I blinked and then I forgot where I was for a moment, or a couple of years.
In the meadow below Beaver Dam Falls
I have not used Adobe Lightroom since Spring of this year, when we returned from our Northeast trip to Maine. I stumbled around an unfamiliar interface while looking for a particular photograph that I wanted to use for this post. Perhaps I will need to spend some time to relearn a software program that I had previously mastered and used for years. I have been away from the creative realm for way too long.
Beginning in 2008, I embarked on a creative adventure as I worked through a myriad of personal issues with the intention to reinvent myself. I wanted to leave the rat race of business and all of its associated stress behind. I wanted to embrace my inner creative and live in a place of promise and bliss. If you have been following me over the past seventeen years of art production and blog posts, then you are familiar with my adventures. I produced thousands of artworks across a variety of media and penned more writings than I can recount. I chronicled my adventures and discoveries, shared my realizations, and produced the intimate collection of work titled “Comfortable Speaking”, which has yet to be released. I gave myself a full decade to “make a living” as a creator. During this time I figured out how to live poor and be happy. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I camped out under the stars for more nights than I was inside a dwelling unit. I nursed an old 1999 Ford Pickup Truck with 400,000 miles on it everywhere I wanted to go. I really did not have a good grasp on what I was doing, but I knew that all I needed to focus on was the day that was right before me. I made terrible decisions and then again I made some really good ones during this period of my life. Somehow I remained alive and I learned something new everyday. I was selling art, I was gaining followers, things were working out pretty well. But it was not enough.
At the end of my ten year experiment I decided that I needed to “grow up” and take life a bit more seriously. I had purchased a house, yes a real house to live in, with my girlfriend at the time and then I married her. I proceeded to spend more time working a day job to pay the bills and to ultimately put a few dollars away for a rainy day. Together we starting “adulting” and were doing a pretty good job at it. We fixed up the house, built out the back yard into an oasis, even purchased a new truck when the old one finally kicked it. We did continue our shenanigans during this time of renewed adult focus. We traveled, we camped, hiked, floated rivers and found new places to explore. We rescued two Doberman Pinchers and welcomed them to our family. Our kids are furry and have four legs each and I absolutely love them to death. I continued to create art all along the way. I no longer had the time to invest on the business side of the art spectrum, so there was absolutely no marketing activity taking place. So, no sales occurred. But I was making money at the day job. Then the day job took over.
I recently found myself yearning for something new, something different. I have been feeling exhausted and severely burnt out. I thought to myself that perhaps I needed to reinvent myself once again. I contemplated on this for a spell and came to the realization that I do not need to reinvent myself, I just need to go back to my roots again. This time with a bit more balance. While I was chronicling my blog posts from over the years, it dawned on me that I have not substantially written a post for a couple of years. I have not posted on Instagram or Facebook in this same time period and I am not certain that I know how to do that anymore. The one thing that really got me was the challenge that the software that I use to process and organize my photograph library presented to me today.
Over the past few years I have placed a growing focus on my day job building and renovating houses. I sought out opportunities for new work with the same vigor that I had placed into my art. During this time I managed over three million dollars in medium sized residential construction projects. I make a responsible living and am saving for the future. I can afford to fix or replace things when I need to and I can afford some luxuries along the way. That is all good, but I have not traveled much and I have not created anything substantial or with significant meaning. The photograph that I used for this post was made in March of 2023. I am pretty sure that this is the last work that I have created. I am interested to bring some balance back into my world and add a bit more color to it. I hereby toast the end of 2025 and celebrate the hope and promise of 2026. At least I got a post in before the end of the year!