I've been taking community college art classes starting a few months after the
pandemic started. I never really got an art education: before this, the last
art class I had taken was in high school. At university I was a little rushed
to finish my degree due to financial concerns, and at the same time I wanted
to try a dozen different new things, so I didn't circle back to visual arts in
an academic setting. And then after graduation I've gone through periods of
feast and famine, and there just never seemed to be enough money for
recreational schooling.

And then for a year travel was out of the question. So instead of spending
money on visiting people, I spent it on classes. It's been a refreshing
experience. I've really enjoyed it.

I'm doing one more class this summer. This one is finally at the stage where
it's more focused on how to be a professional artist, which was something I
never learned, and that's impossible to figure out on your own. The summer
semester has just started, and I find myself confronted with the question of
what kind of work I really want to create, and what I want it to be _about_.
I have to create a series of pieces on a theme or subject, but with that is the
question of why. Why this? What ideas is this really exploring? Why should an
audience care? I have to write an artist's statement explaining precisely that,
and it's vital that it not be bullshit. I can bullshit with the best of them,
but this is a professional skill, and I need to learn to do it well.

It's all forcing me to look more seriously at my hobby than I previously was,
and you know, I really appreciate that. I like being forced to step out of my
comfort zone a little.