Studio Reflection - April 2024

Creating space, transition, and...video games?

This month has been a full, rich month of intense emotional experiences and photographic explorations. I’ve had a lot of questions come up in my life around the structure of my art practice and my life in general, and have been moving through some internal shifts that feel synchronous with the eruption of spring. I’ve felt immense growth as an artist and a person, in a way that feels almost as whiplash-somehow; I am not the same person I was last month, yet I am more myself than I have been in a very long time.

2024 has been a year of unprecedented health stability (and yes, I’m knocking on wood as I write this). Barring some recent migraine flares, things feel like they’ve plateaued in intensity. I’ve been able to work (part time) consistently, sustain my art practice (mostly), and expand my social capacity (I’m still a hermit). The past 5 years have been hard, harder than I have really cared to admit, and to have found myself resting in a lull after what seems at times like a lifetime of crisis feels like a strange new world.

The lull has given space for questions, questions that are inexplicably tied to the world around me, the connections in my life, my art practice, the idea of an art career, the rhythm to my days. I have found myself sinking deeply into the question of what a sustainable art practice truly looks like in my life, and unspooling my attachment to art being the singular pivot of my universe. I’m trying to understand my new capacity in a way that doesn’t lead to burnout (re: health flares), and build a life that is sustainable.