How have ten years gone by? In the summer of 2001, we moved to this tiny town in South Carolina. I could have never anticipated the changes this decade has brought. At first, I resisted the change. I rented a studio in Atlanta (3 hours away), spent 4 out of 7 days a week there (sleeping illegally in the subterranean, unheated space) and watched as my work slowly moved from metal oxidation to painting. Back here, I re-committed to my family and took two years of art classes at the small, liberal arts college where my wife's job brought us. After my final, unsuccessful round of applying to graduate school in studio art we found out we were pregnant with twins. The ride has never slowed since, not even for a moment.
In 2007, I was working in a friend's garage as a make-shift studio and begin to see the work really move into something different. At the end of that year, I procured my current studio and now here I am beginning my forth year there. Last month I ordered 50 canvases to be built and shipped. Never before in the entire journey to this point have I ever had materials, space and time all align. There has always been a deficit of at least one, and often two of these elements. The concert of these factors along with where I see myself and my work in this moment is unprecedented.
The canvases begin shipping tomorrow, so hopefully I will begin painting this weekend.
To say I was depressed at this point last year is a gross understatement. I was deep in the hole, and as the year progressed I wrestled with whether I could even keep the studio, or even if I wanted to paint any more. Ultimately, here I am. We persevere. We stand and carry on and sometimes this is only because we don't know what else to do. I have friends who suffered tremendous and devastating personal loss a year ago, and yet they are still married and still living and moving on. The human spirit is a tremendous thing.
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