It's been a couple months now since graduation. I gave myself a little break from art at first since the last few weeks of the program were pretty stressful and exhausting. But I may have given myself too much time off and now to start up again has been a bit of a struggle without the usual momentum and motivation behind me.
It's not that I haven't done anything at all having to do with art. The past couple months I've been meeting with Sarah and Ben for First Fridays and we go and look at art and talk about it. I also started getting involved with the arts committee at the William Way Center and helped them make a post card for the show next month. And then I threw an art show party in my own house, which was partially successful in that people came and had fun and ate my food and the art looked really good on the walls.
But in terms of my own art progressing...I'm at a bit of a stand still and wondering what my next move will be. I'd like to continue where I left off and play around with more video installations and projections but I need to get a hold of a projector (Christmas list!) I have been pondering a concept about family and home. They both have become strange abstract ideas to me over the years...I've moved to a new apartment or house every year since college, constantly having to resettle myself. (this being the first year i stayed in one place...but it's still temporary) And having lost my mom, who really was the center link to home and family, it's hard to readjust and accept this new state. Every time I go "home" to my dad's, it's an odd mix of unfamiliar and familiar. So many things have changed or aren't there any more and new things have taken their place. And we're hardly all there together as a family, but when we are there still is a disconnect.
Yesterday, a girl came in the store who had the same last name as me. I had never met her before in my life and she said she was originally from Michigan. But it's still funny that there was a common link between strangers. Maybe we are distant cousins. It's also funny that the idea of being related (however distant) can instantly warm a connection between otherwise strangers.
This brings up a few points of departure in which to investigate relationships and connections. And the big question: What makes a family? Is it in the name, the DNA or is there something more?
Perhaps my next step is not so unsure and is just a matter of figuring out where to start.
