Hey there Art Collective friends,

I feel so energized to be back from ten days of vacation. It has been a while folks! Several people have asked me what going on a crise ship post covid was like? Everything went well even though our ship the Norwegian Breakaway is a massive ship we had no serious issues other than inconvenient disorganization. It did cost us $50.00 US per person to get covid testing 48 hours prior to boarding. Although testing all passengers is necessary, I don’t think I would get on a ship without that feature. The boarding of our cruise was delayed by nine hours due to the fact the same ship had rescued twenty Cuban refugees on an overloaded boat. The boat was in considerable distress while retuning from Cozumel on August 18th the trip just before ours. The refuges were in the process of sinking and were trying to bail out the boat with small buckets. Certainly, a good reason for a delay, although Norwegian Cruise officials never officially told this happened. I found this out on my own with the help of a google search three days after our departure. The actual rescue only took about three hours, the big delay was that the Miami Port Authority did not want to release the ship from the Miami Dock.

I created quite a bit of art in a small sketch book that I squeezed into my carry-on bag. I found a quiet spot on the ship to get into my creative zone and create interesting colourful artworks on paper. I brought my brilliant bees wax crayons a couple of thin markers, and a selection of Prismacolor pencil crayons. Select artworks in my sketchbook will make it into my Society 6 profile. I will be uploading six funky flowers this week.

I once heard artist Nicholas Wilton say that the best way to improve your art is to get out and travel so you can change your perspective and refresh your mind. I can see where this rings true as I did see very inspiring outdoor art in New York City. I am not sure that I was intentionally seeking out art that was urban, in fact initially I had in mind that I would visit art galleries. It was not until I got to New York City that I realized I was seeking out murals and graffiti art. My own artwork that I have used spray paint in looks a bit urban and has a graffiti look to it. I have done two very colourful art series with spray paint on canvas, and I am extremely excited to continue a new series that I am working on that features spray paint. New York was full of inspiration for new artwork, it was hard to pack in everything I wanted to do in a day and a half. I will certainly have a long to do list when I go back for another visit.

What did I learn about myself? I need to get out more. I can be a bit of a hermit. Getting out, shaking things up, seeing new things is great for your art practice. Its good to leave your studio and take in new things. I need to push myself out the door a lot more.

Live online art shows coming soon. I am still choosing the date and the collection to highlight for my show.

Stay creative everyone.

Sheryl

xoxo