A little bit more personal post on this Sunday. I put this up on my Instagram but I wanted to share it here too because I feel like it's important for people to hear it and maybe relate to it. I haven't been making as many sculptures or going to any art sales since February since my mental health has taken a dive.
I've been pretty much housebound for the last few months because of my severe agoraphobia, which I've struggled with on and off for years but was exacerbated by worsening chronic illnesses. I couldn't and oftentimes still can't leave the house without panicking and abandoning plans. That obviously worsened my depression and made it way harder to get anything done, especially artistically. It's been a struggle.
Thankfully I got restarted in therapy and on medication (many thoughts on that which I can elaborate on lol -- also finally getting treated for ADHD!) and have been slowly going outside more! It sounds silly but my big milestones have been walking to the park to take photos of sculptures and riding the bus for the first time since February. My first day of work back at the museum was on Thursday and it went really well; in case my followers here don't already know, I work for a conservation foundation surveying prairies by collecting, preparing, and identifying insects in reclaimed prairies here in Illinois and do that work at the Field Museum (where I've also done some grant work photographing horse and deerflies). The next big steps are physical therapy (EDS gang woooo) and in-person art sales! Slowly but surely, I'm getting there.
Anyway, thank you for reading this if you did and for following my artwork. It really means a lot to me, and I hope I can keep bringing new species of inverts to your dashboards now and again ☺️ and if anyone has questions, feel free to ask. I'm generally an open book.