Catching up on this personal branding thing. words came to mind.
immerse, immersion
techniques not tricks*
timeless not classic
evolving
discovery
communicative
connection
and finally,
Colorful Layers. Like a person is, hopefully.
Why timeless not classic? Classic denotes a style; timeless is unrestricted.
*Chagrin for my latest class description when for reasons of brevity I used the term tricks, instead of technique. Tricks seems to cheapens the knowledge process, as I developed or learned it through trial and error, or the trials and errors of those who have gone before to whom I paid vast amounts of time and money to attend their workshops. There i go again with the verbosity.
I'll just describe the last 2-3 years as mor than painful and chronically debilitating. Somehow I managed to paint a bit and teach some classes, but not at full throttle. It felt like an endurance trial. Normally, doing what I love, keeps pain at bay until I stop then wham! it hits me later and I recover a day or two later. Because pain/pleasure running to/from the same circuits in the brain, so only one of those can fill the circuit at the same time. So, when I'm painting I'm pain free. (Music can likewise fill the same pathway, blocking the pain.) This newer pain kept me off my feet a good deal from last February to September. Pain that bad and for that long stops a person from operating at a creative and social level. It kept me from painting and even attending most social events, and even base socialization. How much does a friend want to hear about your pain level each day? How boring can one be when all your brain can process at a conscious level is "THIS HURTS DAMMIT". Chronic pain is a chronic condition lasting more than 3 months. I've had a major one lasting most of my life but carefully managed or mismanaged it to an almost manageable level. that's how clearly I think when at that level.
Warning: even more boring parts ahead. That condition was surpassed and well-enhanced the last 3 years by the introduction of osteoarthritis with accompanying bone spurs that stab various parts of me when walking. I got one of those fixed a year ago by having a total hip replacement. The other worsened since a knee operation something like 11 years ago, and has since plagued me. Thanks to modern injections of thick, thick collegen into the knee region, this can be relieved for 6 months, then pain returns and new injections begin and are repeated every 6 months, indefinitely. They are given in 3 doses, 1 week apart, for 3 weeks, then it takes about a week or so to sink in around the knee cap and cushion the bone. These injections when they work, postpone the inevitable knee replacement. The doctors keep telling me I'm took young for total knee replacement so until I get older and it worsens, my option is to get these injections. Insurance denials, etc. postponed injections from February to June. Happily in June the injections began again but crummily, I had a hypersensitive reaction that threw my summer in my face and I relieved last year's agony when waiting for my hip replacement. They weren't sure which ingredient my system reacted to so badly but I had to let it be drained and wait for the rest to drain from my system while propping my knee up with ice, a lot. Anyhoo, my doctor tried another brand in August and lo behold it worked so I can walk again for a few months, I hope, without walking aids. As a person that used to hold records in track (I was a runner), and hang by my knees swinging and generally abusing my knee joints, this has been a trial and cruel punishment.
RESUME -- BACK TO LIFE
I wasn't sure until just before September if I could teach this fall. Then the injections kicked in and helped my knee pain. So I am happily, thrilled even, to return to teaching in October. I just participated in the bi-ennual Open Studio Tour this last weekend. (People came! People bought original paintings! And I thought no one would show up! And they showed ME!) I am grateful, so grateful, to just be able to be grateful. When in constant pain, one is not grateful. Even to be alive. One thinks, is this it? Will it ever end? If you're crabby with muscle aches from flu, imagine those aches not stopping except through broken sleep. So, I'm really grateful now. Grateful that my grandkids could visit from Japan and I could go to theme parks and children's museum and make it up and down a few stairs. Grateful to get the studio tour behind me. Almost grateful about the hummingbird that just buzzed me on this beautiful September day. Grateful for friends and family. Grateful for art and the ability to feel it and do it.
I'm evolving and connecting.
