Winter

Everything pauses in winter.

I get cold and stagnant and perpetually moodier and more anxious through the winter months.

I think the lines get a little more angsty in winter, too

Yup. All true statements.

Also true: I never learned how to ski. My other winter sports talents were last perfected decades ago (including, but not limited to: ice skating in the corner of the back yard that always froze, sledding down the hill at the high school, luging down the hill in the “way back” yard with the occasional crash into a tree or two after my sister went first, to show me it was “fine” and “totally safe”).

Winter always ended with me eating a popsicle to stop whatever facial injury I endured from bleeding. I’m an Aries, so it’s always a head or face ding or scrape for me (not sure if that’s just a coincidence, but I’ve got plenty of examples to back it up, so there might be something there). There was also the great back deck igloo implosion of 1989(ish) that will forever traumatize my memory when it crawls back to the surface of it. Thought I was dying (under about 6 inches of snow. Don’t judge me, not good at math). Didn’t -actually- die, so that’s a win.

Didn’t die in the porch avalanche means I can keep making art. Win.

I digress.

What does any of this have to do with art? Nothing. Kind of. I get stuck, art-wise, in winter like I got stuck under the snow on the back deck. Winter is my metaphorical creative avalanche - all the pretty / warm / green things in sight go away in a sudden -poof- of cold and quiet. Everything pauses for what seems like forever, under what seems like a huge amount of snow. I don’t have a lot of momentum or ideas during winter months, and I feel stuck when it comes to creativity.

Capybaras. Capybari? Capybarases? and a squirrel. In progress.

Winter is hard.

Trying not to judge my art or compare myself is harder in winter than in non-winter months. Winter means that there is way less daylight and I spend more time indoors, so the inevidable scroll on social media is the fastest track to see what everyone else is up to in their art worlds. Easy to get off the rooting-for-you track and onto the why-am-I-not-doing-more-with-my-artwork mentality. Cut that out, brain.

Words will get added eventually. Phase one is to draw and add color. Phase one: complete.

That’s kind of why I am not on my artwork Instagram too often lately. I’m on there to post weekly-ish when I create, but then walk away so I don’t go down any scrolling rabbit holes that make me feel badly about my own artwork. I noticed that that is a pattern lately, so I think that’s what brought me to write this today. I don’t have to look at what other people are doing. I don’t have to do more.

Do I like my art? Yes! Usually. Sometimes it gets ripped to pieces or painted over though, which is equally part of the process and is equally satisfying.

Do you have to like my art? Nope!

Rounding out this latest batch of Art You Don’t Have To Like: a magpie and a red panda

In January I started making these small, uniformly-sized blind contour images that each have a corresponding haiku. This is the project that I’ve been sledding with this winter (without crashing into any trees thankyouverymuch). The last couple of posts have been about the project so I won’t expound on it too much today. It’s been good though - so far I’m completely satisfied with each piece, and the addition of haiku has been a pleasant change. Good idea for a winter project, me.

Batch o’haiku art

This is just a reminder to me to stay as focused as I was to get out of the snow on the back deck. It’s only a few inches of snow to get through. Things will get warm again. The dingy drab snow will melt. Green things will be green again. Life, uh, finds a way. Art finds a way. We’ve got this.