The Art is Locked Inside

I just logged into my blog for the first time in nearly a year.

A year, and I'm not ashamed of that at all.  You know why?  Because it seems as if blogging is a dying art form.

Who decided that anyway?

One day it was ok for people to read blogs and then all of a sudden everything moved to Instagram or Twitter.  I'll have you know I take part in neither.  The whole hash-tagging craze drives me more than a little crazy. Even on Facebook it's as if everyone hash-tags there status's now.  It would be ok if it was one or two, but I have friends that hash-tag more words and phrases than what the actual status had in it- that's overkill in my opinion. 

Part of my hiatus, for anyone who is interested in such information, is based on several facts.
Fact #1: my job has taken over my life.  It's mentally draining and I just haven't found the time to blog.  Example: I work 8 hours a day doing accounting work.  It's a great company with some entertaining people.  But my 8 hours generally turns into 9, add on an hour for the commute and I'm looking at 10 hours a day away from my creative juices.  My brain basically shuts off the minute I come home and I can barely form sentences that make sense.  I can't even communicate to Gonzo what I want for dinner most nights. 

Fact #2: Because my job is mentally draining I haven't really created anything recently to share.  I mean, I doodle nearly every day, when I'm in a meeting at work, or on a phone call, or during my lunch hour (when I actually take one)- the doodles are there.  But my heart is screaming for a larger canvas to take up my life.

Fact #3: Burnout.  I spent a good 2-3 years working my butt off.  I cranked out close to over 300 drawings or more during that time.  The clients were great.  But I got burned out on drawing the same things.  Children, couples, animals, people...all great subjects.  I had gotten to the point that being able to draw realistically from a photograph just didn't do anything for me anymore.  I began questioning every line that went into every drawing.  I have a portrait sitting 3/4 finished on my drawing table as we speak, and I just can't bring myself to finish it.  It will get done, eventually, just not today.

There are several other things going on in life currently that make me want to change all of that.  I still plan on having a full time job- you know, to support my art habit, but I'm going to work on not letting it affect me so much, creatively.  I can carve out "me" time so I can work on my projects, whether they are drawing, painting, writing or knitting projects.  I'm also going to limit the kinds of projects I take on from clients.  Sure I'll still draw the occasional pencil portrait, but I hope to take on other things as well.  I need more creativity in my projects.

I'm making a promise and setting a reminder on my calendar as we speak...I will try to blog at least once every two weeks.  It might be a doodle, or just a paint stroke on canvas, or a paragraph rant- but I don't want to be like so many of my favorite blogs that just stopped existing some 2 years ago because the writer stopped writing.  You're not going to find me on Twitter or Instagram.  I can't bring myself to join either- which yes makes me a bit ancient in my social media forums, but you're going to have to deal because that's just how it is.