Stress is great, I love it. That was a joke. I hate stress but it always seems to be around. People often ask me when I find time to paint and I tell them painting is the only thing that keeps me civil therefore I have to find time for it. I recall one month at my full-time job a few years ago was particularly stressful. I manage a call center for a ticket agency and if you’re ever tried to order tickets or had a problem with tickets then you can probably imagine the kind of conversations I have on a daily basis with those whose lives have been ruined because they didn’t get the first row of whatever show they were buying tickets for. On this particular month we had a number of high level on sales. Artists like Neil Young, Sammy Hagar, the Broadway musical Wicked, etc…It seemed like everyday there was another big on sale with more rules and regulations for the ticket buyers that I was responsible for enforcing. How did I get through it all? I painted this.
Well that was awhile ago and life goes on, things change, people come and go. I still work for the ticket agency but now I have two small children and I own an art supply store. Unfortunately because the store doesn’t quite make a profit, I still manage ticket sales and have an employee who works at the store. Last week the employee was violently attacked while working and robbed by 4 individuals. The employee is physically ok but understandably shaken by the whole ordeal. I’m shaken as well. I created an environment where someone was harmed. Talk about stress.
Crime is a fact of life in St. Louis, but honestly it’s a fact of life anywhere you live. Granted this did just happen to my car last week, but still no one is really safe from that kind of stuff. So what do you do? In a perfect world I’d be down at the store everyday but at this time that’s just not possible for a variety of reasons. So the stress builds. As it builds I’m slowly working on this piece for the Dirty 30s. Once again it’s painting that’s keeping me civil. As you can see the piece is a slight variation on the Missouri State Seal.
Well that was awhile ago and life goes on, things change, people come and go. I still work for the ticket agency but now I have two small children and I own an art supply store. Unfortunately because the store doesn’t quite make a profit, I still manage ticket sales and have an employee who works at the store. Last week the employee was violently attacked while working and robbed by 4 individuals. The employee is physically ok but understandably shaken by the whole ordeal. I’m shaken as well. I created an environment where someone was harmed. Talk about stress.
Crime is a fact of life in St. Louis, but honestly it’s a fact of life anywhere you live. Granted this did just happen to my car last week, but still no one is really safe from that kind of stuff. So what do you do? In a perfect world I’d be down at the store everyday but at this time that’s just not possible for a variety of reasons. So the stress builds. As it builds I’m slowly working on this piece for the Dirty 30s. Once again it’s painting that’s keeping me civil. As you can see the piece is a slight variation on the Missouri State Seal.
