It’s Wednesday morning and today is supposed to be a painting day. But there are other things on my to-do list I have to get out of the way first. Mundane things like cleaning the cat’s litter box, washing clothes, housework, etc. Some things can be ignored for a while, but eventually they need to be done, and today is also *that* day. All these things that have nothing to do with making art are giving me artist angst.

But I have my easel set up and the painting in progress on it. I can see it whenever I pass the doorway to my home office/studio. Just seeing it all set up and ready to work on makes me feel better about it all.

Weather On the Way

There’s snow in the forecast for Friday this week. I’m glad I went out yesterday to get some hay. But I’ve got some canvases scheduled for delivery on Friday and I hope they don’t leave them out by the mailbox to get ruined before I find them. Sometimes UPS won’t even come down the road if it’s rain or snow, but sometimes they do and just leave the package without protection. We have a box for smaller packages, but these are large canvases and they won’t fit in our delivery box. So fingers crossed, because I’ve already been waiting on them for a while. If they get wet, I’ll have to return and wait again for them to be reshipped.

End of the Holiday Season

I’m happy the holiday season is over. Yes, I know most people enjoy that time of year. And I do enjoy getting together with my family, too. But the whole season makes me feel anxious and stressed, and I’m glad it’s in the past now. It seems the older I get, the more I like my routine of daily life out here in the middle of nowhere, lol. I dislike going to town to run errands and if there was a way to have everything delivered out here that’s what I would rather do. And if I could only paint every day and create new art, that’s what I’d do. So, I’m not sure this is artist angst, or just social angst, lol.

But there are other things I actually like doing, too. Like working on my garden, and cleaning up and beautifying around outside the house. But when I’m not painting, then the urge to create is disturbing the peace on other days. And that’s what’s going on here today.

The problem is the feeling of being pulled in too many directions at once. I’ve noticed when I’m really feeling stressed out, this is the main reason why. Too many things to do, all at odds with each other because I can’t do them all at the same time.

Growth – Time Management

Since ‘Growth’ is my word of the year for 2024, now is as good a time as any to grow past this scarcity mindset. I am embracing an ABUNDANCE mindset this year. The amount of time in a day is the not a variable. All of us have the same amount. The variable comes in how many of those days we have to work with, and what we do with it. And there’s no way to know that number, so it’s best to take each day as they come. Perhaps there will be less than expected. How does abundance fit into that kind of thinking? Well, while there are only so many minutes in a day or a year, it’s my choice how to spend those minutes. I can prioritize and rearrange those priorities.

So I’d best get on with the things I need to do today and get over it now that I’ve acknowledged it and *supposedly* let it go. And, yay! I’ve already marked off three of the things on my list while I was writing this post. Well, technically it was while getting up to walk away from this post, lol. But I’ve cleaned the cat’s litterbox, swept the utility room floor, and gotten this blog post written. I feel better already 🙂

Artist Angst Relieved

I did manage to get the painting finished. Click here to go to that page and see it. But now, before I can paint anything else, I need to make myself a fresh set of paints for this year. The set I made in 2023 is getting really hard to squeeze out of the tubes. I don’t think they’re dried up, but the paint was rough and so the pigment and the oil may have separated. So if I cut the tubes open, I can probably get some out to work with in a pinch. But really, I’d rather just make a fresh set and make them better. That’s on my list for tomorrow.

ABOUT
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Madison Woods is the pen-name for my creative works. I’m a self-taught artist who moved to the Ozarks from south Louisiana in 2005. My paintings of Ozark-inspired scenes feature lightfast pigments from Madison county, Arkansas. My inspiration is nature – the beauty, and the inherent cycle of life and death, destruction, regeneration, and transformation.

Roxann Riedel is my real name. I’m also salesperson for Montgomery Whiteley Realty. If you’re interested in buying or selling in Madison or Carroll county, AR, let me know! You can see the properties that I blog about at WildOzarkLand.com.

Wild Ozark is also the only licensed ginseng nursery in Arkansas. Here’s the link for more information on the nursery

P.S.

There’s always a discount for paintings on the easel 😉

Here’s my Online Portfolio

And, Click here to join my mailing list.

Contact Mad Rox: (479) 409-3429 or madison@madisonwoods and let me know which hat I need to put on 🙂 Madison for art, Roxann for real estate, lol. Or call me Mad Rox and have them both covered!

https://www.youtube.com/@wildozark