Pursuit of Happiness or the Happiness of Pursuit?

I have been looking into Happiness, which the government is now copying me on by doing a well being study of Uk residents.... I've been interested in this since hearing Martin Seligman's Ted Talk, and consequently reading his book. I have to live with episodes of depression so this makes life incredibly hard for my family and myself at times, but between these periods of intense bad feelings about myself, I enjoy pursuing the elusive happiness.

I've taken Seligman's 3 levels of happiness and started applying them to my life, I have the short term happiness (glass of wine, decent food, the shallower things in life. I have the flow nearly sorted, I can loose myself in a book or making artwork for hours. And I've recently started on possibly the hardest, the happiness gained from longer term projects, gained from helping something outside of yourself. This has led to me volunteering at the local RSPCA as home visitor and home visitor co-ordinator. I've done the initial training (one morning in a room with very old videos, yes video...) and have a meeting with the branch manager next week to start the actual work. I'm looking forward to putting Seligmans recommendations to the test.

Lots of thinking...

I have been thinking lots, about life, happiness, what makes it all worthwhile? I keep going back to the desire to be within some sort of artistic community, I have been very isolated in my work area recently, my work doesn't feel like its challenging me and maybe I'm missing the feedback from other artists. I will probably be moving out of the purple shed at some point (the owner is selling up and moving in with his girlfriend! Very inconsiderate...) So I will not have a specific workplace. Do I build something in my own garden? Or do I look into setting up a studio space that can be shared with other artists? This is a scary prospect, as it involves money. And I have none.

I like the idea of the shared studio space, but how would it work? Seperate work areas? One big room? Would I be able to get a wage from it? I may need to do some investigating...

Playing on Scribble

I've been having a little play this morning, a bit of a break from all the serious stuff of setting myself up as an artist (business advise meetings, sustainability workshops, re-vamping websites.... all that sort of thing). I was exploring the redbubble site and came across a link to the scribble website, uploaded a photo (courtesy of AMS as I'm using his computer, so I borrowed one of his mountainous images of Japan) and what fun! Really simple, but looks ace. I think there will be more scribbles appearing in the future...

Icy January

We were out on a family walk last week, when we came across a still icy pond, so as usual, I ended up taking pictures, I'm going to experiment with them and make some prints, which I haven't done for at least five years, so feel rather excited about it.

And out in Derbyshire

Lots of snowy misty walks this xmas break, and a chance to stop and take photos of the countryside near where I live. These were taken near Matlock Bath.

HEAT!

Working from my dining room table is not ideal really, but the studio has been so cold that I couldn't face working there, but.... I have a burner! made from a calor gas cannister, turned upside down, it even has a plate so I can heat a kettle on it for cups of tea. I'll be lighting it in the garden at the weekend so the paint can enamel onto it and burn any fumes off, then it can be fitted, luckily a trip to my dads yard in Anglesey last week, found me a cast iron downpipe to fit as a stackpipe. I'm looking forward to the warmth and being able to eat at a table again!

THE PURPLE SHED STUDIO | Project blogs | Artists talking | a-n

THE PURPLE SHED STUDIO | Project blogs | Artists talking | a-n

I've started a new blog on a-n online, it will cover my progress on this artistic journey.