It’s been a busy travel year for me. So far, I’ve been to Orlando, Florida, Paris, France, Houston, Texas, and Savannah, Georgia. And I’ve got one more trip in the planning stages for November. That will be New York. It’s a lot of travel for me, not for my sister who has traveled more than half the summer this year. In addition to taking me to Paris.
I enjoy traveling. Though I get lazy and don’t think to do it. Or I get some stupid idea in my head about it being too much effort or whatever. It’s really silly. This last trip helped me see that. We, my sister met me there, just got back from a quick trip to Savannah, Georgia. We went because I wanted to see a concert, the Doobie Brothers with Michael McDonald. I know, not everyone knows who I’m talking about. We just went for the concert, really. We drove in on Sunday for the concert Sunday night and left Monday. Initially, we neither had much interest in spending much time in Savannah. She had been and wasn’t super excited. And my visit, a long time ago, when applying to SCAD, really only left me with memories of US Civil War history and sweet tea, neither of which I am fond of. The river front has changed a lot and it was a nice trip. In fact, I told my sister I might make a whole weekend of it so I could take my time visiting the cool artistic shops along the river front.
One of the great things about traveling is how it has a way of broadening our views. It can also remind us of who we are or who we are working to be. It gives us a chance to return home and have a reason to make changes that maybe we wanted to make or were working on making so it provides addition support and inspiration. Those changes are sometimes outward facing changes, and sometimes inward. Either way, travel can be the catalyst.
For me, this trip changed my point of view about visiting a couple of places that I have neglected to visit though they have been recommended to me. I’ve been in the Carolinas for 12 years now and have still not visited Asheville, North Carolina, or Charleston, South Carolina. I’m not quite sold on Charleston yet; however, I may have to make a quick trip to Asheville soon. It was the artist type shops in Savannah that got me to thinking about a visit to Asheville. No, it’s not a big trip, but it is still a trip away from my home and that’s the point.
There are other side effects from the trip to Savannah. One is coming home excited to work on some art. Since that is where the bulk of my focus has shifted to, this is a good thing. And exciting. I had been trying to decide what I was doing to work on for the next piece and by the time I got home I’d made the decision. Can’t beat that.
Another side effect was more a result of the concert than the trip. The concert was great fun. They played for about 2 hours and 15 minutes. My sister said something along the lines of ‘dang, not bad for a bunch of old guys.’ She is right. Though, as a musician, who has had even the smallest of opportunities to play on stage with other musicians, that in itself is sustaining and nourishing so yeah. The side effect: man! I am so looking forward to getting to spend some time with my guitar. I’m excited to get to work on songs, to practice, to get to play. All of which will be driving some of what I do for the next two weeks after this week.
I was talking to my sister, as you might have guessed we’ve talked a lot recently, and she was mentioning the challenge she was having with practicing her cello and that she thinks it’s partly the space she has for it. And I realized that that might be my issue as well.
Since I swapped the spaces for art and music, I’ve been working on a lot of art in the space for it, but the space for the music, and the guitars in particular is now, not ideal. It’s dark and sort of has the music as not the focus. It’s also the office where I do my day job. So, as you might guess, some reorganizing and rearranging needs to happen to either make it more music friendly or to find other places in my home that might work better. No. The music can’t have the art studio back. That’s not realistic.
Oh, and the reason it could drive some of the activities of the next two weeks, after this one, is because I will be on holiday from the day job and have more time to work on art, music, and tearing apart my office. It will be interesting to see what gets done because, I do have a couple of other things in mind to do while I’m on holiday. There is a possible trip to a zoo, and now, a possible a visit to Asheville. In addition to all the art and music I want to do.
A quick update on the art front. I have finally finished the Koala. I’ll be getting it posted to my store this week. I’m starting the next piece this week as well. It will be a watercolor. And as of right now, it will be a flower I came across on my daily walk. I had a request for something with more depth or more than one subject in the piece, I don’t know that this will meet those criteria. However, I do have something I might work on later down the road that would meet that. I am excited to get started on the next piece. There is a little more, finer detail for this one. I may want to take my time and a bit of extra care getting a few parts just right.
The first few pieces I’ve done this summer have been fairly quick to create. I don’t think that will necessarily hold as the norm for much longer. Many of the pieces I’m considering have features that will require more care and likely more time to get right. So, my days of the two-week turnaround from start to post on the store seem to be numbered. At least for now.
And with that. I am going to start tearing apart the office and get started on the next piece of art. Cheers!