Whatever has happened in your life up until this point, no matter what your age, you and I have been brought together for a reason, and it is much bigger than painting. We are Gypsy Art Girls. And I mean ‘Girl’. ‘Woman’ denotes maturity and temperance - the qualities that keep women stuck and wounded, and in the status quo. Girl has more energy. She has not been defeated by the world yet. She has ideas and vigor. She’s ready to change things and doesn’t expect opposition. The forever youthful and beautiful spirit because she has never known anything else.
A girl who lives in the moment and doesn’t care what the herd is doing, this is GYPSY. She celebrates LIFE however she sees fit and is slave to no one. She believes within every inch of her body that to be healthy, whole and complete she must never shrink and become ‘less than’ to make others feel comfortable. She also has no doubt that jeans and a T-shirt and paint stained hands equal femininity. She doesn’t need to appear ‘altogether’ and ladylike. (There is nothing more sad than to see a woman with her hands folded neatly on her lap and her legs crossed.) Gypsy Art Girls take up as much space as possible and sprawl out on chairs and couches. Some might call that uncouth and low class. That’s okay. Gypsy Art Girls do not care what you call them because either way they won’t answer. They are too busy listening to the music in their heads and dancing and painting their way through their days. Because they have commitment. Not to your standards - but to brushes and pens, and to themselves. The rest of the world can work jobs they don’t love and clean house repetitively, nauseatingly, to the approval of Television Cleaning Supply Advertisements. Instead of a perfectly clean house, the Gypsy Art Girl will reach her goals. She will practice and be dedicated to art not because someone told her to but for the insatiable sweetness she gets as she makes things. As she embroiders a flower onto her jeans, as she stirs homemade cheese soup in a pot and dips in chunky bread. Gypsy Art Girls are out of the fast lane of femininity and are pulled over to the side of the road, bent over and catching their breath. They, we, nearly didn’t make it. They all wanted us to keep going, keep going, keep cleaning, keep working, keep smiling, keep being skinny, keep crossing our legs, keep dressing sensibly, keep not getting enough sleep, keep racing and striving and improving and never, ever stop.
A funny thing happens in the slow lane - it’s not so dangerous to take your eyes off the road and notice the scenery. The beauty that IS all around you. You miss it completely when you are FULL STEAM AHEAD concentrating on future goals. “I’ll only be happy when I have this and this, and when I look this way, and when she acts like THIS to me, and when my skills are THIS good...”
If you see any of this in yourself, then you know I’m talking to you. If this is how you think, then you will never be able to pull over and relax because you’ll never reach all of your ridiculously unattainable and unnecessary goals. If you reach one, it won’t feel good enough because there are 20 more areas in which you can improve.
I say this with ease because it takes one to know one, and we are both in the same tribe. I want everyone to like me so I say yes even though I’m busy. I am 45 and do not have a date let alone a soul mate. I could go on and on about what people have said is wrong with me, but I tell you in all honesty I do not care. I am married to my art. To hot coffee and napping in the sun with my dogs. To violin music and writing in my journal. To going out of the house in pajamas, unshowered, and glowing from within because I like what I painted today. My hard work is paying off.
Take my classes because you really want to make great art. You really want to practice and you really want to learn. IF you do what I tell you and do it everyday you will make something you are proud of, something you never thought you could do. Take a class with me to be part of the tribe. Gypsy Art Girls of all different skill levels doing it because we love it. Like the Gypsy on the open road with her backpack full of supplies and the wind in her hair, I want you to LOVE the journey. I know I do. And we can take it together.
Open Now - Fairies & Mermaids
March 11 - Spring Session Tell Your Story (all new!)
March 29 - Portraits (all new!)
More Art Gypsy Posts - BE AN ARTIST
