A year ago, my partner and I started looking for a new apartment.
We’d been living in the same place for 9 years—that’s a pretty long time to accumulate things and memories (and dust).
All of our free time got sucked into the apartment hunt. We were intense about it.
We spent hours each day combing through countless rental listings. Most of the photos were taken so sloppily you couldn’t tell if the apartment was a reasonable place to live or an absolute dungeon brimming with demons.
Beyond that, the search was taking up all the time I’d normally spend on personal projects.
I get a lot of joy out of making things. Making art helps me process what I’m going through in life. And it’s a way for me to connect with other people. I really felt its loss during that time.
Three months later, we finally signed a lease. Huge relief.
Of course, it would be two more months until we moved in, so there was planning and sorting and cleaning and packing to do. Just the sort of difficult emotional stuff that I could’ve put into some art!
Moving day finally came. It was pretty surreal to be in our new home. Full of space and potential.
I continued to postpone making art while I unpacked, set things up, discovered the neighborhood, and worked on home improvements.
These activities all brought me immense joy.
But a pesky feeling was gnawing at me. The little voice in the back of my head that said, “You need to get back to your art. That’s how you take care of yourself.”
I felt like I’d let myself down, even though I was just prioritizing other stuff for a while.
And it’s not the first time I’ve let go of my art.
Life is kinda like that plate-spinning / balancing act trick, and the plates are the things I care about.
Which ones am I gonna prioritize to keep them from dropping? Family? Friends? Career? Hobbies? Health? Training to win a hotdog-eating contest?
I know nobody can prioritize every single thing all the time. Everybody lets people down, and everybody lets themselves down sometimes.
It’s the fact that we have to make choices that makes the things we chose so meaningful.
I’m back to making art now. In my new apartment.
process &
behind-the-scenes
