Balance

I miss contributing to Illustration Friday. It was a chance to play and experiment and I found it incredibly satisfying. It was also good to be part of a burgeoning illustration blogging community with people of all skill and experience levels taking part. Every week the contributions are varied and amazing. Unfortunately at the moment I just don’t have the time to be doing this kind of work. I am spending as much time as possible developing illustrations for what I keep grandiosely referring to as my show (but I guess that’s what it is!), and a couple of client jobs that tick on and emails which sit in my inbox for weeks before I respond.
The last theme for Illustration Friday was “balance” which seems to have hit a cord with so many illustrators around the place. At the end of last year I promised myself in 2005 I would put effort into finding the balance that I need between family and work and relaxation and art. Last year was full of tensions and dramas for me because I couldn’t make it all fit together. I have gotten tired of being grumpy about it and tired of wishing it was all different and whining non-stop. Instead I realise that I just have to accept that this is the way life is at the moment. There is never enough time for everything, so it’s a case of finding constructive ways of dealing with it. Getting organised, getting some childcare worked out, getting my work priorities straightened out, getting healthy in mind and body and finding space for family stuff and enjoying it all is the aim. Sounds like a pretty elaborate dream with a lot of it being out of step with my basic character but I am pinning a lot of hopes on things being easier when we move to our new place. Almost two years on and our life is still in this weird limbo.

Now while Amelia continues to nap I must dash off and sew 10 little fuzzy noses on to 10 little fuzzy kittens.