Over the past two days I’ve been going through the first year of posts on my blog, reorganizing information, and fixing things that were out of whack. Although the old stuff doesn’t get looked at much, or maybe even at all, I still feel better. It’s sort of like moving your couch to vacuum behind it. Nobody knows, but YOU. Yet it’s still gratifying. Regardless, I’ve made a pact with myself that changing themes will no longer be allowed beyond this point; too much tweaking can be required.

Anyway, I shot this image in photography class and it made me think of “respite.” It seemed perfect for the moment, as I’m taking a little respite myself right now. After forty-eight hours of working on the blog, I’m barely into 2017 and it appears that I may have posted at least once per day for the entire year!

At first I was a little upset with myself, thinking about how carried away I had gotten, but I quickly realized that during that time I was living sober and loved doing my art. It was a great season! I still love doing my art, of course. But, I have to be honest and say that taking graphic design classes was a bit like taking a cold shower. Creativity doesn’t come on command. At least not for me.

What’s funny is that one of my professors—who taught Type & Typography—said we could do extra credit and watch a program called “Do schools kill creativity?” I was like, ummm, uh–huh—yeah… you’re killing it right now! I’m kidding, but you know what I mean. Basically, we had to spend a lot of time learning “the rules.” Once I finally had them figured out, I learned that the only reason I had to know them was so that I could BREAK them. Huh?! Needless to say, my old mind had a hard time comprehending.

Nonetheless, it’s a journey. Everything happens for a reason. I’m kind of relieved that the upcoming semester is for general ed, and my creativity is now unchained. Art is whatever, whenever.

Just as it should be.

Art is a spiritual, immaterial respite from the hardships of life. Fernando Botero

Peace and Love!