A wonderfully messy thing to do

My friend stopped by to pick something up and caught a picture of me in my studio in messy collage focus mode this morning. Working on some art revisions for a WIP. I love stepping back and noticing the clutter and chaos around both me and my tunnel vision. Maybe lots of creative play looks like clutter and chaos. That’s my happy thought for the morning.

New Studio

The last few months I've had a surprising development...

 My husband and I bought a new house in Bellingham.

My new studio will have a view of the bay.

Unfortunately I'm under a bit of construction in part of the studio as you can see here. But I have a nook with a sink where there are no construction plans.

And basically...
I'm back in business.

Hooray!

It is always hard for me when life chunks out some of my work time for a month or two (or sometimes three). But I'm hoping that this move will be worth it. This is an amazing new studio (even though I'll miss my old tiny colorful studio that I've cherished for the last decade).

And now I'm bursting with pent up art on the to-do list. I'm flooded with half finished projects (or nearly-finished projects) that are pestering me to tend to.

So here I am again. Butt in chair once again. Loving what I do and anxious to be back at it.

Views from my studio

Rock
(This is a view from my computer's IPhoto collection. I often use photos in my collages -- so I collect oodles of "texture" pictures like this one -- everywhere I go. It's fun to look at the world through such a lens)

Paper
(Reams and reams and reams of it. Drawers of it. Piles of it. Confetti all over the floor.)

Scissors
(Run with them.)

Change

My studio is my sanctuary.

I'd rather be there than almost anywhere else.

So it's difficult to wrap my head around the fact that I'll be leaving it soon.

I guess I need to make the formal announcement. Here goes: I'm moving -- my family, my studio, my life -- to Malaysia for two years. My husband has taken a two-year assignment for work there.

As you can imagine, my little world flutters in a whirlwind right now.
This week I had to start packing.

I never in my wildest dreams ever imagined I'd be hauling my studio across the ocean!

But I am.

I have a two-year art retreat waiting for me.

You'll still be able to buy stuff from my etsy shop -- a friend said she'd take care of shipping stuff for me while I'm gone (Thanks Marcy!). But I won't be making new journals and photo albums while I'm gone (get them now, folks! I can't very well do craft shows from Malaysia!).

Instead this will be the first time in my life that I'll be dedicating 100% of my work time to children's book illustration and writing.

Watch out world.

Because even though change whirls around me and my to-do list is longer than my leg and I'm bidding adieu to beloved people and places and responsibilities
--
my center dances in the eye of the storm.

Sitting down at my drawing table to work on the children's book dummy I'm working on makes me feel giddy like an ant at a picnic. And the way I've been getting through this transition is to make sure I keep working on that story that holds my heart.
Every single work day. Every. One.

The rest of the to-do list can wait at least a few hours every day.

Question.
Do you ever find yourself whining? Dragging? Wondering how to get through?
Count your blessings.
Seriously.
Get out a journal and write a few down.
Because that's your eye of the storm.
And you can thrive there.