“I don’t know where I am going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring” - David Bowie. Well ...I do know, for certain, I will be trading in my palm tree views and poke diet for pasta and gelato as we venture from Oahu to Naples, Italy this Summer.   I don’t know what that means for my business.  

I left you last January, with talk of hopes and dreams, of new art ventures to come and experiences with travel inspirations, that I looked forward to during our stay in South Korea, at Camp Humphreys. Little did I know that right around the corner, was a storm approaching that would change my plans tremendously!

The downtimes in creativity after a PCS or during a time of creative-lag can be scary for an artist. Actor / Navy Spouse Bethany Mayo views those times as opportunities to pursue other creative adventures.

I think it is safe to say that none of us will forget 2020. Before the current unpleasantness hit our shores, I was looking to the new year anticipating a break out year! January was the month that our gallery hosts an exhibit of its new artists from the prior year, of which I was one. We held a Roaring Twenties themed reception, and celebrated joyously.

German poet Christian Morgenstern’s poem “The Seagulls” begins “seagulls look as though their name were Emma.” It makes our world sound so simple, everything in nature is as it is, in place and together. The artist, however, dissects her world, sees patterns, colors, sometimes multiple colors in a single moss-covered rock in the forest. Which leads to the question, are all forests the same? And is nature really that simple?

Mil-spouse photographer/artist Narissa Alford has turned her frequent PCSes into opportunities. She meets change by embracing new cultures and translating them into visual works of art.

I had to relearn everything once more on how to navigate a new environment which is hard to do normally and with the pandemic it took a little extra time to reestablish my dance career. I have been taking online dance classes and decided to pursue a more fitness side to my dance teaching.

Ashley Hope James, painter and Army spouse, talks about living partly in the here-and-now and partly in the what's-to-come. Knowing that change is always ahead shapes her identity, philosophy and art.

Since checking in a year ago, I did finish a poetry manuscript before the pandemic hit. Some of the individual poems have been published in journals, some of them quite recently. One of those poems, “Pursuit,” won first place in the military family member category for Line of Advance’s Col. Darron L. Wright Award, and my poem will join all past and current winners in an anthology – Our Best War Stories – that will be published this month. Other than an honorable mention, I’ve never won an award before. To say the least, I was excited.

Doubt in ourselves can sometimes hold us back, but painter and military spouse Sidra Hassan-Brown paints through fears and self-consciousness. Inspired by the strong women in her life, she discovers her own strengths in each piece of art she creates. 

Crafting this follow-up guest post on MilspoFAN was a stellar way to reflect on my creative journey and share some enthusiasm for a hopeful future. Fate bought me a ticket for a two-year-long rollercoaster ride with the crazy pandemic-loop-de-loop that we’re all on, thrown in for free.

My dancing has taken an interesting turn and I must admit that it was unexpected. I am still training with the New Mexico Ballet Company but was unable to perform in their winter and spring performances. NMBC is a company where many of their dancers work during the day and train/rehearse in the evenings.

A.C. Williams is an Army Spouse and dancer who has danced in response to change since her teenage years. She shares how dance can be transformative in positive ways to combat all the ways life attempts to transform us negatively. 

Last year, June 2019 was the best month of my life up to that point. I spent the entire month in France teaching two back-to-back painting workshops, with five days in between for some travel time on my own. I had plans to teach in Italy this September (2020), but have postponed this trip until April/May 2021.

Once in a while, things just "click!" Our July interviewee, photographer Heather K. Purdy, shares with us her beautiful images - forged when a flash of inspiration lights up the studiously honed canvas of her craft. With agility, talent, and hard work Heather has built a business in fine art photography and client portraiture while traveling the globe.

As I sit down at my desk, I can’t help but notice a pile of journals, rehearsal schedules, and other papers that wasn’t here at this time last year. In fact, the desk wasn’t here either – in the living room, right next to our big windows that look out into our neighborhood in Madrid. The same neighborhood that for months recently was the most peaceful that it has probably ever been – ever. For more than a dozen weeks we were only interrupted by noon and eight-o-clock musical interludes, some applause and cheering. Momentary unification with unseen, unknown neighbors. 

Since my guest post last year quite a bit has happened, but funny enough, most of that occurred just earlier this year. The rest of 2019 continued pretty much the same (professionally anyways). I continued working for Navy MWR part-time, as well as with the Army at Ft. Eustis as an on-call photographer photographing events and studio portraits.