Never Too Late

I'm catching up to the boat I missed back in my twenties when I didn't have any plan other than to paint and sketch everyday and to have adventures.

Instead of establishing myself as an artist in Boston or New York City, I headed to the Rocky Mountains and Yosemite to be a rock climber.

No regrets.  If I'd caught that boat I wouldn't be the mother of Nicole, Alexis and Michael.  If I'd had a crystal ball back when I could have chosen differently, I would definitely have headed to the mountains and let it sail away without me, as I did.

However ... I'm now ready, excited to be within swimming distance of that vessel I chose not to board. The crew is waving to me and urging me to stay strong and to join them.  They're lowering a boat and oarsman to assist me in this current leg of the journey toward my destiny.

I invite you to follow along with me on this adventure.  It will not be a straight or orderly route.  It's a journey with a multitude of diversions due to insatiable curiosity and the love of experimentation.  Finally, I may be close to being able to express, through my art, the universe that has forever projected onto the screen of my imagination and the world around me as seen through my eyes.  I learned at a very young age that the world I see is not the world that everyone else sees.  We are each unique in this way.  The artists I love and admire are those who have been able to share their unique vision of the world and their inner universe through their art whether it be painting, sculpture, music, dance, poetry, etc.

The current world is utterly exhausting and terrifying.  We are destroying our natural world as well as our populations.  The current world is also still awesomely beautiful. Nature is surviving in spite of us.  It's mutating and transforming in order to survive.  I believe it will thrive again long after we have caused our own demise. There have been, I believe, five extinctions of life on planet earth ... and yet here we are.  Vegetation and animal life are here with us ... at least for awhile.

Grim?  Yes.  

I choose to focus on the beauty and potential of our world.  I choose to spend time engaging with other human beings, both old and young, who choose to look forward ... to be curious ... to dance, sing, create, replenish, nurture, learn and share.

If I'm fortunate and if I'm able to stay healthy and active ... and if I can avoid the horror of dementia, I'm counting on a good twenty to twenty five years ahead of me.  That's a substantial amount of time to contribute in a positive way to my community as well as communities throughout the world. I'm completely exhausted from struggling with the ever-changing business of art and the ever-changing internet software/updates that devour hours, days and weeks of my creative time and energy.  However, the internet remains the best way to communicate globally. I will continue to participate in the battle ... moving in a slightly different direction, a direction that is more in synch with my own way of traveling which is to become distracted and inspired by something off-topic and to travel down a rabbit hole to find myself in my own version of Wonderland.

As you may know, I've struggled with creating classes for Skillshare.  I've also struggled with creating online classes for my own website.  I don't think or move in a linear fashion.  Creativity for me has never been along a straight path. It's never been about doing the right techniques in the right order to achieve a result that is acceptable to hang on a wall. That notion is completely foreign to me and has caused me angst my whole life. I love making things and I love problem solving. When I've found an acceptable solution to a specific situation and I've executed that solution ... I'm done.  If it works on someone's wall ... great.  If not, I don't really care and I move on to the next situation to solve.  For seventy two years I've tried to fit into a different mold.  It didn't work before and it doesn't work now. I doubt that it will work in the future.

Several years ago my son suggested I hire a filmmaker to just follow me around and keep the camera rolling. Yes.  A great idea.  For awhile, I envisioned myself as the Anthony Bourdain of sketching ... until he so sadly committed suicide. I came far too close to that once. I'm committed to never getting that close again.

I don't make enough money from my art to hire a filmmaker to follow me around. I tried to do it all myself with a GoPro and other assorted cameras and setups. Not very successful and certainly didn't allow me to be lost in my creative, problem solving, inspired state.

Miraculously, after losing a lifetime of my artwork earlier this year due to unmentionable negligence, I'm in a state of mind where I can make up my own set of rules, applications and online course styles.

Hah!  What freedom it is to actually open the doors to sharing that which I feel is most valuable to those who wish to puzzle together their own creative energies.  A way to guide, nudge, inspire and encourage those creative beings who desire to grow, learn, expand and be part of that world of shared universal creative energy.

I created The Artist's Journey with the idea that it be a gathering place, a special place like a tree fort, where intentional artists meet and share thoughts, projects, inspirations, concerns, questions and experiences. It has become that. Though we are a small group, we all look forward to our Monday gathering on zoom for our Art book Club sketchbook Story Time. Through our community I've been introduced to many new artists, both living and passed, who are influencing my creative surge; Kurt Jackson, Eva Kalien, Elsbeth Nusser-Lampe, Paul Rudolf Riniker and others.  

Inspired by our weekly gathering, I decided to try, once again, being my own film crew, to bring a camera with me on my walks to share my thoughts and the visuals that capture my attention. Along with filming parts of my walks, I would film some of my "on location" sketching as well as working in the studio.  The resulting videos would be posted on the website as a very non-linear class comprised of these spontaneous videos ... a class not to teach but to share and inspire.

When discussing the idea with a friend, she mentioned that there might be quite a few people, not necessarily artists, who would be interested and inspired by such a non-linear, non-teaching class. I groaned and rolled my eyes at making my online presence more complicated for myself ... again.  She offered a suggestion that I think might work.  It will be an experiment.  I'll give it a try for six months.

Here's the experiment.  I'm adding a class on my website that will be live in a day or two.  It's a class comprised of "lessons" that are videos of my walks ... mostly my morning walks, during which I share my thoughts, the visuals I come across that inspire me, and whatever else causes me to push the record button on my camera.  The class also includes videos of live sketching and painting in various places either relating or not relating to something I've mentioned during my walks. I'm including previous videos of painting while paragliding, from the top of a sailboat mast and Draw & Drive roadtrips. For me ... that's how the creative process works ... keeping my eyes open around every bend, taking action and a bit of contemplation along the way.

The experimental part of this is that this odd class will be available in two ways.  It will be available to all active members of The Artist's Journey, as are all my website courses.  The second way is through a stand-alone subscription that allows only access to this one, slightly disjointed and nonsensical course and does not allow access to the Artist's Journey live events, critiques, Art Book Club, Art Challenges, extra videos and The Forum feed.  If I find that there is enough interest in the stand-alone subscription, I will continue offering that after the six-month trial period.  If not ... Come Walk With Me will only be available to members of The Artist's Journey. Membership to The Artist's Journey is twenty dollars a month.  The stand alone subscription to Come Walk With Me will be five dollars a month.  Members of the community already have access to the first several videos on Come Walk With Me.  The format will probably change a bit as I develop the class.

I adore experiments.

The journey is the treasure ... Stay tuned ... Right now, I have a boat to catch.

 Thank you for reading this long-winded blog post.

Chris Carter