Ever feel like you get lost in things. You don’t appreciate what you have, how hard you have worked, or see how far you have come? Ever get stuck? Just making sure I am not the only one. Trying to explain to someone you are an Artist (and make a living doing that) you typically get the head tilted to the side and a weird look like you live in a box of Crayola Crayons (don’t get me wrong…I wish I did!) but that is not the case.
I make my living by being creative, thinking outside the box, marketing, customer service and representing what I believe in. And when that gets lost in the mix what do I have. Well………..I have reflective moments to get myself straight. I have great friends, an amazing team!, and family to put my vision back on track. I have my belife and love for what I do and what I stand for.
I have this blog, Mixed Media Monday, I have so much!
Sure I don’t have a conventional occupation or clock in but I give everything I have to my chosen occupation. I cannot put a key in the ignition and start up my creative mojo (sure wish I did but then again I have a habit of losing keys). But what I have is the belief that creativity is like a muscle. You can use every excuse in the book to avoid exercising it like emails, the dog is looking at you, the gym is too far, etc. but you have to push yourself to get in that Studio and workout as if you are going to the gym. It will return…the muscles have good memory.
Heck, I have had to physically remind myself to hit the trails, hike, workout and free my mind so I can return to the studio! It is a miracle what a walk can do just to clear the mind, heart and soul (do it with a friend and your furbaby and even better!)
So with that said…………Love this moment, this this song, love the audio books playing in the Studio as I clean it up….loving my happy place/studio waiting for me every day. Heck, this is my Crayola Box I love to live in!
Love the reminder that I am still there……….doing what I love. Maybe, just maybe doing what I am doing will inspire someone to put on their tennis shoes and #movemyrear as I call it, pick up a paint brush, try something new and that is what it is about. More then anything I love to make people happy with my painting and teaching. It is a real joy when someone gets it and that light bulb moment happens they discover that they can overcome sadness, mental health issues, the loss of a loved one, a marriage gone wrong….etc. Happiness is a great gift to give to anyone. (thank you Doxie K.!)
You are capable of so much…you sometimes might forget that. You see, we love to look at beautiful things and brilliant things and revolutionary things. Sometimes we stop noticing how many of those kinds of things are around us and what it has taken to create and build and maintain those things.
We are inspired by people who have found the keys to all kinds of successes…or sometimes we are jealous, or envious and sometimes it even makes us feel a little hopeless or angry.
What we sometimes do though, beautiful friend, is forget what it must have taken to get to a place of brilliance or a place of health or a place of what seems to be raw talent. Sometimes we don’t want to admit to ourselves that everything and everyone has had to go through a process to get to where or what they are now.
And sometimes we don’t admit that we have done the same, ourselves. We have each done so much already that we forget we have done.
Important things take time. Impressive things take time. Brilliant things take time. Beautiful gardens take time and healthy bodies take time and beautiful relationships take time. Inventions take time and businesses take time and works of art take time. These things take time that is not always fun, and often tedious and full of failures that have to be overcome before the brilliance is uncovered.
We are all capable of SO MUCH if we are willing to put in the time. Even when we put in the time and don’t make it to where we wanted to be….we have still become someone more experienced than if we had not tried at all.” ~ Brave Girls
I end this blog post and leave you with this song……
Happy Saturday……….you will find me in my Studio ♥
Don’t listen to those who tell you exactly what to do. Listen to those special few who encourage you to do what you already know in your heart is right.”
Just what I needed to hear. Thank you sweet Tracy. j.
well maybe I owed you for being the guardian angel who pops in just when I need her ♥
You know you’re doing something special when you tilt heads. Love your crayon box. So thankful for your giving spirit and mixed media Mondays. Looking forward to totally Tracy Thursdays too.
I am so happy to invite everyone into my crayon box each week!!!!!!
Thank you for the pep talk once in a while we are in need of a reminder,
I write it for me as much as for everyone who can relate..we are never alone!
You, my friend, are my inspiration. Truly, you are. I did not start out to become obsessed with colours of paint! I did not expect to start seeing flowers everwhere! I was bord with making cards after 30yrs, did not find sticking flowers and gems on bigger pieces very fulfilling, and if I am honest, wondered why some people raved about art journals.
I decided to try painting, thinking to myself…..got some paints here, lets go for it. Huh, not the right paint, these brushes are no good, this card is too porous…….Youtube! And so it began…….today I started the 3 colour challenge. So far I got to the 4th coat of paint for the background…..this is good. I have reached 8 coats on a bad day. I wouldn’t mind, but I still have not achieved a canvas that I am happy with…..But! The days fly by, Tuesdays, often I am staggering around with matchsticks propping up my eyelids, (wonder whose fault that is?), the rest of the week flashes by, usually hilighted by my postie delivering ( you have probably guessed) more paint , brushes, medium etc. Eric keeps me happy by feeding me with delicious tasty meals so that I can spend my time with Paint. Thanks to you , dear friend, I am busy, obsessed with pyrole red, prussian blue hue, cobalt.teal and beautiful quinacridone magenta. Tracy, I love your smile, your humour, your family, your talent, not just for your painting, your charm, but for your sensitivity too.
Carry on being you, because you are something rather special.xx
♥ love right back to you! this is what it is about!
Great read–thank you! And thank you for so much inspiration and for letting us in your crayola box on Monday nights too! (And this Thursday morning too!)
thank you Kathy!
I have people in my life that totally get it and then I have people that don’t. At the end of the day I do it because I love it, it is in me and a part of me 🙂 ~ I have to create and so do you (and you do it so well) !! Cheering you forward!!!!
thanks Connie! we have had a long road friend ♥
Oh how I can totally relate…, my studio had been waiting for me to return for far too long. Deadlines to meet and it seems there is too little time. ( dang it for saying yes I’d come back to work part time!) But as soon as these cookies and cake pops are delivered tomorrow , I’m going in!! And staying in there until the piece is finished ???? And then I have to find time to rearrange and re do the space!
Big hugs girlfriend… Keep moving, keep inspiring. Dream Create Inspire !!
awe thanks Cheryl! I am so in awe of your energy and baking ART!
Relate on every level!
Appreciate you and your friendship! <3
Keep being TRACY!!! <3
lol………thanks Sandy! We got this!
Big hugs my friend. Always a Guiding light and inspiration both In the studio and on the canvas of life.
right back at you! ♥
Love the inspiration you always bring to the table Tracy! I needed this 🙂
feels good just to write ♥ and share ♥