Making Change

The Lordsburg Hidalgo County Library, built in 1937 by the WPA.  Built of adobe, this historical building is an architectural treasure.

You know what I did?  Something drastic- I quit teaching school mid-year and took the job of my dreams.  Life is looking up for this old lady, although not without a twinge of guilt now and then for leaving my students.  However, when I walk into my new workplace, smell it, feel it and look all around me, the guilt fades substantially.  

Every work morning I walk in the door and look up at the foyer ceiling.  What a great start to the day.

Lucky, lucky me- as the new director of the local library I go to work looking forward to the challenges of the day with ideas flowing for how to grow the programs and services.  As the plans unfold in my head for the library, the creative ideas for studio work are beginning to happen again, too.  They seem to be happening in tandem as the stress of the past two years subsides.  There is joy inside of me!  While it hasn’t resulted in a finished studio piece yet, I know it will, and the knowing is easy in my mind.

Looking at photos today, working to generate inspiration for a new painting

Today I am spending time taking a new look at photos from my files, working to see them and their patterns in a fresh way.  As I look I ask myself what attracted me to each view in the first place, what stirred me there and why does it stir me still?  As I change them from color to black and white I notice the value patterns and the shapes contained in them.  It is as though my sight is awakening and beginning to cause me to think like a painter again and it feels like fresh air blowing through my mind. 

The old churches of New Mexico stir my creative imagination right up!

There are lessons in the past two-year struggle, lessons I hope I remember in the future.  One of those is, I can do a good job of a really stressful task, but not without a substantial cost to the creative part of me.  Another lesson: I don’t have to take every challenge and wrestle it to the ground.  (Could this be maturity??  We can only hope) These lessons are sweet now that they are behind me; I’ve often found that growth is painful.  But not today, this day is good. And I am happy.

Thanks for stopping by! Alice