I talk about balance on my Less is More Healthy vlog often. For much of my life, my life has been out of balance, and it wasn’t until my late 30s that I realized just how out of balance my life really was. I had this moment in my HR office where I was listing a job and I fully realized that I was replaceable. I was a cog in the machine. 

My time with that company was a sunk cost, I could have stayed on, but I knew my position was on the short list for elimination or being efficiencied* into something more stressful and taking up more of my free time.

Anyway, I applied for grad school. The debate back then was, do I go for my MFA and pursue my dream of being a college professor OR do I get my MA in art therapy. At this point you know I chose art therapy.

Anyway, 3 years later, I was applying for jobs, and landing one, and doing the usual post grad school hours churn.

This was not a balanced time in my life.

Anyway, fast forward to now.

I am seeking balance in my life.

Part of that balance is making changes to allow for healthier habits, like eating right for my body, exercise, and making art (which is a good thing for my mental health).

Anyway, part of my change for balance (yet another thing that has evolved from my recent values journaling exercise) is that I walk and try to draw routinely, in my case, nearly every day. I recently completed the 100 Vehicles Challenge, a self imposed challenge to get better at drawing cars and trucks in my en plein air sketching.

Only to find that I actually kind of like drawing vehicles. They tell stories, especially beaten up cars. Or well cared for but older luxury vehicles. What does it say when the Escalade has been keyed down to bare metal and the full length of the passenger’s side?

It’s all a story of some sort. 

Anyway, I’ve been drawing these little vignettes of cars, which seems like a sort of portraiture. We Americans really do identify with our vehicles, don’t we? I kept going with the vehicle drawings. I’ve done 77 of them as of this writing. I’m hoping to get to 300.

Yes 300!

Why 300?

Well, 100 is a challenge or even a class assignment. 300 is a commitment and really over the top. It’s excessive. But also 300 will look really cool in a huge mass on the wall of the gallery.

A local art gallery is doing a pop up in one of their smaller gallery spaces. You put in a pitch, get picked, and pay for the space for a week (it’s a pop up) and then have an art show in a legit gallery. My pitch was for 300 images on their walls. So now I have to make it happen. (I’m going to do 300 of them even if I DON’T get chosen for this space.) Anyway, keep your fingers crossed for me.

Also the art association I’m a member of is doing a spring show and I’m applying to hang 3 of my pieces.

*This is my term for how corporations combine roles to make something more efficient and save money but really puts more stress on the people in that role. Enshitification of a job.