For those of you who have been following along, I have recently completed the move from my home, my studio, and my gallery. I am now living in a lovely apartment with a lake view and no longer have a studio in the Northrup King Building here in the NE Minneapolis Arts District. I am located in a cute town, Little Canada, just a bit north of St. Paul, Minnesota.
Downsizing is not for the faint of heart, I’ll tell you what. The last time my husband and I moved was in 2005, so you can imagine how much stuff we have accumulated. I had come to the realization that neither of us is getting any younger; all those unfinished projects were not going to finish themselves, and I certainly was not in any condition to be climbing up on the hillside to fix things or rearrange the landscape. During this process, I was amazed, thrilled, and astounded by the angels who swooped in, unbidden, to lend a hand, make suggestions, and take stuff away. I also spread joy through the donation of bags and boxes of art supplies and furniture and was quite surprised to drive by one of my former yard sculptures that ended up in the yard of another denizen of our neighborhood.
As proud members of the Baby Boom Generation (hold your comments…) we have witnessed the decline of many of our friends and family and decided to get ahead of that. Our dream was to live in a place where we could actually take time away from daily to-do lists and costly home maintenance and just enjoy ourselves. We have the entire Upper Midwest region to explore and we love a good road trip.
Quitting the “business” of art has given me a new perspective – I realize now just how competitive I have always been. This applies to so many facets of my life, from playing cards to working. I know I will continue to have fabulous ideas for product names, but I will resist the urge to build a start-up from them. Follow along to see if I am able to stick to this…
I am also enjoying the experience of art for art’s sake. No deadlines, no pressure, no studio crawls to prepare for, and no judgment, real or imagined. I am nibbling away at the #100 days of Art project between unpacking boxes, and I have really enjoyed just working in a sketchbook creating collages from found papers. Yesterday I congratulated myself on scanning in all the paintings I have ever done, and now I can print them out to be used as collage fodder!
I look forward to continuing my Art Salons, which I call “Art Salad.” For those of you who live in the area, please fill in the following questionnaire if you would be interested in attending.
We were lucky to have dodged the usual crazy snowfall here, which really helped with the logistics of moving and look forward to spring and summer – and enjoying the pool! My next mission is Guerilla Gardening – planting flower seeds in view of our balcony/deck. I just have to hide them from the geese, ducks and songbirds.
I’ll see you next month!
Ahhhh Marjorie…
Smiling at your courage, creativity and grace… at the pace… of a wild goose – stay loose :))
Thank you so much for all the inspiration you have given me over the years and over the miles!
Greetings from the Mountains of Northern New Mexico–SPRING HAS SPRUNG FINALLY1
Longest winter of my life….but that a story for another time.
Good to hear from you! Sounds like you are getting settled in–your going to be the Poster Child
this year to role model Endurance and its rewards.
Hope to see you in June and will sign up for ART SALAD. Luv ya!
Thank you! We continue to inspire each other