This Side of Camp

This piece is a side view from a camp on a backpacking trip in September 2021. The frame is upcycled painted by me to go with the painting.
Desperate Consolidation, Time Management, Healing with Soft pastels
As with any modern-day woman, I had a massive to-do list. Add in being an artist with Dyslexia and ADHD; you have a mess. Because of covid, I was not socializing. With my massive to-do list, I was not exercising, creating, relaxing, anything but taking care of myself. People told me to do all kinds of different things to help the situation, like cognitive therapy, meditation, walks, and reaching out to friends. All of those things take time and work when I have none to give. Because of the setup time, I found myself unable to work in mixed media as I on the norm do. When I am not making art regularly, a strong sense of failure creeps in.
I found myself playing with soft pastels because I could pick up a stick of color, make a swatch, put it down, and go back to the grind on other things. Before I knew it, I had completed a few paintings for a deadline that was coming up.
Those of you who know me know that I have a fascination with abstract writing. I loved playing with this in soft pastels, which led to my experimenting with cognitive therapy. I start this process by writing out the negative thoughts I am having with pastel; I smear them into the background, then I layer words of positive thinking on the top.
This cognitive writing, mixed with thoughts about color and artistic appeal puts me in an active meditative state that completely clears my mind and brings me to the present. I then combined this with starting a Plein Air art group. Plein Air meaning-of or relating to painting in outdoor daylight. As a group, we go to local parks and trails to be outdoors and paint the scenery. This move grouped several things together that I struggled to find separate time for. Put them all into one event—socializing at a covid safe distance, meditation, cognitive therapy, exercise, vitamin D, and I was getting my artwork done. Using the word writing cognitive therapy process to build the landscape that I witnessed added to an even deeper meditative state.
Do not worry; I still do the other art that you have known me for, just less of it. This Plein air work helped me through the year of Covid, having to step in and take care of my father with Alzheimer's Dementia and make my artwork deadlines. To me, this is a powerful tool now if I could just maintain a good diet.
Thanks for taking a moment.
Amanda