Change is about being uncomfortable

Isn't change always difficult because it's uncomfortable? Hi, I'm Carrie and today is the first day of my blog and I am here for a myriad of reasons. I am an artist and I think I have always been and like everyone else life gets in the way. You have a family to raise, you have bills to pay and things to do and what is the core part of you gets pushed aside to get things done. A few years ago I decided I just couldn't push it aside a moment longer. So this morning I sit here with you to once again open the door to a part of my life to strangers. Being an artist, the test is always that uncomfortable moment when you are putting "it" out there into the world and wondering how well this part of you, something you've created with your hands and your mind will be received into the world. And who else to share this spot with me than Van Gogh. His art made him so uncomfortable at times he cut off part of his ear, traveled around Paris with insane artists who tried to steal his soul. So today it's Vincent and I here to introduce you to a piece of my art.

When I started making art that I would share with the public, Ebay was my playground. I made little altered art books full of poetry, strange photos and found pieces of this and that. There wasn't a place I could travel where I wasn't looking for some foreign paper, some scrap of ribbon, something I could incorporate into a book. And when I decided to make art a full time living, buy a studio space, move on with my life I wanted my own web page and of course a blog. Everything I listed on Ebay had it's own little blog of my life because it doesn't seem right to share your art and not share some of your life. This is the next big bold move. Making my web page (you can find it at http://www.summerpoet.com/) was this strange mix of joy and frustration.

You get too comfortable with your life, how you do things and I need to be forced into change. I don't embrace change, I don't find change a challenge. Change makes me sick a little, makes me wonder if doing anything is a good idea, wanting mostly to stand very very still and hope the world will just happen to me rather than me having to happen to anything else. Change makes me want to throw up in my mouth a little and wash it down with a little chicken soup, pretending I must be ill. It does appropriate that moving to my own web site would occur around Valentines Day. The bossy Republican type in my life convinces me that I like Valentines day more than Christmas, my birthday, oh hell all the holidays combined. I celebrate Valentines day every day loving the idea of living a more romantic life. I save every card, every note and once even refused flowers because the card read..."for a speedy recovery." For a speedy recovery? You can write that on a napkin and slide it under the door. But with flowers don't men understand that the card has to be spectacularly romantic, wonderful, profound, something you'll put in your wallet and pull it out a thousands times. A woman will put a tiny card written to send with flowers out of her wallet when she's at the airport waiting to board a flight. She will hold it in her hands and think about making love a little drunk after a party knowing this is what life is made of these little moments and waking up to smell roses next to your bed. So it fits that change, that uncomfortable ball in your gut of putting it out there would occur at Valentine's day, this is the Valentine I send to you, a welcoming to my life and to my thoughts and of course to my art. I create art from anything that will allow me into it's life.

I love to paint, glue things together, find little pieces of this and that and hope it will be a treasure to you. I want to know about what you create and who you are and welcome you to be a fellow adventurer. I make jewelry, one of a kind crazy pieces of jewelry that you won't find in a store. I make little boxes to hide your treasures. I make miniature little worlds you can carry on your wrist full of color and beads, and glass and life. I don't promise to post here every day, I only promise to share here when I have the energy and the faith that the world is ready for the next thought that I need to make into art and eventually share with you. If you are looking for me, you can always find me at http://www.summerpoet.com/. You can email me at Summerpoet@msn.com, you can find more of my art on Etsy.com searching for Summerpoet studios and if you would like to call me in the studio, you can reach me there at 708-422-4160.

Thanks! Carrie.