The website told me it’s time for a sabbatical

But not radio silence . . . I’ll still be publishing from time to time . . .

Welp.

When I wrote the last post, I was imagining at least testing some new Zoom classes this winter and some on-the-road workshops during my travels this spring and summer.

Looks like that’s going to be too much of a scramble, though.

On Dec 31, I sat down to add all several new Zoom courses to the website for January-March. And discovered there’s some weird website problem going on that prevents me from adding or changing any courses on the site. (All the existing courses work just fine, so don’t worry if you are working on one of them.)

I’ve been working with tech support pretty much all day every day for the past four days and at this point, the problem is still not solved, and we are all stumped. I know it will get figured out eventually—it always does—but when? Who knows. It sure does feel like the universe is saying just stop already!

At this point, I’m running out of time to set things up to offer any classes before I leave. Zoom is more like an in-person class, but I still need to add at least a course description, some way for you to sign up, and a place for us to share images of what we’re working on. This isn’t hard, but it does require me to be able to add pages to the website, which I can’t do until this glitch is fixed.

I also seem to be running out of patience with behind-the-scenes-tech-misbehavior at the moment. It’s nothing unusual; just the typical random stuff you have to deal with when you’re your own webmaster, but this time I feel a powerful urge to chuck my laptop into the surf.

And even if I get the new pages built, I still have to update all the lesson plans, handouts and references from the last time I taught these courses back in the Before Times.

So I’m going to quit trying to pivot on a dime. Travel in the van is ideal for designing new lessons and course materials. I do my best planning and writing with pen (and brush) and paper—no internet or electricity required. And boy, am I ready for some low-tech work for a change!

All this to say, it looks like it’s going to be more of a sabbatical than a quick pivot. And taking it a bit slower will be a good thing in the long run. I’ve got a lot of new course material in draft form. Instead of just updating old courses, it will be much better to design new courses that pull together the best of both the old and new material.

I’ll still be showing up in your inbox from time to time, sharing some thoughts about painting and some new paintings-in-progress, sketchbook pages, and virtual postcards. But just whenever I have something fun to share, not on any sort of fixed publication schedule.

I’m also not going to try to organize any traveling workshops for this trip. This is definitely something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and I hope to set some up in the future; but I’ll enjoy them a lot more (and so will you!) if I’m not trying to plan and organize it all in just a couple of months.

I hope I’ll still be able to meet some of you along my route as I travel, but just for more casual, social meetups this time around. (I’ll definitely be looking for Dragonflies willing to let me mooch a free parking spot from time to time instead of paying for camping the whole trip. 😉)

I did already pay to renew my Zoom license, so maybe in the next few months before I hit the road we can have some impromptu Q&A sessions, demos or artist-to-artist chats once the website decides to let me make updates. Just playing that by ear. We’ll see how it unfolds.

For now, I’ll just say Happy New Year! I hope 2024 is off to a great start for all of you.

I opt out of the new-years-resolution frenzy—doesn’t seem like the right time of year for me for frenetic activity or assigning myself new chores to make myself a better person. Winter is usually a time of reflection, contemplation, careful observation and working intuitively for me. I’d rather give myself permission to work on a painting series, dive deep into a few topics, follow my curiosity, or simply observe and listen to nature.

But if you’ve made resolutions for 2024, I wish you success! And whether this is a contemplative or transformative time of year for you (or maybe both), I wish you joy and fulfillment in all your creative endeavors this season and throughout 2024.

More soon.