Reflective #FBF - Mirrors, Foil, Acrylic Boards, and More!

  Reflecting at the end of the year seems routine and natural each winter, so I am normally still caught in assessments by the start of the new year. As a result, here is a blog post [after more than a year] all about a bunch of the new and old shiny things I got to work on and with last year! Those materials included poured acrylic paints, mirrors, poster and acrylic boards, adhesive foil, vinyls and metal (all somewhat pictured below).

A Small Recap... 2020-2021.

  Slowly stepping away from gigs to focus on full-time work while honing my craft and how I could be of service to others, I tried out hand-lettering digitally more in 2020. My job afforded me cool gadgets like a second-hand iPad from my younger brother, Clyde, and a Cricut machine. I was stoked to get to know how to use them as you might have noticed from posts in 2021. The year 2022 was all about transition for me. It took over four years of living by myself in Raleigh, NC to finally feel at home in a space and place, but I was long into feeling like I was ready to relocate by then. BUT WHY and WHERE TO? 
  Almost two years had passed since the start of a scary pandemic and I had settled into routines I was bored with, work that felt unfulfilling. and a steadily increasing cost of living and rent for a one-bedroom apartment I was growing tired of being in alone. I honestly felt stuck and couldn't really figure out how to unstick. Everyone around me seemed to be adjusting well and making the best out of their new normals... baking and cooking in kitchens they loved, renovating and redecorating in their dream homes, families, and lives, etc. I tried so hard not to get too deep in my head. As often as I could in the first year of the pandemic, I decided to get away for short trips to see relatives and loved ones in attempt to escape and/or realign since my personal art-making and creative work had slowed. I stopped seeing my therapist because it started feeling like 'what's the point? I'm paying to see and talk to someone and I feel like I'm at a dead-end.' Whenever I would visit my Dad in Delaware while working my job remotely, I'd hear from his nursing aides how he needed someone living at his house with him, especially since Clyde had recently moved out, gotten engaged, and then married. I was now the only one of his kids who was unmarried. Those words about someone being at my Dad's house with him stayed with me for months as I pondered 'where to next.' As much as they did, I still wasn't sure where I'd be going and was not fully ready to make the big change and move back to Delaware.

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