GREETINGS to you all, should you still be here on this quietest of blogs!
This is a small note to you from the depths of my busy creative, mothering days as we descend into another wintering. As you might be able to see in the photo above, taken by Tom recently, I am pregnant with our second child! We await their arrival any day with tender and jubilant expectation. As this year turns into next, we will be four!
Here, I am standing with our son inside a Bronze Age hut circle on Dartmoor, marvelling at the thousands of years that have passed in that place, and
wondering about the people who made their hearths inside those stones,
who raised their children there on the high moor, who went in and out of
those doorways and whose house walls still stand, even in these strange
days at the furthest end of now.
And this brings me to tell you about something that I have been thinking
on for some time, and which now seems timely to share with you. As you
may have noticed, my painting and blogging and general artistic output
have been very quiet for the past three or so years since my son was
born. I am still wrestling with the challenges and gifts of trying to be
an artist and a mother, and this second child coming has caused
me to think on this more urgently, and finally to boldly ask for
support. In a world where we are connected to community across the world
in such a uniquely creative way, and at a point in my artistic life
where I feel that in order to keep making work I must call upon the
energies of those who have loved what I do for years, I have launched a Patreon, which I invite you to go and read ~ it tells my tale and explains my request.
As I write over there on my Patreon page, the hope with asking for this
kind of support is that I will be able to create a regular financial
stability underneath my work at a time when it's particularly and
uniquely hard to be able to devote focused time to my artwork. If you
have enjoyed and been nourished by this blog, my posts, paintings, writing and
thoughts over the years, I would be massively grateful if you would
consider signing up to be a member of my Patreon community. You will be adding rich
black compost on these art-seeds I am planting. This is the place I will
be sharing my works in progress, artworks and writing from now on.
Those who have signed up will be able to see these, as well as choosing
from a variety of other delicious offerings...
I do have a new blog, too, as well as a newsletter, if you'd like to sign up to receive those.
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| Portrait of Tom and me on Dartmoor, pregnant with our son in 2015 by Ishka Michocka. |
And there I leave you, with warmest appreciation for your continued
interest in my work and wishes for your wintering to be both restful and
enchanted. I shall likely be quiet for a time over these dark
hibernatory days while we welcome our newest one into our family, but I
hope that with the coming of the new year and a renewed strength grown
from this Patreon community, I will be creating more paintings and
wonders to share with you, wherever you are...