Anyone who’s been reading my blog for a while knows by now that discipline is not one of my strong suits. Just when it seems I’m on a roll, something happens and I stop blogging.

Now that school is over, you would think that I’d be spending 12 hours a day making art. It hasn’t happened that way. I’ve had a very steady stream of design projects to do, which is good, because there will be some huge bills coming up very soon. When I can’t stand being on the computer for a single second longer, I’ve gone into the studio for a while to do some mindless, repetitive tasks like stitching leftover scraps together, some busywork I do when I don’t have any specific artwork in process. It’s part of the process of creating the larger textile pieces; it primes the pump, so to speak.

Now that school is over, I also have a lot more time to think and to pay attention to what’s going on, to listen to the radio & podcasts of news, and that has me kind of stymied over what I should really be doing right now. How can I just continue on with my happy little life, making art in my studio without a care in the world, when there is so much going on right now that is deeply, profoundly screwed up;  when I along with all other Americans bear a responsibility for much of it?

This was supposed to be a blog about art, but it seems so self-absorbed to write about my piddling little painting issues when a volcano of oil is spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, when animals are being choked or cooked alive by oil, when a unique and fragile ecosystem and livelihoods are being destroyed, but all people care about is the value of their pension funds. When around the world thousands of children die every day from a lack of clean water, while we waste untold millions of gallons of it keeping our lawns emerald green. When the American dream of a good job and security and a future for our children is disappearing before our very eyes. When all of our politicians are bought and paid for, corporations run our government and our media, and our so-called “free market” and “globalization” policies over many years have destroyed cultures and economies worldwide. But don’t worry America, just keep watching Fox News and be sure you know who’s winning on Idol; just keep taking your anti-depressants and buying your bottled water; none of this should matter to you as long as you can keep buying smartphones and big-screen TVs and gas for your car.

OK, I don’t know if I have that completely out of my system, but hopefully we will now return to our regularly scheduled programming.