Welcome to my blog.
Thanks for joining me as I share about my surface pattern designs and other art I make.
I have thought about creating a blog for quite some time now. I used to journal when I was younger (i.e., before kids when I had more time!) but have gotten out of that habit these last few years. One of my favourite journals to look back at is a visual journal I used for awhile: each day I quickly drew a picture representing a moment from the day.
Now I definitely don't expect to add to this blog or website daily (or even weekly), but if I can keep up with this semi-regularly, I think it will be a nice place to document the ways I am making time for creativity.
I make art constantly, but because it is just a "hobby" for me, I do not always take the time I should to reflect on art I have made, or to plan and make goals about my art for the future. It felt like maybe it was time to take a moment to do that.
Finding Time for Art
2023 just wrapped up a week ago. It felt like a bit of a transitional year in our family's life as we continued to settle into our new home, and as Rosie went from being a baby to being a kid. Malcolm grew a lot too, but I think the difference in Rosie's age had a bigger impact on my ability to make art this year. Being a mom is a privilege and one of the absolute best parts of my whole life, and also babies consume your free time. For me, art usually fits into my "in between" moments - time between work, between cleaning, between errands, between hugs, between napping to catch up on lost sleep, between books, between picking up toys, between putting kids to bed and trying not to get sleepy myself, between time with my (also busy) husband, (not to mention between the time I waste on my phone), between endless cooking and dishes, between thrift shopping and connecting with other family and my friends, between my annoying migraines, and between all the other busy parts of my happy life. I often feel the 'mom guilt' when I prioritize time for myself when I know my little sidekicks would also love my attention. (Which is silly, I know, but it's the truth.)
But it gets easier! Rosie is 2 and Malcolm is 7 now. They sleep well at night (and Rosie naps like a champ during the day). They can play independently for long stretches of time - or even better, they can play together now! And both also love to do art with me. It takes more time to set all of us up for an art activity, but we are all happy when we do it together. I know those are some important memories we are building. Ben is a good dad, and he is an involved co-parent when he is home (which is a lot, but he also travels a lot, so I get a good mixture of support and then solo parenting each year).
Here's what I know: when I make time for creativity, it makes me happy. It's important to make time for that (even if it is in between a million other things).
Having fun making what Rosie calls "awt" ('art') together.
Looking Back
Last year, one of my favourite art projects near the end of the year was creating a floral design, which is shown at the start of this post, and then getting my own set of sheets featuring that print, shown below! (I should have ironed them before I snapped this shot, but it was a sunny, perfect moment, and so I just took the picture.) I also ordered Malcolm some colourful sheets he wanted (also featuring one of my designs) and got Rosie a pillowcase with my Cheerful Ocean Creatures on it.
(I ordered these sheets recently from Spoonflower.com, and they seem to be high quality. They are comfortable and vibrant. I am hoping that the colour stays this nice after we wash them many times because we rarely buy new sheets.)
Looking back, most of my art-energy from the last several years has been focused on creating surface pattern designs for my Spoonflower shop. Like I said, I am always making art. It's wonderful to have a place to put it, and also an amazing bonus that it supplies me with some passive income.
One of the most exciting art moments of the last year was when I opened an email. I was in our hotel in Athens, Greece, and was still feeling jet-lagged and worn out from wrapping up my speech-language pathology work for the school year and then flying across the world with two little kids to meet my husband, but this email woke me up immediately! Someone had ordered so much of my Piggies wallpaper, that my 10% commission on it was $1500 Canadian. That sounds braggy... because I am bragging! (Most Spoonflower emails will tell me I made a few cents up to a few dollars. Sometimes, I get one for $50 or even $100, but this was so far beyond that). I would love to see where that wallpaper ended up. Here's the design they ordered:
In addition to all the surface pattern designs, I did a few acrylic paintings for gifts this year. (Bigger paintings are definitely one of the things I still feel like I cannot really do with a 2 year old around! She's a little too 'helpful'. Haha. These were mostly done after she was asleep for the night.)
Here's one I did in honour of my new niece, who was born in April (although I didn't get the painting to her parents until late fall!) Painting landscapes with tons of grasses and many different shades of green = happiness to me. You can't see it here (and I did not take many photos before I gave it away, so I can't show you), but I often like to add little gold highlights to these paintings. They are subtle, but then the sparkle when they catch the light adds a little magic.
One of the last surface pattern designs I did for the year was a refresh of an even older design. I had previously painted fawns using gouache, and I added some leaves all around them digitally. This is a design I am proud of, and I would love to see it on wallpaper or on a kid's outfit or on some stationery:
Another art-related highlight of last year happened at work. I am a Speech-Language Pathologist at the Calgary Board of Education (CBE), and our team has made an effort in recent years to make more meaningful land acknowledgments by sharing our learning related to indigenous history / culture. I shared a land acknowledgement that focused on Indigenous art, with a focus on the Indigenous Group of Seven. In preparing for this presentation, I learned a lot and it was a privilege to get to share that learning with others. I hope I inspired others to also learn more about Indigenous artists.
Shortly before I did this land acknowledgment, CBE had a professional development day where all staff spent time focused on Indigenous Learning. We heard from high school students who were indigenous, who shared about their own experiences at school in the CBE. One particular quote stuck with me - one of the kids said that yes, we need to acknowledge the trauma and horrors of the past, but he wishes people would also celebrate all the positive parts of their culture, like the food, the language, and the art. The host, who was also indigenous, summed it up by saying 'Indigenous joy exists'. I hope to celebrate that Indigenous joy by supporting Indigenous Artists (by buying their art, by sharing them with others, by liking their work, etc.), while still acknowledging their trauma-filled history.
I will try to share more about this, and about current indigenous artists I like, in a future post.
This is getting too long to keep writing, but this past year, I also developed my skills in ceramics at Workshop Studios, went on a book retreat with the Narwhal girls to plan what's next for us, and started Art Club with my sister and all our kids. (All in all, not too bad for someone who "just does art as a hobby"!)
Looking Ahead
I was planning to write up some art goals for the year ahead... but it is well after midnight and I think I should just wrap things up.
In one of my next posts, I hope to set some goals for myself for the coming year related to my art. (My first goal was to start a blog, so I am off to a good start!)
Thanks for reading. Goodnight!