I’ve
been out in the bigger world, outside the home cushion of the USA, for 11 years
now; and I have come to realize in the last few weeks, that actually, it’s time
to go home. Not because the world has
become too big or too difficult – believe me, it might just possibly be MORE
difficult to be “home” – but because much as I love my life in Europe, I miss
New Mexico, I miss my family, my loved ones, I miss relating to friends on a
daily basis who have the same life experience as I. I want to spend time with
my Dad while he can still remember me (he has Alzheimer’s). It was really brought home to me this past
week as I read Living History by Hillary
Rodham Clinton. I had tears in my
eyes many times as through the pages of that incredible book, I relived times
that had been my own experience, HOME! I am painting intensely in my 16th
century Braeton house for the summer, listening to music that reminds me of
home, and planning just how I’m going to achieve this huge shift. Once again, it’s time to leap off a cliff –
one equally as big as the one I leapt off of when I moved to Scotland! I have to raise a large sum of cash to
achieve this as soon as I possibly can.
I have to move my horse, my cat, some paintings (some will stay in
Scotland or France because let’s face it, I have a global business!!), a few
boxes of books and the family mementos and photos that made life away from them
easier to bear (my Navajo rugs, Apache baskets, pueblo pottery, my Mother’s
apron, and my childhood panda bear).
In
the meantime, I intend to keep painting furiously; to make the best of this
time I have in France; to explore a bit more as I get ahead of the financial
game just a little. Leaping off cliffs
into the unknown to make my art sing is part and parcel of living as a
full-time artist for me. This leap back
home – as soon as my finances will allow – is another big step forward and
will, I hope, make it easier for me once again to travel the world to paint, to
find new and better markets for my work, and to maintain those markets I have
worked so hard to create in Scotland, England and the rest of Europe. Made possible, I know, by making a stable
place for me to be. And with all this
change, there will still be the terrible wrench of leaving my friends and
family in Scotland (I know, I know, I’ve already left, but not really.... not
until the last box goes, and the cat is back with me and Dancer in our new
home).
When
I first began this blog about the adventures of being a full-time artist in
this difficult world of 9-5 jobs and consumerism, hard times for living without
a tough outer skin, I’d not realized how much of the inner journey I’d feel the
need to write about! But the inner
journey of an artist is actually MORE important (to me anyway) than the outer! In the meantime, enjoy a few more images from
my incredibly productive summer!!
Old Nice, Like a ripe melon... 14 x 11 in., oil on board, £1,000.00
Thunderstorm approaching olive groves, Le Castellet, 16 x 24 in., oil on canvas, £2,000.00
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