somewhat organized and full of color
Playlist : Flower Face - Pushing Daisies | I See You Up Tomorrow - Scratch Massive | Something Else - Abroad | Last Sunset, Last Goodbye - BLOW
Favorites : Morning Cuddles | Common Ground Fair | Grinding Glass | Great British Bake Off | Affogato
I’ve been practicing stained glass now for almost a year, and so very proud of myself for sticking with it when I’ve wanted to throw my soldering iron out the window. I’ve gotten so many minor cuts on my hands from little shards of glass that I’ve become unfazed by the sight of blood. Gloves are too hard to work with, so I’d rather build up my tolerance to scrapes—but I don’t think that’s how that works.
For ArtHop this year, I wanted to have a decent body of work that felt like my own, but also fun and a joy to make. I don’t quite remember how I landed on making abstract scrap glass sun catchers (also known as shadow caster color blasters). It taps into a different freedom of creativity that I haven’t experienced yet. I can actually mess up! And the lines don’t have to be perfect. These in a way resemble my current life—somewhat organized and full of color.
Right now they are displayed at the gallery I work at, but I hope to get some up on here soon.
I have continued Prairi Lu for the last 7 years, not without its challenges of course. I struggle with simple completions of tasks in my personal life that continuing to build upon my business for this long feels like an accomplishment every day. Having something to call my own has been a goal of mine since I was a kid. It’s what I’ve actually always wanted—to be my own boss. I had no clue what it would like though. Not art, that’s for sure. I assumed animal related.
Following this topic of doing what you actually want to do—it doesn’t discredit my passion for wildlife and the previous career path I took. There’s an interesting tangledness between “doing what you want” and “doing what is best for you”. This can be applied to so many things—but for me, it was best to step away from animals, even if there’s parts of me that still want to be part of that world. But I needed more creativity, color, freedom to mess up and not have it be life or death. Part of my life started when I found Prairi Lu and began dedicating all of my energy to drawing. It’s an incredible realization after wandering through my 20s, not really knowing how to apply the creativity I’d been carrying my whole life. These moments where you can sense like your life is really beginning, they invoke a specific feeling I’ve only had a few times:
Transferring colleges and moving to Maine is a no brainer. My naturalist identity bloomed in the Unity woodlot;
Starting Prairi Lu in a small basement apartment in Utah, and running a business all on my own.
And most recently, rooting myself in Vermont because I knew that was what I truly wanted.
