Finding a Piece of Peace

I AM a newly graduated artist, an independent contractor for an AI company, a writer on a website called Vocal, I am working on starting a business with a friend and trying to gain courage to start a Youtube channel. I have to remember to slow down at times.

I find my peace while working with my hands. To be working and have a sense of peace is something I have struggled with for years. I did my last two years of high school together with starting college and I has tired and anxious the whole time. It has only been in the past couple of months with this pandemic that I have really taken time to find a peace that I have not had in years and learned to keep that mindset and going forward in working at all these things.

As an artist I work in all types of mediums. From a verity of clay to painting and charcoal drawing. To allow my mind to relax with way was a new concept for me that was hard to grasp.

In ceramics when working with clay it was all about the texture of the clay and the way it built up and was this soft yet strong material I got lost in for hours and days. From slip to bone dry from bone dry to bisque fired and glazing, to final fire and then the end result.

The time and care or lack thereof at times was a way to lose track of time and just be. (Jun Kaneko sculpture work is a beautiful embodiment of meditation and ceramics coming together.)

In painting it was all about trees and color to get lost in those was visually refreshing and again held a repetitive motion that my body could relax into. That then allowed my mind to go blank and my eyes and hands to glaze over and work on there own.

To create in an abstract world of color and texture to push and pull the paint in any direction it needed to go. To go on auto pilot as I like to call it is invigorating because when the feeling comes of being done and I step back often times its more than I can put into words.

With drawing in charcoal it was a way for me to go back to the beginning and relearn how to be at peace and work at the same time. To take those steps back and look and the whole picture not just the close up details. To not worry about matching a color but to simplify it into black and white with tones of gray. To feel the charcoal on my fingers and relearn to find peace in its smooth texture and messy results to my surrounding area and myself.

This peace I have is an amazingly good thing to have and took me trying several things to get there. I tried meditation for a little bit and it works for me because I could lay down and just let my mind wander and rest which had not happened in years at that point. Working from five minutes on my breathing and letting my mind go did so much for me because my brain didn’t no how to stop after 6 years of nonstop going.

I now can meditate for long than five minutes if need be but really I just worked it into my day while walking the block, painting, even while I am writing this little journal entry for vocal. While some chaos will always be there peace is now also at home in my mind and I don’t ever want to give that up again.

Until next -

Grace