New Night Swimmers and some thoughts on us...

Night Swimmer No. 4 & 5

So, how are you today? I've been thinking about you a lot lately.  Over the past few weeks I've had a number of back and forth emails and extended communications with some of you.  One from over seas, one from the Golden State (which holds a special place in my heart) and one from the east coast which touched me very deeply and prompted me to write this post.  When I first discovered encaustics, I painted for almost two years before I showed my work to anyone and never even considered putting it out into the world.  I was painting for me, you know, as a way to let the inside out, as a way to make sense of the joy, sorrow and confusion that came with finding my way, as a way to see myself, outside of myself...if that makes any sense.  But then, one day,  a friend was visiting and he suggested that I might want to do something with the massive amount of work I was creating and so I looked to Etsy.  I didn't have much experience on my computer, or with my camera but I figured I didn't have anything to lose.  Little did I know how much I had to gain.  Putting my work out to people this way is not as raw and personal as say, someone singing a song on stage with an acoustic guitar, but it is putting my self, my thoughts, my struggles out there and it was a very difficult thing to get past the feelings of insecurity.  I'm also a bit of a perfectionist (ahem) and so accepting and embracing the fluid and imperfect nature of working with wax also took a bit of stumbling through thoughts of 'is this good enough?'.   But much to my repeated surprise and delight so many of you have understood and embraced my work.  Over these past seven years of painting and selling my work I have come to realize how universal many of our truths are and how many of us share the same questions.  I am so very grateful to all of you who have supported my efforts on this blog, on etsy, at Nahcotta, in Taproot and the Sommerset Studio publications.  I still paint for me, and I paint my own truths, but I do so knowing that I am not alone and that I owe all of you a big group hug.