Today’s #MarchMeetTheMaker promt is “how you started”. My compulsion to make things started very young, and just never went away. I was just thinking about this the other day— I got really, REALLY serious about art when I was 15. I was so depressed and lonely as a teenager. Art helped me focus on something other than my misery. There are a lot of reasons why I am an artist, but that is one of the big ones. Around that time I started collecting books and taking classes. It became an obsession. It became therapy for me. It helped me occupy my mind and focus on something beautiful.

It’s going to be -11 degrees tonight. Ugh, I hate it. It was a great day though, because I spent it dancing with my babies. Now I am in my studio painting and planning projects. Still catching up from being sick. It will probably be a long night.

Oh my goodness, I have been bad about getting things up on the blog. I have written in my journal every day for the last 22 days. Turns out, my writing is a lot of half-finished paragraphs and random thoughts. All good stuff, but not for blog content. So here I am, talking about nothing, again.

Someone suggested I paint a snail, so here we are! I have always wanted to paint a snail. I don’t know. I read this story to my daughter and there is a snail named Gail. I know they are pests to some, but aren’t they interesting and magical too?

Why the moon? Because the moon is something that we all share. No matter where you are in the world, we all live under the same moon. Ever beautiful, like a jewel in the sky, uniting us.

I started painting simple references to moons with my insects, to give the paintings movement and imply environment. In my mind, the insects are all striving to reach one place, the source of light. Striving for the light is something I think a lot about, when painting. To me, all of my insects are either moving towards or away from this light. You decide.

Last year I made a collection of solitary moons, and I can’t seem to stop painting them! Like I said yesterday, it is one of the things I need in my studio at all times. The moon is part of my story, and it is part of yours too.

So, here we go. This is daunting, because writing is not my forte. You might have guessed, I am more into communicating visually than verbally. But, if I only learned one thing from last years #the100dayproject, it would be, if you want to get better at something, do it for 100 days.

This is more of a personal goal. There isn’t a project planned at the end or anything. I just want to get better at writing. Specifically, writing about my process, and work, and life. Something every artist should do, because it is important to know what goes on behind the paint. This is also one of my biggest fears, because I have serious issues, and anxiety about sharing about myself! I am always the quietest one in the room, and this is absolutely terrifying for me. I have decided to face my fear, anyway! Day 1 of, #my100daysofwritingsomething