Paintings created: 25
Paintings that found new homes: 22
Abstract painting from college sold at a yard sale and later resold at another yard sale for higher price: 1
Festivals participated in: 10
Festivals canceled due to COVID: 4
Festivals withdrawn from due to ultra-low inventory: 1
Sculptures exhibited: 1
Murals painted: 2
F-bombs dropped by my youngest child: 1
Failed worm farms: 1
Successful tadpole ponds: 1
States visited: 6
Foreign countries visited: 2
Foreign countries visited without children: 1
Times being weirded out by Canada: 1
Disagreements cleared up online: 0
Awkward uncertain-if-you’re-okay-with-this hugs given: 27

2021 brought the return to in-person outdoor festivals and boy did we have a hankering to get out there. Judging by the rate at which the paintings flew off the walls, you all were hankering too!

First festival of 2021 | Memorial Day Weekend | Barrington, IL

We loaded up our schedule assuming that a bunch of the art festivals would get canceled. In the Spring, that was the case and a few canceled but after that, they were all on. And they were ALL BUSY! We happily floundered through our schedule, blown away festival after festival by how hungry folks were for some new art. We even had to cancel one festival because we had only three paintings to sell. That has never happened. Throw in one massive sculpture exhibition (epic failure, see previous post) and two new murals in Mexico and Arizona and it was a year of ART HUSTLE. Whoofta, what a ride! Pass the eggnog.

We started the year’s art adventures in Mexico. | February | Akumal, Mexico

Now that I’ve had some time to reflect, one of the most surprising observations I made emerging from my COVID cocoon (as a majestic gray moth, spiritually speaking) was that, like me, a majority of my fellow artists did not have a plethora of work to show despite all of our unexpected bonus time in the studio. All the shows were canceled last year. Our tents should have been bursting with all of the amazing work we piled up during lockdown. We had a whole year in the studio. So what gives?

Well, as I spoke with other artists and reflected on my own experience, I think it comes down to this: you have an important role in our creative process. Yes, YOU! A big motivator to push through the most challenging obstacles to the creation of my work (self-doubt, unexpected curveballs, distractions, etc.) is knowing that I get to show the end result off to all of you. Now don’t get me wrong: I don’t paint what I think you’ll like. I try to block that out of the studio as much as possible. But a festival on the horizon certainly keeps the brushes moving and keeps me accountable to finish the work. It’s one of those things that I didn’t appreciate or even realize existed until it was taken away.

So many paintings found homes including The Shipbuilders | June | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The main reason that I create art is because that is what I am made to do and fulfilling that innate purpose just feels damn good. However, I’d be remiss not to acknowledge the important link in the feedback loop that all of you play. Your reaction and enthusiasm for what I pour my soul into gives me the fuel needed to go at it again and again in the studio. To create for a living is divine satisfaction but to also have a chance to share that creation with friends and strangers alike is just amazeballs. I said it: AMAZEBALLS.

So thank you for always being amazeballs but especially in 2021, thank you for satisfying your hankering for art this past year, and thank you for being a vital part of my creative process.

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Onward to 2022!

Hankering in 2021 /December 9, 2021 by Tyler Voorhees

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