When I was a child, I learned to ride and work with horses at a local stable. The owner mostly had school horses but did keep a couple of show quality Morgan horses to exhibit. Once a man tried to tempt him try out a Tennessee Walker and he simply refused. At the time, I was surprised that his did not even want to check out the horse’s gait.
I now understand he was protecting his focus. He had committed to exhibiting Morgans and adding a different breed would split his energy, focus and resources. He was protecting his practice. I had a similar moment some years ago when a friend offered to teach me bead working. I loved her work and admired the skill, but I felt a strong pull to focus on my painting in encaustic media, and did not at that time to have my focus on encaustic media split with a new interest.
As a child and young adult, I had a constant drawing practice. It was what helped me decide what to study in college. I also loved to read and write and briefly considered an English major. However, once I learned about Art History and saw how I could combine research and writing with studying Studio Art, I did not look back.
I maintained my studio practice for the first year or so after I graduated, but I soon lost both time and focus to my other jobs and family responsibilities. I found a new professional path in librarianship and eventually found work in art libraries that has been extremely rewarding. I thought that being immersed in an aspect of local art communities at the library would help renew my practice. As my career demands increased, so did my time caring for aging family members and my art practice became relegated to time during my vacations. In reality, I was spending more time on hobbies such as knitting and growing plants then I was on art practice.
In the summer of 2008 I decided to make a time commitment to renew my art practice each weekend. Initially all I did was create color studies, but I found it soothed some of my feelings of lack as an artist. Over the next few years I began to exhibit locally and found my practice unfurling like a flower as learned from other artists’ practices and became inspired by their work.
In 2013 I committed not just painting but to learning about encaustic media. Around this time, I realized how intense my focus was when I felt the need to ‘protect’ my practice from the distraction of learning beadwork. This was a bit of an over-reaction, but the years when I did not find time or energy to give to art practice have left their mark.
Ironically, I now find myself tempted to engage in encaustic portraiture, something very different from the painting series I am currently working on. That may manifest as future blog post…