We all get stressed, but artmaking can be just the anecdote. A new study out of Drexel and countless others before it confirms this. You can read the study here.
January for me has had a lot of ups and downs.
Way ups and way downs.
And through it all making art has kept me sane. The month began with a WONDERFUL visit to see family in Florida. But even wonderful visits can have times that make you want to exhale and take a mindful moment, so I brought along some simple art supplies. My sister-in-law Wendy loves to make art and she happily joined me on multiple occasions and each and every time she said, "I feel so relaxed!" "I feel soo relaxed!"
When I returned from Florida, things kicked into high gear for selling my house. On Sunday, we moved out with our pets. Monday we did a final cleaning, Tuesday I touched up on the paint. Wednesday and Thursday, the stager came and put her amazing touches on every room and we moved everything that wasn't part of the staging to storage, Friday the photographer came to take pictures of the house and we decided on our listing price.
We got the MLK weekend off and I snuck over to work in my studio to destress a bit. I found myself working in calming colors on the piece above. And because my titles tend to be a bit of diary of where my head is, I titled it, "The Future is Already Here" because I couldn't believe that we had actually gotten to the point of listing the house for sale!
The Way High: On Tuesday, last week, the house went "live" and had lots of showings throughout the week and during the weekend. It was all very exciting! By Sunday we had a couple of bids and yesterday we accepted an offer. Wow what a whirlwind! It looks like we will most likely close in April. (I will probably have one more open studio sale prior to moving. So you can look forward to announcements about that!)
The Way Low: In the midst of all the excitement, on Friday, the storage unit called me. The abandoned building next door to the storage unit had had a pipe burst and all the stuff we had JUST PUT INTO STORAGE was in a unit that had FLOODED. UGH. Talk about way lows. It was awful. Firstly, it was physically exhausting because I spent the whole day moving dry boxes to another storage unit (lifting and stacking boxes is very challenging!) and unpacking wet boxes to see the damage. But secondly, there was an emotional toll. Yes, there is insurance, but some damage isn't insurable. At first it seemed like so much was ruined. But luckily after we had gone through it all, a lot of it will dry and be mostly fine, even our photos. The worst losses were my wedding dress, which I had secretly hoped one of my kids would remake into something fashionable for their own wedding, and two pieces of art. We are still in the process of washing things and drying things like records and photos, but I guess we were really lucky. And, I plan to cut a piece of the skirt from my wedding dress for future pocket squares and bouquet sashes...
It was a dramatic month! And every time I started to feel too prickly or too cranky, my art making re-centered me. PHEW!
Warmly,
Anne
The Power of Ahhh...
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