Hitting a Milestone

Happy birthday to The Art of Self-Care.

Just a few days ago, on July 9, my Substack, The Art of Self-Care, celebrated its one-year anniversary.  

One year.

The first blog post, titled Press Publish, contained the following words: 

“As part of this blog, I will share the art I create, often in the process of being created (gulp). I’ve said it before: I don’t know if sharing my art-in-process is brave or foolhardy. I used to just share the finished products because it was safer to do this than sharing the messy drafts. 

But now I realize that, like a messy draft on canvas, mental health gets messy oftentimes. And, for me, art is a balm to my mental health.”

I’ve kept my promise to you, dear readers, and I’ve shared the process of my artwork – from drafts to completed works. Now, reflecting on the above quote, I realize that sharing my art-in-process is not foolhardy. Yet, the act of revealing my drafts doesn’t quite feel brave to me. Art, indeed, remains a balm to my emotional state, which is why I find creating art so necessary.

While it’s easy to say that a year has passed quickly, I accomplished much over the course of one year:

• Created and finished a good number of paintings.

• Joined the Oil Painters of America.

• I visited an excellent gallery and conversed with one of its artists.

• Participated in Inktober, where I drew solely in ink based on a prompt each day in October.

• Tried palette knife painting, which was not only difficult, but I don’t think I succeeded. But I tried.

• Published my poem, “Infertile Crescent,” in Wildfire magazine, which I then read in a Zoom event that reached many readers.

• Published a Substack article every week.

• Decided to create a series of tasteful nudes that illustrate the breast cancer experience of young women. As I was a breast cancer patient relatively young, I feel compelled to continue with this series, titled Breast Cancer, Female and Young. You will see more of this collection in the upcoming year.

• Through Substack, I made connections with a community of great writers and artists from all different backgrounds and life experiences.

Regarding that last point, I can’t say enough great things about Substack. I’m being exposed to writers I never before knew and I’m grateful to communicate with them regularly. I love reading their works. And Substack is so refreshingly easy to use. The administrators notify us writers of updates and hints to make writing on this platform as easy as possible. 

That being said, I want to share today’s painting. I needed a psychological break from the nude I’m currently working on. While I feel strongly about the series I’m creating, it does take a mental toll, given my own breast cancer history. I will be continuing with it in the near future.

Today’s painting came about spontaneously. As I was waiting for my daughter to get out of Driver’s Ed class, something in the sky caught my eye. It was the sky itself, with beautiful clouds. I took a picture of it, and when we got home, I had to paint this:

It needs to dry before I can add the second, and maybe final, layer. This picture is all about light against dark. While I started with a paintbrush, most of what you see is finger painted to better get the shape, definition, and effect of the clouds. 

So here’s to another year of Substack postings. I am looking forward to what this next year has to offer.