As many of you know I have a very demanding day job which makes doing my artwork difficult when I come home at night. I sometimes have to force myself past my "tired" feelings so that I can produce some work on my paintings. Some days I'm successful and some I'm not but things click when I'm in the studio and I start working somewhere on a painting. I may decide to just block something in as my goal that night and leave it go at that or just start painting without a plan and see what happens.

  What I do know is that once I start to paint, everything in my world seems to be in order. I notice my breathing slows down and my heart rate as well. Any problem that was on my mind driving home from work is gone. After I decide to wrap it up for the night I look at what I've painted as I clean my brushes and I know that I chose wisely with my time. I go to bed knowing that I took action to get me closer to my goal and defeated the urge to procrastinate. Like many artists you have to break the trap of doing "busy things" instead of your art.

  The best days for me are when I paint in the morning before going to work, and pick it up where I left off in the evening when I get back. I really feel on top of things when I'm able to write down my blog posts on my lunch breaks so that placing the post on my site doesn't take much time at all. What I do know for a fact is that when I make excuses and put my art on the side, I know that I'm going in the wrong direction. I put the focus back on the art and the running of my business and I feel that things are going forward with purpose.

  One of the many things that I'm blessed with is that I have a professional artist that lives just three doors up the street from me. He told me one time that there was a two year period when he didn't paint and that it was the worst two years of his life and that it started to mess up his marriage as well. I guess when and if you decide that your calling is to be an artist there is no turning back. Paint and spread the word that you paint and you feel good, get away from the paint brush for a period of time and you feel that something is wrong. That is how it feels for me and why there is no turning back. I'm blessed that all of my family and all of my friends support me and agree that this is my calling plain and simple.

  That's it for today, I would love to hear from some other artists on how art has been a therapy for you as well so don't hesitate to leave me a comment or two. I'll see you again in a few days, take care!