Contemplation on the New Year

Sitting in my living room looking out at the cold mid-morning grayness of the day, I'm grateful to be inside, warm and cocooned in my world of cats, family, and art. I am trying to center myself as I prepare to start another new year. I think about what I would like to accomplish in the new year and find that I am painting next years envisioned canvas with a much broader stroke than I did when I was younger. Instead of wanting to lose a specified number of pounds, I just want to live healthier. I want to eat organic food more, grow more vegetables in my garden this summer, cook more at home and eat out less, and get more exercise. Riding the bike that has sat unused since last year, is something else I want to do. There is no amount of miles that I have in mind per week, but I know I want to explore the bayous around Houston and I want to photograph my journey.  I want to steadily chip away at the debt incurred during the last few years of recession, but I don't have an exact amount in mind. I think I have finally learned that the best of plans can be detoured and derailed by the circumstances that are out of our control, so I am planning more loosely the things that I want to make happen in my life. Preciseness seems futile to me at this point, so I aim for a general direction and enjoy that path I am on. I will try not to lament the path not taken and hope that at the end of the year (just like at the end of this year) that I have progressed in my life and in the person I want to be.

Everything in my world is perfect, even the things I am trying to change. 

Speed of Life

Patience by Finijo 2009

The older I get, the more I know this to be true, life (for me) is speeding up. I try to stop and smell the roses, but it is longer and longer between sniffs. I remember days when I was a kid that seemed like they went on forever. Summers were infinitely long, so long that we had time to get bored, which made us excited that school would be starting soon. Now I don't have time to be bored. I don't seem to have time between one Christmas, birthday, holiday, etc...to plan for the next. It has been years since I was excited about the holidays and felt like I truly enjoyed them. They just seem to be so much work for so little benefit, that I find myself exhausted and stressed out when they are over. This feeling is not just at home, but also at work. It feels lately that I don't have time between clients, projects, or audits at work to breathe, and I find myself inhaling deeply as I leave the office each day. Even the things I enjoy like reading and painting have become laborious. I don't seem to have time to read books anymore and since I have started working at my art in the last year, it has been fun, but also made me feel stressed by deadlines. Sometimes I wonder if it is worth it, and I am relieved to know that most of the time it is.

I would like to finish out this year with more of my home and work projects done or at least up to date, and start next year with more vigor than I feel like I have at the moment. I am taking October off from doing any art shows. I will attend, but don't want to feel stressed about being in the show. I want to reorganize my back room and turn it into a functional studio for me to paint in. I also want to clean out my closets and get rid of half of what is hanging in them. I want to break free of stuff and try to slow down. I think my goal over the next few weeks will be to slow down and hopefully slow down my speed of life and enjoy the events, people, and things that make me happy.

Why I Haven't Blogged At All This Year

I think I have had blogger's block for about two years, but I really haven't even tried to post anything in 2012. Facebook and art have taken over my life. This is both positive and negative, I suppose. I looked back over my most recent (yeah, I know there is nothing recent) posts and realized that I never even blogged my trip to France, and that was truly blog worthy. I spent 10 days in Lyon with a good friend and her two children July a year ago and even had my birthday in France, which was quite memorable for me. It was a beautiful city and a year later, I often wake up from dreams of returning.

Floral Sculpture by the Rhone River in Lyon 

I've had a couple of interesting trips for work since my last post, as well. I went to Boston in June of 2011 and LOVE that city. Everything about that city appealed to me and I liked the people I met, as well. Beautiful art and architecture and the city just felt very much "alive." I liked the people, the architecture, and the food. 

Boston Cathedral Detail by Finijo

I also went to Minneapolis in May of this year and it was quite an experience. It was a beautiful city, but I have never visited a city before and seen so much crime in one visit. I actually had to give a statement to police about a theft I witnessed while eating dinner at an outside table at a very nice restaurant. Warning: Do not leave your iPhone sitting on the table when you eat on a patio, a thug is likely to reach over the fence and steal it. In this case, it was two thugs who did their maneuver simultaneously.

Spoonbridge and Cherry by Finijo 

The last couple of year has also been a very creative one for me. I have begun to show my art and have participated in about 8 shows over the last year. I have several more coming over the next six months and I also opened an Etsy store (http://www.etsy.com/shop/Finijo )and I have sold a few pieces, as well. I am starting to do assemblage art, which feels like a good fit, so that is exciting for me. I never really had a desire to show my art publicly (real time, not on line) before now and I am surprised at how much I am enjoying it and how well it is being received.

Ode to JZ (assemblage box) by Finijo

After this month, I hope to get myself organized and set my goals for 2013. So much to do, so little time. I want to be in at least one show at the Lawndale Art Center next year, I would like to curate a show, and I would like to be more productive with my free time, which means that I could spend my time blogging more of what I see and do. I really have missed my blogging time, because it's that pensive time when I get to process my thoughts and file away the experiences I've had and prepare for the new ones at hand. I'm crossing my fingers that I keep this promise to myself.