Skip to main content

Revival of an Artist

It's 2017 my friends and I had delusions of grandeur for writing a great blog about the traditions of New Year's Day but really I just want to share with you what a nut-ball I am!  Look, I spent a lot of 2016 dealing with this undiagnosed pain in my abdomen.  I went through tests, doctors, more tests, frustration, anxiety and depression.  The point is it dampened my spirit and in return my art.  My camera has been sitting in it's bag for months, with the exception of taking some artsy photos with my iPhone for Instagram and writing a few poems my artistic endeavors have been few and far between.   The best artistic move I made in 2016 was to create this blog, which I am very pleased with as a starting point to share my thoughts and poetry.  The blog was something I had thought about often and I was just happy that I made the effort instead of just talking about it to my friends.  Which brings me back to New Year's.  I'm not a person that makes resolutions because I think I'm pretty hard on myself three hundred and sixty five days a year to be better.  I always want to lose weight, I always want to eat better, I always want to move a little more, smile more, be less negative and so on.  I don't have many traditions but one thing my wife believes in is that whoever and whatever you do on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day sets the tone for the rest of the year.  Well my friends it looks like I'm going to be a big pink panty wearing, rocking my spatula kind of artsy Mama!  I have to backtrack for a moment and tell you that a few months ago I bought some big panties for my BFF Kayt Hester and I to do some gag photos with.  Kayt and I talked about it after we did some fun photos in these matching sun dresses I got us at the thrift store.  Kayt did her photo at her place with her cat Harry and I did mine at my place with my cat Chester.  We got a great response on social media from this split screen image that she put together.

The pink panty photos were going to be the next best thing but our large, pink underpants have been sitting around for months waiting for their glory day.  I just didn't have any creative mojo to come up with ideas!  Finally! Finally, my friends, this week I told Kayt that I wanted to break out the panties for some selfies on New Year's Day.  I knew I wanted to maybe do a toilet photo and figured that in turn would inspire others.  So on January 1, 2017 I pulled out the pink panties, put on a ton of make-up, a fancy top and took a whole bunch of selfies around the house.  It sounds silly but afterward I had the greatest sense of accomplishment and I felt like Superman after someone removed the kryptonite from around his neck!  I felt my artistic mojo start to surge through me!  I'm now ready to march into 2017 with a new purpose of being the nut-ball, kooky, artsy, idea generating, photography making, poetry writing me! Any time I start to doubt this year I'm going to remember these pink panty photos and know that being me is the best thing I can do!
Self timed, a little powder here and there

Can you tell I don't normally do this?


I had to tape my iPhone to the bathroom cabinet to shoot this
Me in the kitchen, my iPhone is on the floor leaning against my coffee mug
Split Screen of Beth and Kayt in Pink Panties shared on Facebook!


Bathroom selfie
Selfie in the living room rocking the spatula with Chester watching! 

Comments

  1. Beth!!! Thank you so much for sharing your story! I know at times it may be difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel and I cringe at cliche sayings like "everything happens for a reason" but it's true. These photos are soaked with emotion of humor, longing and innocence. I love them so dearly. You are a wonderful artist and someone I admire deeply, I am excited to see what you will create in 2017. It's your year girl! Love you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Love you my friend and really appreciate your continued support and friendship!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Harboring regret

Treading the Election and Life

Tuesday, November 8, 2016 I sat on the couch Election Night feeling more anxiety than I had ever known.  I didn’t want to believe what was happening but there it was right before my eyes, the electoral map, on my local NBC channel looking like someone wrapped it in red Christmas paper.  I tried to stay hopeful and kept repeating in my head "Hillary, Hillary, Hillary".  I managed a quick nap around midnight, holding out hope that Lovey would wake me up and say “She did it, Hillary is President!” but it never happened.  I woke up about 15 minutes later and it ended up that I was the one nudging her awake around 1am/1:30 saying “let’s go to bed, it’s not looking good” just after they called Florida to the other side.  So we frumped our way upstairs to bed where I lay wide awake for a long time with my mind all a whir. The next day I was feeling very disappointed so I limited my social media browsing and did not watch the news except to see Hillary’s speech, which made me cry.  

"Lifted" the video and poem dedicated to Sisterhood

I wrote this poem after spending an hour with a few of my female artistic friends.  We discussed poetry, art, life, and when I got home I felt this overwhelming feeling of inspiration and joy!  Yes!  Joy!  It's like we all shared our energy while we were together.  I just had to write my feelings down.  The words came out of me so easily thinking of my own Sisters and the friends I consider to be Sisters from other Misters.  I wrote the poem in one sitting and a few weeks later I got the idea to record my voice reading it and create a video using photos.  I put a call out on my facebook feed and asked female friends to send me photos of themselves with their Sisters or with their BFFs that they considered Sisters or with women they were inspired by.  The ladies sent me some great images and I used a bunch of my own for fill ins to create this video.  This is definitely one of those labor of love or labor of inspiration times.  Please watch and share!  Words are posted below.