I have loved the last 10 years being an artist in co-ops. The time I’ve spent with other talented people working on the same goal has been enjoyable and fulfilling, and sometimes frustrating. But everything has its season and it’s time for me to move on to something else. I’m not gonna stop creating glass work, but I am going to stop production work… Which is basically creating the things that sell the best over and over again. I will create what I want to create when I want to. I will be working on my GlassOrchids.Art website to add my products for sale since they won’t be available in the co-ops next year.
What I plan on doing with this newfound time is semi retiring, at least, as much as a Type A personality can retire… I plan to focus most of my time on painting. I’m working on creating a new space for my painting studio. In addition, I’ll be spending time doing some things that I love like gardening, making cheese and wine, baking bread, preserving food, and in general, organizing my house, and going through my belongings, in a sort of a Swedish death cleaning mode. Basically getting rid of all the things we’ve collected over the years so that my child will not have to do so once I am no longer here. We own too many things and it’s heavy.
Not that I’m planning on going anywhere anytime soon but tomorrow is not guaranteed. This lack of a guarantee is why I’m retiring now and focusing on the things that bring me joy. Life is too short to put all things off till tomorrow…. If I don’t do them now than when will I?
Here are some pictures of my new painting studio as it’s progressing. It’s in the old milking shed attached to our barn, and attached to my glass studio, which is in the barn. It was a gallery for my work for a few years and then it was a storage space all of my display stuff for the cooperatives, so it’s been sitting there, full of crap being unused for the most part for a number of years. It’s a big job getting it ready and cleaning it out. I think it’s almost ready. Now I just have to move all the things from my painting area upstairs in the house outside across the yard and into the News painting studio. That’s a big job onto itself, and when I hope to get done within the next month or so. Keep following my page to see is a progress along my journey.
