This “season” (my busy work time is Oct – June) is really the first one I’ve gone through as a full time artist. Up until 2020/quarantine massage therapy brought in a large, stable portion of my income.
I spent 2013 – 2019 working at a chair massage station in a Whole Foods and then about a year doing table work for a local massage biz…until quarantine. May 13, 2020 was when I stopped wanting to touch either the public or the public fence I use to display my paintings.
I used that restricted era first: to rest. Grrrrrrl, I was tired. Running two very physical businesses with my one body was a lot. I love both of my professions, so I ain’t mad about the effort, but it was nice to give my nervous system an extended rest.
Then I spent the year Nola was “closed for buisness” tackling the mountain of admin that I never was able to get to cause my hands were always massaging or painting.
I sorted all my lists and figured out how to turn my steady sellers into prints so I could try other things with my painting. Since “Jackson Square Art” had been my side hustle and I had built an art practice to fit in the space. I got my permit to sell art in 2013 and wanted to create a series I could work at on the street.
I went with 6” x 6” canvases, three colors: red, black, and white, and skeletons with hearts. I played with other colors and sizes at times, but most of my money came from my stack of tiny canvases…which is now a stack of printable images.
I recently made a few for fest month but it’s been a while and will probably be a while before I do them again (unless commissioned) because now I have a whole stack of goals.
The last year the city has felt “back on” and I’ve been full of experimenting and expanding.
I worked through some color theory books and drawing classes to wake up those skills. My website is rebuilt and mostly functional.
It was a good exercise to have to review my entire photo archive and figure out what was worth sharing in my galleries.
I also collected some of my favorite photos I’ve taken around town and plan to spend the summer developing then into a series of paintings. New Orleans is everything and there are few other subjects I’d rather have my eyes on.
