Hi and thank you for visiting my website and blog. If we are already friends, you probably know that I have a sad affinity for double entendres – I named this blog reflections because I love to paint reflections of everything (exhibit A <—-) but also because I plan to use this space to reflect on things that are influencing my painting and thoughts about painting.
Maybe there are enough blogs already but to be honest, I’m doing this mostly for me! Writing out my thoughts helps me synthesize things better. However I decided to share my notes in case something resonates with someone else.
Here is a preview of things likely to show up in future posts:
- I’ve been SOOO incredibly lucky to have some fabulous, rock star painting teachers and because I’m a recovering college professor, I always take and keep copious notes in all my classes and workshops. I often revisit those notes and love to share their sage advice and pearls of wisdom.
- I’ve been moving in the direction of full time painter for about a decade. When I was a college professor teaching cyber security and web development but starting to feel like I should be painting instead, I also suddenly felt like a fraud among my peers – as though I woke up and realized I was not home. When I told my first professor-mentor how I was feeling, he said “Wow, Amy. I hope you will keep that to yourself. No one will ever take you seriously again if you talk about being a painter. In fact, I wouldn’t even let people know that you paint on the side.” Ha! So that didn’t go so well. However, eventually I started telling more people and then hearing that other people wanted to do something similar but were scared, like I was. So now that I’m finally here (i.e, sans real job, committed to painting full time and still scared to death), I thought it might be helpful to others considering similar moves to hear some of the steps and missteps along the way as well as funny and not-so funny stories about things that helped me keep moving in the direction that felt right, even though it also often feels like financial suicide. Insert sound of nervous laughter here.
- As a recovering academic, I kinda miss starting discussions on provocative topics. I have lots of ideas for posts related to thinking/feeling/sensing/creating that I hope will be conversation starters.
- I’m always reading and looking for new ideas – not just from art sources but from everywhere – psychology, marketing, dance – and it’s more fun to think about stuff if you can share those ideas.
I’m still figuring out this painting thing and I hope I always feel like I’m learning something new. I would be delighted to make some new friends along the way so please visit again and let me know what you want to talk about. Thanks and hope to see you again soon. XO, Amy