It‘s go time

These words from these pages back in 2017 seem uncannily accurate now. 

“Everything I need is in front of me. The story, the pictures. But I don't have much knowledge, time or technique. It's hard not to be discouraged. It's also one thing to do the planning and thumbnails with my bits of time sprinkled here and there. But inking and painting happen at a desk.”

I took the decision a year later to stop working full time and to devote myself this project (and to parenting better, though that is another story).  It took two years to actually get to quitting. 

In the meanwhile I finished several years of updates to the education and multimedia centre I was managing. Those project management skills and resilience and determination are getting a full workout now, as I push ahead on this book. 

Next I was embedded into the German foreign ministry - an unexpected assignment that taught me a lot about surviving loneliness and self-reliance and self-motivation. That is not Germany’s fault or credit. The pandemic broke out, so not only was I the lone Canadian in their system with no handholds or longtime friends, I was actually literally... alone. Connecting daily with my team by visual link.

I hate Zoom now.

So now it is 2020. I left my job last month. 

It’s a new world. Lots more economizing, grant applications, artist meetups and coworking, reaching out to experts to review my work. Lots more art. More pyjamas and less expensive cappuccino. More diving back into what I was working on yesterday instead of spending an hour just trying to remember what page I was on. And, bad art days don’t mean as much, when I have the chance to try again tomorrow!