Much time has passed and some of you may have thought about my silent blog once in a while . . .

With so much change and the strange times I felt unable to sit and write clearly, so I remained thinking of writing time taking me with it until now.

In my own inbox streams of daily offers for classes, learning how to things, on-line workshops and free advice and seminars on how to manage creativity for the times we were in. Then there were the promises of earning a sweet passive income by creating an online presence, no small task for a sixty-plus year old.

I found it was too much “incoming” to feel comfortable adding my own writing with all the thoughtful, sincere offerings.

My life became screen centred, my days were filled with learning and attempting to keep things alive on multiple platforms. Even my vocabulary had to be updated.

As many of us did, I learned to make and edit videos, teach on line classes, be part of creating a virtual conference, building templates to publish a catalogue. And most of it was possible thanks to Z O O M I N G … contact with fellow artists, my work/gallery groups and heavenly family visits, all fashionably done in the housecoat and pyjamas of this new normal.

And, then, I literally burnt out.

My community and work existed via long days of computer screening and after the insular year of cancer treatments followed by the two years of COVID sanctuary, I lost my virtual way.

Empty and unable to record or edit more of my own voice, the now monotonous sound scape of one I let G O . . .

There is no comparison with teaching LIVE, something I had to cancel during my treatments and then lost again due to COVID … the course creation and attempt at interaction from an editing screen is strange and far from the absolute joy of being in a space with six to sixteen personalities, always interacting and attempting to reach their personal goals and hopes. I could not find a way to bring this into a workshop class on line.

This past two summers I have taught one week long sessions here at the Lunenburg School of the Arts and I LOVE teaching there and now that travel is open again, I can recommend it as a very special place to visit the UNESCO town of Lunenburg and take a class!

I also held a few small classes in my home and the joy of working alongside others was delicious.

As for my personal life we simplified (or so we intended) and moved into the old tavern we bought for studios and storage, separating it in two parts and created an apartment space in one half and while doing so, filled it with us and our tons of artist’s stuff. The word bulging comes to mind . . .

I believe I moved and restructured my studio three times in two years and honestly, just as it felt like it might be ready for some focused work, I fell in love with a sweet old farmhouse and land up the road.

We bought the farmhouse and then discovered it had not been updated in sixty years other than a surface reno that was bumped and bruised. The systems were all out of date or neglected and we had our hands filled and faltering with the tremendous amount to be done and the decisions to be made to update and bring us toward a comfortable space for the years ahead.

We managed both properties for about three months and then decided to put our tavern (a work in process) on the market.

The second showing found a match for all of us. We received an offer with a beautiful letter from the young family who were interested in buying our place and taking the project onward as their own. We were in tears after reading their letter and accepted their offer without changes, feeling it was right.

The continuing story of this time in my life … now we had another huge project on our hands; the building permit was still open on the tavern. We were doing things in stages as money permitted and the biggest costs were not on our priority list, suddenly we had a large expensive set of things to complete and our money was invested in the little farmhouse we were repairing and preparing . . .

We managed, and were extremely creative in our self-financing (imagine two artists in their sixties with COVID taking the main parts of their incomes away) and we squeaked through the time frame.

And of course, it was the middle of the stormy winter!!!

The after-rest never felt so good . . .

This long saga is an attempt to catch up, forgive my rambling, but I have always written on this blog from my heart and today I write so that I can begin to move forward and share my artistic life once again.

So many tales, some of which might surface as I begin to write here again, for those who care to listen.

Many chapters and many paragraphs.

Here is to time and all of it’s challenges, good, bad, positive and negative…

and to stories and artwork for the next posts to come

xo Kate~