Art As Survival

The papers have been signed; we are officially moving to Beijing for two years this August.

Yes, I am looking forward to the food and the culture and no, I’m NOT looking forward to the lax view on keeping bodily functions to ones self (i.e. spitting constantly)…but more over, what I cannot wait to experience…is myself. I can’t wait to see how my creativity and inspiration and work evolves and changes and morphs into something new. Something that it could have never been had I not made this decision to move to China.

Note: This post, admittedly, is very selfish. It’s about me and my process and my mindset. I know I will have plenty of familial things to blog about later on - copious food photos, nightmare stories of being lost with a 5 year old on the subway and cute videos of Atticus speaking Mandarin. Please, don’t worry - you will be overloaded with appalling and adorable footage from China.

The strange part is even with a good 5 months before we move, I can already feel my inspirations changing. My motivations are more personal, more emotional, more organic - less production and selling focused. I know that in 5 months, I will have to take a 2 year vacation from my Etsy store - and create to survive versus creating to make a living.

Creating is not a want or a passing fancy - it’s a need and a compulsion. I can feel myself slipping into negative behaviors and thoughts when I’ve been away from creating too long. This isn’t to say that a break from creating isn’t also necessary…but too long and I feel lost.

Creating, I anticipate, in China will be a survival mechanism for me. I way to get out of my head and dive into myself all at the same time. It will be one of the last comfortable places left for me to go in a world of unfamiliar customs, foods, languages and people. Art as survival…sounds corny - but probably apt.

I will abruptly end this here as my head is already swimming again.