowledge that happened way too fast?) I’ve had the opportunity to return to painting.

Painting in the Wild

Last year, my mom called me up and said, “Beth, I don’t have time to explain, but is your passport current?”  To which, I said, “Yes, but what did you do?  Why are we fleeing the country, and where’s Dad?”  Turned out that she’d found a wonderful painting class in Greece. (Dad was fine, but he doesn’t paint.) So off we went! I learned a ton, saw some of the gorgeous sites and scary roads of Greece and remembered that I loved painting.

However, the problem with practicing is that you then you end up with a lot of paintings loitering around.  So I submitted some to the Federal Way Arts Explosion.  This local art show was a fantastic representation of the area artists. It was really gratifying to see my work hanging on the walls along with so many other wonderful artists. The best news was that I sold two pieces!

Moving Ahead

So I’m looking forward to the summer where I’m hoping to have a bit more time to paint and remember how to not get things done for deadlines or clients or any of the other pinch points of real life. I would like to approach painting as something that is first and foremost to serve my creativity.  Maybe next year, if I have too many paintings sitting around I’ll do some art fairs and try to sell them off.  Or make some prints for those want more art in their lives but don’t want the full artistic price. What do you think?  Should there be some kitty prints in circulation?