When Life Has Other Plans

Dear reader, for the start of 2026, my art is being put on hold because life has other plans for me.

In the first few weeks of January, our dog went to the emergency vet for a swollen face and lethargy, I went to the ER for a nosebleed that would not stop gushing - GUSHING - for hours, and my husband had surgery to remove a fatty lump on his shoulder.

To say that we are all walking wounded and spending time licking our wounds would be an understatement.

The next month will also be filled with medical appointments for the dog, who may need a tooth pulled, and for Rob, who has a benign tumor growing in his right eardrum. Indeed, my foreseeable future appears to be full of time spent driving to/from appointments, all of which are either 1 to 2 hours away, and taking care of both Rob and the dog after their treatments.

In addition to my responsibilities for both my volunteer work with the New Mexico State Committee of Women in the Arts and my paid work in the gig economy (walking dogs, teaching belly dance, and data entry for the dog welfare non-profit NMDOG), time in the studio is fading fast.

sigh

But I find solace in knowing that other artists have experienced these types of interruptions to their art and still managed to come back and continue to make art when their situations change, and they once again have time to create.

Take Canadian artist Emily Carr, for example. Today, scholars and the public alike regard her as a Canadian national treasure, and the Canadian Encyclopedia describes her as a Canadian icon. She stopped painting for 15 years, instead running a boarding house known as the "House of All Sorts," which was the namesake and provided source material for a later book. Once she came back to painting, she experienced a very prolific period, which led to the creation of many of her most notable works. Here is one from that time:

Emily Carr, Among the Firs, c. 1931, Glenbow Museum, Calgary

I'm holding out hope that this period of interruption in my own artistic practice is less than 15 years! But if it is, and it leads to a time of increased inspiration, then maybe it's OK. 😊

In the meantime, I will continue to enjoy art and write about my artist's journey here. And, as time allows, I fully intend to get in the studio whenever I can.