Growing Inspiration

Faster than I could count my seeds, it's spring. As I mentioned in a previous post, one of my hobbies is gardening. 

Growing things and being surrounded by beauty inspires me. So for the past few years I've done my best to cultivate my green thumb (with my share of trial and error).

Creative Sustainability

"Environmental sustainability is defined as responsible interaction with the environment to avoid depletion or degradation of natural resources and allow for long-term environmental quality. The practice of environmental sustainability helps to ensure that the needs of today's population are met without jeopardizing the ability of future generations to meet their needs." - study.com

Art Herstory

*This is an entry that was originally written on 11/16/2017 but was forgotten in drafts! Happily, with a few minor tweaks and updates, it still applies.

I've been told from time to time, throughout my life, how fortunate I am to have been aware of my passion from an early age. People seemed to feel that I had my destiny all sewn up neatly from the start. While I don't take my lifelong passion for granted, it's not that black and white.

The gray area has been the time and energy [well] spent experimenting my entire life with all the many different iterations of being an artist, fine-tuning my direction. When I was a kid, there was a wide, exciting world of drawing, painting, sculpting, building, and more that stretched out in front of me, waiting for me to choose. I was largely self-taught, so I went through various self-guided phases. One year, all I seemed to do was draw clowns and princesses in poofy dresses. 

Fostering Creativity

I've been an artist my entire life. But obviously, I wasn't always a professional artist. My creative work began as a seed planted during idle exploration as a small child. I.E. a pastime that I quickly developed an affinity for... and never put down. The pastime grew into a hobby, the hobby grew into an obsession, and the obsession rounded out my life's mission. But not all pastimes become professions, nor do they need to do so. 

"In polite society, we call our obsessions hobbies." -Stephen King

To be clear, when I say "hobbies", I mean things we enjoy doing in our free time, or time we are not committed to things like working, schooling, or other responsibilities. Hobbies come in all shapes and sizes and are not strictly art or craft related. They can be everything from hunting to collecting stamps.