The one thing I may have learned in 2024: letting go of forcing or resisting things

and trusting the process instead...

2024 started on a high note. My husband, daughters and I had just visited dear college friends in Sydney, Australia over the holidays. I had wished for this trip of a lifetime to be a celebration of the growth we experienced and deep love we have for each other after two years of intense chaos and suffering.

We came back replenished. I was excited to dive in my art practice and let go of unhealthy habits at work and at home. Workaholism, control freak, self-doubt, among (many) others. I was determined to not bring those into my art practice.

It all started with little ceramic vases, many of them!

One of the best parts of my week is my Tuesday evening ceramic class at our local neighborhood studio. Back in January, at the pottery wheel, I started throwing small vases. They were tiny but plentiful. For six months, I could not stop, that’s all my hands were willing to work on. I think I made over 50. I didn’t know why then; I still don’t; I don’t ask these questions anymore. But I gave it a chance and didn’t force myself to make mugs, bowls or other actually useful things.

At the same time, I was busy painting arches and portals...

I titled this collection Gentle Home. It’s full of texture, pastels and earthy tones. Each piece was meditative and emotional to paint, as I reflected on how I thrive to guide my children and treat myself, with grace, patience and softness.

“Progress, not perfection, is what we should be asking of ourselves.” Julia Cameron

… and sketching flowers in vases with my watercolor paints.

After four amazing art shows where the Gentle Home collection was featured, flowers and plants emerged in my sketchbook at the end of spring. I carried watercolors around the entire summer and fall, in national parks, airbnbs, and my little studio, all the way through the Thanksgiving break. These felt more like studies than anything else, and there were many! Again, I didn't try to shift until I was ready.

In the fall, I also brought the arches back, perhaps as portals for transition, or alcoves for protection.

Twelve months later, a new collection brought it all together.

This year-long creative journey led me to a gorgeous new body of work that draws on my longing for vessels, flowers and arches, on larger canvases, full of green, pink and gold pastels, amphoras, and large blooms kissing.

How challenging it was to trust the journey, the process and the path. I am so glad I let the paintings unfold without forcing things, I am in awe of the ebbs and flows it took to get there, and I am so proud of it.

The most lovely thing is that this is all bleeding into my family and corporate lives.

I cannot wait to to have this work debut at Spotlight on Art in Atlanta, where over 400 artists, mostly female artists from the Southeast will be represented. I am beyond floored and humbled to be one of them.

If you have read till the end, you filled my heart. I hope this helps and inspires you, dear friend.

With love, EB