Our community has a twice yearly artist tour.  Studios are open and stocked with the work of the owners and collectives.  People drive from studio to studio investigating new directions of familiar friends or finding new artists.  It is a wonderful way for creators and purchasers to find each other.  Until this weekend, I have been on the purchasing side of this equation.  Now, I am listing myself as one of the creators.  I am trying on a new label: artist.  It is not a totally comfortable fit.  Perhaps because this is a totally new experience for me or perhaps because I have always pushed this side of me aside to focus on my “career.”

Creating was something I did on occasion when I could find a little time or to fill the holes in my day.  But I never could be without that part of me.  It has always been there – bursting out in flurries (like when I created 20 felted hats for Christmas presents one year) or as an underlying current of my everyday life (knitting in the ferry line or spinning in the hotel room).  It just hasn’t been front and center.  And, mostly, when someone asked me what I did, I said lots of things none of which had anything to do with creating.  Now, well, the sale makes it real.

And that is thrilling and scary at the same time.  For now, the studios are open and my creations are in one of them.