Weinstein Travels

At times, keeping things for 30 years can be a bad thing. Other times, it comes in handy. I have this little travel water color set from… college. I think it’s circa 1996, but can’t be sure about that. A few years ago, I remembered I had it and did a few paintings up in the woods in Vermont. Back in the drawer it went, nestled among my other art supplies. I sometimes complain that neither Carter or Spencer are artistic… but complain isn’t really the right term. I’m happy I don’t have to share my art supplies! I’m also happy their brains function in math and science, while mine just wandered off during those classes.

A goal of the trip this summer is to find my creative voice again. I’ve been a commercial artist for 25 years; so long, that my design opinion is trained to think about what would sell rather than what I really think is beautiful. I know I’m not the best artist in the world, and definitely not the best with watercolors. But art is a muscle, and if you don’t exercise it, it will atrophy.

Then, of course, there’s the inner voice. I’m training myself to think differently. About a half an hour ago, I said to Jason “I need content for my blog” — his response: “It’s quality, not quantity.” My inner voice immediately said “Maybe I shouldn’t write about this… self doubt, do people want to read about ME?” And then I course corrected. I am writing this blog because I have something to say. I have places to go that I want to remember forever, but it’s a journey just to get there. It’s the same thing. Push further than my comfort zone. Squash the voices- both outside and in- that say it’s no good. Jason also told me my camper painting looks like Matzo. I say, Matzo is beloved, and so is my camper! I’m training myself to take those things, laugh them off, and become a stronger, better person.

I bought myself a new watercolor sketch book for the trip. It has 60 pages. This is a challenge to myself: HOW MANY PAGES CAN YOU FILL? It’s not quality I’m going for here. It’s quantity. As my teacher said in college, there are 100 bad drawings for every good one. Just keep going!

During our first trip to North Carolina, we broke the awning on the camper. Jason took it to the closest RV repair spot in NJ and they said “We’ll call you next week with a quote.” A week went by… no call.. another week. Jason called to check in and they said they would get to us soon. I said “I’m going to put it out to the Universe: they are going to call this week and it’s going to cost $200-$300 to fix. Well, the UNIVERSE LISTENED! They called within 2 hours and said it would be $350 to fix it (I was being optimistic in my quote)! We are going to pick it up next week and you’ll hear all about our prep for the trip!