The following is something I wrote the other night when I was away from my computer, pencil, and paper...okay so I was at work...and yeah I'm not supposed to work on personal stuff at work...but I had the urge to write, and it was slow, and I was still taking care of customers, and it didn't hinder my efficiency in any way. So there. Here it is:
I’ve
started promoting my art via a Facebook fan page, and the support from so many
friends and family has been incredibly wonderful! The encouragement to keep
pursuing my dream of sharing my art with the world, is appreciated beyond
measure. I’m still researching on the best ways to go about getting my business
legitimately up and running, so it’s going to be a process; but after years and
years of simply talking about it, I’m actually doing something…finally! The
ball is officially in motion haha! I’ve been wondering how much (if at all) I
should separate my personal life with my art life. I’d like to make a decent
living from my art someday, but how much of my life do I share along the way?
One thing that is clear and something that will always be a part of this aspect
of my life is my journey with clinical depression. As passionate as I am about
creating and writing, I’m just as passionate about the discussion of mental
illness. I feel like there are several of our voices out here, but we’re still
not being heard loudly enough. And we all know that our mental health is a
daily thing…not an every now and then kind of thing. So there’s my answer.
Every day of my life is affected by depression and anxiety; sometimes it
affects my art and sometimes it doesn’t…but it’s all part of the same story.
I’m going to share a chalk pastel I completed Thursday night. My direction and
vision for it changed and evolved as I went along, and my final thoughts on it
were with consideration to mental illness. The center of the image became a
representation of the semicolon. Are you all familiar with the movement? I’ll
get a link for you all…here! I really love that we can all find a meaning in a
simple form of punctuation. I won’t always go so in depth with the things I
create; I want the viewer to figure out how they feel and what it means to them
on their own. This one, however, is very clearly my idea (one of them anyway)
of depression. It’s a bruise and a mark that no one can see, but just as the
semicolon implies, all it can really do is cause pauses throughout our lives.
My dream of being an artist has been paused several times these last 33 years,
but I’m hopeful for longer periods of time without the pauses.
(title in the works, chalk pastel by Amy Ro Fo Sho)
I haven't settled on a title; it will be something like "An Invisible Bruise" or "Bruising Pause." Suggestions always welcome, dear readers!
Stay hopeful even during the pauses, and hugs and love, my lovelies!
In motion,
Amy
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