During my shoulder recovery days, I’d planned to use my down time productively. I was going to take advantage of having less responsibilities at Good Juju to see more movies, go shopping, visit friends, and experiment with loosening up my painting style. Maybe trying to add an element of abstract into my work by learning to paint left handed.
Well, I’m glad I signed up for a class my friend was teaching at the Mulvane museum in Topeka because I needed that incentive to give that last to do item a go. Because my weeks off weren’t as free and open as I’d dreamed they would be. Instead of having nothing but time on my hands, I felt like crap, and my healing period was needed for healing.
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It was mostly spent watching 15 seasons of ER while dozing in a recliner.
Since I wasn’t feeling as chipper or motivated as I thought I’d be, I wasn’t doing much at all. If I hadn’t signed up with a buddy and paid in advance, I wouldn’t have gone to that workshop and had such a nice day, learning about my friend’s art process, and attempting to smear some paint around with my good arm while using a couple of her techniques.
Jen’s work is inspiring and each canvas is full of surprises. It’s far away from my own territory when I paint, but her ideas were just what I needed to loosen up my own illustrative style and try to be more painterly.
Also, my recuperation scheme of learning new skills and enjoying myself wasn’t playing out as I’d hoped. This class was a welcome nudge to get me out of my recliner and be creative while mingling with friends.
I have tried to get something around the house or studio done each day, and at the beginning my tasks were simple. As the weeks have progressed, I’ve been adding more activities daily, plus trying to walk 10,000 steps, weather permitting. I also am working on my booth at Juju more than I’d expected.
Originally, friends and coworkers were going to redo my space each month for me. But after arranging furniture in advance, into mostly shelving that was easily filled, I did not require friends to pop tagged items into empty spots for me, I could handle it one armed.
The dealers are all pitching in during sales to do my job, but I have surprised myself by being able to refill the booth between events with minimal help, mostly from Rich. So quite a bit of my allotted “free time” hasn’t been as free as I’d expected. This two hours of painting has been the entirety of my time with brushes.
But as the doctors tell me, this is a long, slow rebuild and I can’t be impatient with it. There is a long stretch of time ahead of me, maybe I’ll still do more creative things from my plans.