The Quicksilver Workaholic

OK, then! My lovely webmistress, Sonya at http://morgansites.com put the PDF up on my website, here: http://cathyjohnson.info, or you can click on it directly, here http://www.cathyjohnson.info/WCM_Creativity.pdf

I hope you enjoy it--my thanks go to Sarah Strickley, Sonya Morgan, plus Aisling and Clarissa!

I am so delighted they used the portrait of my buddy Kevin--I'll admit, thought that his hair is really red and his jacket was green--I simplified to this more subtle effect:



But you still need the December 2007 issue of Watercolor Magic, of course, because there is a LOT of other wonderful stuff in it!

I passed along a note I received the other day from someone who had lost her husband; my article on painting through pain had helped her to deal with it and she'd begun painting him as a tribute or memorial; she'd found it helped lift her depression.  I was so touched to hear that even after a few years people were finding the original article meaningful that I passed her note along to my editors at Watercolor Magic.

One of them, Sarah Strickley, the managing editor, responded with a note saying if my ears had been burning, this was why--Watercolor Magic has a blog!   They'd blogged about my article: http://www.watercolormagic.com/blog/default,date,2007-10-15.aspx 

Lots of other interesting stuff there...the blog's been in existence for almost three months now, and there is already a lot of good material there, including links and comments.  I've bookmarked the site, and I think you'd enjoy it too!  http://www.watercolormagic.com/blog/

Meanwhile, as you may know, F & W Publications now owns the Wet Canvas artist's resource at http://wetcanvas.com .  I've FINALLY managed to join (no idea why it wasn't working, but with a live human helping, I'm on board!), and hope to be a bit active there.  Talk about a great resource for artists!

So yesterday I was feeling down--and later, talking to my husband, I was able to put my finger, mostly, on why, and talk through it, as I mentioned.  It's still a bit sticky, but he helped me to feel much, much better about it...

And today, out of the blue, I got a post from someone who had been touched by an article I wrote for Watercolor Magic two years ago, now...Painting Through Pain, the 28th in a series in my old column on Creativity.  I got an incredible response from that one article...I wrote about the things I'd been through in my life, including the loss of my husband of 32 years, and the solace, calming, and distance I was able to receive from continuing to make art despite all.  There was no Pollyanna stuff there...and I was a bit nervous about it, frankly. 

I DO believe it's important to make art no matter what, and a great tool for healing, but...I felt exposed and vulnerable. 

Well, in allowing myself to BE vulnerable, to be human, I helped more people than I could have imagined.  The magazine said they got more letters and emails from that one article than from anything else in years.  As did I.  And still, two years later.

It's humbling and eye-opening, and synchronous as well, reminding me that it is all right to be vulnerable, and human.  My life is not perfect.  I am not perfect.  I've not meant to give that impression, but...I do sugarcoat, or simply not write when things aren't going well. 

"Tra-la" isn't realistic, though, is it...