I rearranged my life according to my view of the life I want to be living. I quit my good paying job with insurance (an international corporation) and took a part time job with a small local business with no insurance except their kindness, doing what I really like with people I really like. Less time away from home means I can concentrate on my homesteading activities; gardening, food preservation, etc. It feels to good to be intimately involved with producing my food. That means I also have time to paint and draw. It means that I can indulge my miniatures hobby and start working on unexpected ways of creating art, like my latest craze of book art. I hope to have some ready for the spring Art Tour.

Let me know if you like any of my latest art.

I like to use a lot of different techniques in my own painting because I try to match my feelings for the subject of the painting with different techniques. Sometimes though, I admit, I'm just showing off. But usually I'm trying to convey my emotional response with technique.

Sometimes it backfires and all I have is technique. When that happens I just feel flat.

I'm thinking that the time has come when I need to start producing art again. And I'm afraid that the talent has left me. I feel like an empty box. What if I can't ever paint again? What will happen to me? Will anyone care? Will I care? Does it matter? Has anyone out there had to deal with the fear of painting ability leaving? Please let me know if you have had this fear and how you dealt with it.