I only have a few hours in the studio this morning. In the afternoon I’ll be working my monthly shift at the Cambridge Co-op.
While I’m there today, I’ll buy some deodorant and protein bars for my trip. (I have to take the malaria pills with food and a protein bar makes food always available).
But before going to the Co-op I’m having lunch with Jackie Thorne and Carol Law Conklin. Carol has her Batik Art at the Artisans Market, next door to the Round House Cafe and she’s working there this afternoon. I’m looking forward to hearing more from Jackie about the owl who flew into her car on Christmas Eve. She just released it after its recovery with a wildlife handler.
When I was in my 20’s and first left school, I had a community of artists around me. We supported each other by having critiques and group exhibits.
It’s something I’ve always longed for.
Thinking about having lunch with Carol and Jackie, I realized that once again I’m surrounded by creative people. It doesn’t function the same as when I was twenty, it functions in a way that works for me and where I am in my life now.
And it’s not just a community of people who live close by. My creative community is also online, all over the country.
When I think about the artists, writers and healers who I communicate in one way or another, during just one week, I’m astonished. And somehow I’m just coming to understand that I’m one of them. We’re all spokes in the same wheel. Creating thought-provoking, healing and beautiful words and images and putting them out into the world.
It’s not the creative community that I would have imaged when I was younger. How would I? There was no template for it, no hint of it. But for me, I couldn’t have dreamed up anything better.
