The past few months

I have been going through an extremely challenging time in my life the past year or so.  Nothing bad.  Just personally teeter-tottering on what to do with myself in the creative process.  I am not getting any younger. The past few months however have been enlightening to say the least.  In 2013, I will make a continuous effort to focus on what I believe is my true-calling.  And that is painting. I have made the conscious effort to cut out tattooing almost completely as it is not something that I enjoy whole-heartedly and cannot see myself doing as a 'job.'

Some of the changes that have been made to keep me on track, with the help of my other half and others that believe in what I should be doing with my spare time, are as follows:

I will be getting a business license under my name, for tax purposes, and of course, in the event that I actually sell some art, even though at this point, I am not in the business of painting... to make money.

With the blessing and encouragement of my significant other, we packed up the guest bed, and made our guest bedroom into an art studio.  This means I will no longer have to paint in the garage in the blaring summer heat, or the extremely cold winters, although I was partial to painting out there when it rained during the day.  :)

I have made the decision to update my equipment.  It is completely inspiring to be working off quality equipment in a space that is adequate for doing so.   Here is a couple pictures of my brand new easel. 

You can see one of my old rickety easels in the background of the first picture (which belonged to my late grandfather) and I will never get rid of it.

In the second picture - to the right, you can see the easel I mainly used which was a hand me down and rickety as shit with missing parts, etc.

My new Santa Fe is solid and sturdy and could handle floor-to-ceiling canvasses if I want.  This was an extremely important buy for me.  Sort of a personal milestone in my eyes.  To me, its saying that I have made a choice and have decided to go down that route.  As you can see, I have done a tad more on the skull but put it on hold for the holidays and this lovely guest bedroom/art studio transformation to take place.

There are a few more things that I would like to get for the studio but for now I am perfectly capable of getting back to painting.

Some of the things I still wish to acquire are:
- some wall mounted backdrops for doing still life photos, etc.
- more paint brushes (you can never have enough)
- a few books
- some frames
- a website
- stuff to set up my own booth where ever I want.  Canopy, banner, etc.