Precursor: Who am I?
Hi, I’m Kristin – mother of 8, wife to a fabulous man (I guess the 8 kids are testament to that), former school librarian, lifelong hobby artist, and professional face painter for 18+ years. I’ve recently opened Cartizan Studio, an art studio specializing in classes in a myriad of mediums and for all ages, in the heart of Winnipeg at The Johnston Terminal at The Forks. One of the most common questions I get is “Why?”. Why, in this age of digital technology, in the fast paced world that we live in, would I choose to step back from it? Why would I quit a stable job I loved (librarian at a Winnipeg K-8 school) to strike out on my own? And at my age (I’m 46, soon to be 47. Yes, I said it.)! Why, of all things, would I open an art studio?!?
My goal for this blog is to answer that question. Why? But also, who, what, when, where and how. So hang on tight. I tend to ramble (but in the most charming manner I’ve been told), have a slight case of verbal diarrhea, and use far too many commas. But my promise to you is honesty and my lessons learned, either through my own painful experiences or the far smarter observation of others.
Stage One: Discovery of a Vision
Some people have visions that swirl around in their hearts and heads indefinitely. They mull over them, correct them, pick them apart and sit on them indefinitely. Other have visions that act like a magnetic beacon pulling and driving them towards an end goal that inexplicably continues to pull away from them, though with increasing strength and intensity.
My vision was neither.
Mine was a little like cotton candy. Bits and pieces of the sweet fluff of my vision would drift in the air around my (previous) life. Here and there they randomly connected mid-air to form a slightly larger piece of fluff. These bit and pieces of fluff gradually began to take form until I finally recognized their shape. Like a child learning to talk or a chemists’ eureka moment, I feel like I did not create a vision, I only discovered what had been swirling about for some time. And really, in hindsight, it had probably been swirling about in various bits and pieces for quite a while, but I was just too busy to take notice.
The realization that the bits of this vision had been floating around for quite a while before I recognized them was a sobering one. Was this vision of an art studio something that should have been started far earlier? Was this vision a baby I had been neglecting instead of nurturing and helping it grow? There really is no way to know, but once I had discovered this vision I didn’t sit on it. I tucked it under my arm and I ran.
But the rest of this story is for another day.
In the meantime, why don’t you take a look at Kobi Yamanda’s book, What do you do with an idea? It is just one of the most fabulous books ever written and though technically a children’s picture book, it is all about the insecurity in, the internal questioning of, and the defence that comes with the birth of a new idea. The illustrations by Mae Beson begin as a monochromatic view of the world and colour is only added as the idea grows.
