The urge to make art

In my youth I thought of myself as an artist and a free spirit.  For twenty years I lived a basic lifestyle selling my creative services.  This is a picture of me in a kitchen that I designed and built in New Haven, Connecticut..  The photo is from the mid seventies.

With time I choose to assume responsibilities such as motherhood and marriage.  Other responsibilities were delivered to me by circumstances.  I never expected to be my sister's caregiver as she lost her fight with mental illness.  At the peak of my life as a responsible person I had a mortgage, a car payment, significant care giving responsibilities for family members both younger and older than me and a full time job.  How did I, the free spirit, end up with all that responsibility?  Through it all I kept making my art, although my medium changed with my resources of the moment.  That experience of continuing to make art when I was under serious time pressure is where I find my encouragement when I encounter short term obstacles to spending time in my studio today.  I've learned that the key to satisfying the urge to make art is to be flexible about the medium and to always keep making things.