What a Difference a Decade Makes

First, a confession: this blog is late.

Last weekend was a little crazy with work, and this weekend I found myself under the weather. Somewhere in between, my weekly blog became my not-quite-weekly blog.

And you know what? I think that comes with the territory.

I'm building an art business while working a full-time career, making art, learning new things and, hopefully, still leaving a little room to actually enjoy life. Some weeks everything gets checked off the list. Other weeks...not so much.

This happens to be a particularly interesting week to think about all of that, because I have a big milestone birthday coming up. And I'll admit it: I've been dreading the number a little.

But this weekend, I started thinking about the last time I had one of those big birthdays. I remember having some of the same feelings then. Where did the time go? How did I get here already? Am I really that age?

And then I thought about everything that's happened since. Ten years ago, I wasn't an artist. I hadn't even taken my first painting class. That's almost hard for me to comprehend now, because art has become such a huge part of who I am and how I spend my time. Over the past decade, I took that first class. And then another. I learned how to paint. I made some really terrible paintings and some that made me think, Wait...maybe I can actually do this.

I found a style.

Then I changed it.

And changed it again.

And probably again.

I started selling my work. I participated in art shows. I met an incredible community of fellow artists. I started a small business. I built a website. I started this blog.

And, somehow, I now have my own little art studio. That sentence alone would have absolutely floored the version of me turning ten years younger.

Of course, art isn't the only thing that changed.

I was promoted several times in my career. I eventually left the company where I'd spent 20 years and started an entirely new chapter professionally. There were wonderful moments, difficult ones, big decisions, small victories and plenty of lessons along the way.

Oh, and like everyone else, I lived through a pandemic and a world that seemed to change overnight.

When I look at the decade as a whole, though, what strikes me most isn't how quickly it went. It's how much can happen in ten years. We spend so much time worrying about getting older, but we don't always stop to think about what we're gaining along the way. Ten years ago, I couldn't have told you that I would become an artist because I didn't know it yet myself.

I couldn't have pictured my paintings hanging in shows. I couldn't have imagined people buying something I created and taking it home with them. I certainly wouldn't have pictured myself unlocking the door to my own studio.

None of it happened overnight.

It happened one class, one painting, one uncomfortable leap and one small decision at a time. And maybe that's what I'm taking with me into this next decade.

Instead of worrying quite so much about the number, I'm trying to be curious about it.

If all of that happened in the last ten years, what could possibly happen in the next ten?

I have some ideas, of course. More art. More learning. More adventures. More time spent building this little creative business. Maybe a few dreams I'm not quite ready to say out loud yet. But I also hope there are things coming that I can't imagine from where I'm standing today.

Because apparently, ten years is plenty of time to become someone you didn't even know you were going to be.

And I can't wait to meet the version of me who's waiting on the other side of the next decade.