I’ve already done a Creative Soul Life episode with the same title but I still want to do my annual recap here. Normally I do a bit of a deep dive into each aspect of my life including my art business. 2025 was a year of calm and introspection though. I’m trying to embrace my Keep Reading
In my last blog post, I talked about how essential purpose is, especially a meaningful purpose, as we enter the “second half” of life. Specifically, I’m grappling with the question: How do I find a meaningful purpose in creating art now? A Career Shaped by Life My path to becoming a professional artist was a Keep Reading
I’m in that life stage—empty-nest and semi-retired—where I’ve been doing a lot of deep reflecting lately. Much of this involves talks with my husband, who is hoping to retire in the next few years. We’re consuming tons of reading and podcasts, and every discussion eventually circles back to one idea: finding a purpose. This really Keep Reading
In my recent email, Cultivating Creativity, I talked about how teachers were the original influencers in our lives. Thinking about that started me on a deep dive on the three art teachers that had the most influence on me and my eventual career in art. Growing up, my schooling was very focused on academics. I Keep Reading
Big Move and Bigger Hurricanes The biggest event of 2024 was my husband and I selling our home on a barrier island on the Gulf of Mexico and moving about an hour to the other side of Tampa Bay. The driver for the move was evacuation fatigue and, wow, was it the right decision. We Keep Reading
2023 was an…um…trying year. From the tone of the memes and Tik-toks, I think we all struggled a bit over this past year. I will say overall it was a good year, just hard. Shift…and Still Shifting I started the year trying to figure out how to shift my art and teaching. I had spent Keep Reading
With a title like that you know I’m talking about Thanksgiving. I have a big Southern family. My amazing grandmother is still our matriarch at the age of 96. She’s has 4 children, 8 grandchildren (of which I’m the oldest and only girl, can we say spoiled?), 12 great-grandchildren and 1 great-great grandson. This doesn’t Keep Reading
Bucket Lists…do you have one? I think everyone has some sort of vague idea of things they’d like to do before ‘kicking the bucket.” I did one of my things last week. I dyed my hair pink. I know that’s a tame one for a bucket list but I have wanted to do this since Keep Reading
I’m writing this post sitting outside on a deck at Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. I have a cup of coffee beside me, everyone else is inside asleep and I am soooooo relaxed. I had thought this post would be about inspiration (and there may be one of those later), because a great deal of my Keep Reading
Ah…that elusive word…Balance. The Holy Grail of our modern existence. We have to do so much, we want to do so much, we need to do so much. How do we balance it all? I headed back out into the workforce a few weeks ago. With the move, I lost all my students. I’ve explored teaching option here in Virginia and Keep Reading
