A story about an epiphany, illustrated with some jewelry.
This is Obstinate:
Which has been a useful reminder in the face of what often felt like overwhelming despair.
This is Things Change:
Which is not so much a reminder as a declaration.
About five years ago now, I had a conversation with my then-adviser, who said that I was risk-averse, and told me it was going to be an issue. After a fair bit of reflection, I have to admit that he was right. I am risk-averse, in many ways. I like a certain amount of stability, regular schedules, predictable flows of business and busy-ness.
On the other hand, though, I was getting frustrated with feeling like I was in a work-related rut.
And a couple of other things happened, all of which ended with the realization that yes, it probably is ok to just leap off the deep end and assume that even a cannonball is going to be more fun than just sitting at the edge of the pool whimpering about how cold the water is.
So I’m trying it. I’m doing something else. Because things do change, but sometimes one has to help it along.
Right now, I’m kind of in the denial phase. I’ll deal with practical stuff, oh, soon enough. I have a plan. It’s a good plan. I’ll probably talk about it more, as it gets more fleshed out — at the moment it’s kind of an incoherent mess — but basically I am going to try to help run a community studio, and make books, and be an art-making troll in a factory/cave, and print things, and maybe do some of the ridiculous performance book arts I’ve been thinking about, and heck. I guess I can do anything, can’t I?
(The bracelets are from Vagabond Jewelry, the marbled paper in the background is on my handmade paper, and I took the pictures with a delightful new camera that I am for real going to learn to use properly.)