Hi... again

So I am back to the start. New blog. Next new thing... or old-- it depends on how well you know me. I started this blog when I made me first BIG life choice and moved myself almost 2000 miles from where I grew up for a job I thought I would love-- and I do.

Art. Art? What? Yeah, art. I am going back to something I have loved doing my whole life, well most of it. Early elementary I was always psyched to paint, go to the art room once a week and do "pra-jacks" (also know as "projects") at home. Middle school I drew a lot and I remembered painting a lot of pictures and making a lot of posters whenever I could get away with calling it a science project or somehow turn it into a social studies project. High school? Well, since I had a little more control over my schedule I packed it full of as many art classes as I could. By sophomore year I was in every advanced class I could take and by senior year I was dual-enrolled at the community college taking basic design and photography classes. I hit my stride in high school. Somehow I thought this whole "art thing" was going to work. That thought was elevated when I got a partial art scholarship heading into college.

College. Oh, college... I will be honest. College made me cringe at the thought of being an artist for a living. CRINGE. All I could see in my classes was that by taking my personal taste, style or gut feeling about my work out of the picture and putting my professors' in its place I could get a great grade. It became apparent that I would have to do this to survive in the art world for a number of years. That didn't appeal to me. At all.

Don't get me wrong, I had some great experiences. I had some great professors and some great peer relationships. If I wasn't a strong person I would be sitting at a desk job in a design firm miserable as mediocre job after mediocre job came across my desk. I know that this might sound elitist or pretentious. I am not god's gift to the art world. I am not even a top designer coming out of a agricultural college's art program. I just know my limits. I know how unhappy I would be in a design job and how unhappy I was in college changing everything about the things I make to make someone happy.

I am a hand-made girl. I was hand drawing illustrations in some of my graphic design classes instead of using Illustrator. I typeset a book and then printed it off, copied the text by hand and placed it on top of the typeface for my final piece. I made my clay and mixed it when everyone else was buying it online. I used my own photos instead of stock photos. I spent 57 hours (I kid you not) binding a book just because. I mixed my own paints instead of buying the color I wanted in a tube. I think you get the picture...

This hardly made me a favorite. I stood out. And I was usually told I was wasting my time doing certain things, no matter the outcome. But I liked making things. I still like making things. I liked walking out of the painting studio covered up to my elbows in paint. I liked spending hours measuring and cutting pages perfectly with my exacto knife. I loved drawing for hours until I had that perfect image for the book cover I had to design. It made the monotony of college classes bearable. And after four years I was crushed by it all and walked away from art.

I landed a pretty awesome job out in Utah and moved out west from Michigan leaving almost all my art supplies behind. And for a while I was pretty happy just working. But deep down I missed making things.

This blog is my jump back into it. Making art. Processess. Inspirations. Final products. Etsy store (yes, finally!) And all the ups and downs that come the love of art and making art. Cheers to starting over!