This has been one heck of a year. A busy one for sure ! 2022 has brought the most swimming ever. Over 400km in the pool / lake and 2 very large events. One of which i did on a whim!
Taking on swimming as a single discipline and completing a long distance has given me such appreciation to what my body has allowed me to do. Meeting people with similar goals and listening to their stories, its been fascinating and joyful at the same time. I have to admit many people in my life, call me crazy for doing that stuff, and don’t share in enthusiasm as I do, but I keep moving, to stay as active as possible.
I have to say I was very lucky to find the right swim program, and coach. Taking up the Total Immersion swim method and working with Teresa from Tri Balance I was able to get to the end of the lake with quite a bit of ease.
Now yours probably thinking, hey this is a artist blog, well, its kind of turning out to be a blog on my life, and what makes me tick. However the swimming has been a massive part of my past couple years. And moving forward, I will still continue to swim.
Since 2022 was all about swimming. Most of my art has been in form of digital drawings, and quilting on the fly ! I joined the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild a few years ago, but really haven’t spent much time with other members. I am very lucky my neighbour is actually a member, so I have taken some of her classes at out local stitchery shop, and now we are starting to get back to in person meetings. For quilting, I worked on a few smaller pieces this year. I have participated in a few small swaps with in the guild. I took a online course in Seaglass Quilts, which was put on by Allie from exhastedoctopus . I worked at over a weekend. I made out of scraps of fabric and put together as a table matt.
I also experimented with painting on fabric. Making some small coasters and a few panels for quilting.
This lead me to another direction of Fibre Arts. I love the free flowing of the art, using various materials, scraps and other stuff that would otherwise be dis guarded. This brought me to the Vancouver Fibre Arts Guild. I have yet to go to an in person meeting, but i have taken in more of the zoom meetings over the past year, and found the people to be quite nice and very welcoming. I have made several coasters, pouches, and some wall hangings over the past year. And hope to complete my series of Prince Edward Island beach scenes at some point.
In addition to trying to keep up with my hobbies, swim and my full time job. I did enroll back into school this past year. I started taking website design at Emily Carr University. I found being an older student very challenging. My hopes is to continue a couple courses throughout the next few years, and build up enough to complete a Masters of Fine Arts.
Web design has been a interesting venture. I do work a bit of back end repair and updating on my work’s website. I have redesigned the BC Exotic Bird Society website, plus my own, which I am actively working on it off and on.
Now that winter is here, I do spend way more time on my art. Lately i have picked up Watercolours. Something, i never totally liked to use, as I was oil painting girl or acrylic !
I am enjoying the painting with watercolours, and will continue to work on that through out the year, There will be a credit course through Emily Carr, i will be able to take in the spring.
What changes for 2023 !
Stay tuned …..
Happy New Year to everyone !
From Christina at A little bit of Nordic
