I'm still the Events and Marketing Photographer at The Mariners' Museum and Park. They've kept me around for a year and a half now, so I guess I have successfully fooled them all! MWAHAHAHAHA! (That's supposed to be my sinister laugh) I've learned and grown so much. It's been wonderful to work in an organization that continues to serve and grow throughout hardships.

Artist/Coast Guard spouse Erica Hunter's take-your-dreams-by-the-reins-and-enjoy-the-ride attitude is exactly what we all need right now as we go into the summer. If there's an art genre you've been anxious to try, toss aside those hesitations and go for it.

"When COVID-19 abruptly upended our lives last year, it separated us from the routine and events that usually root our lives in time — work, school, dates, social outings, sports events, ceremonies, travel, the things we plan for and look forward to. Life tends to be a blur without those anchors," Ruth Ogden concluded after studying people's perceptions of time during lockdown. I can totally relate to those findings, yet despite all of the blurred lines, I've had a few tangible successes in my art career this year.

How many of us have said, "I wish I could _________" or "It would be totally awesome to ___________" (fill in the blank with your artsy goal)? Well, Air Force spouse MJ Willis is living the dream as a real life rock star. She inspires others to act upon goals that seem too wild to ever come true. Faith, courage, and communication can help make those dreams materialize.

I mentioned that I started my career as an artist just as Covid-19 shut everything down. I was pretty optimistic despite the uncertainty, but shortly after the article was published, it was like someone hit the pause button. I found out a museum exhibition I’d been accepted into was put on hold. Opportunities were slim and I felt like I was sort of coasting along in limbo. For a short time, I did consider setting aside my work. I’m not even sure what triggered it, but one day, I made the conscious decision to go all in and made a plan.

This month, painter/textile artist/sewist/milspouse Amy Jolley inspires us to try something new. Change is inevitable, so why not welcome it...or even boldly step out of our comfort zones and seek it?

I don’t know about you all, but as we wait our turn for vaccinations, the boredom and wall-climbing in our house has reached a new level. To shake off some of that boredom, you are all invited to come and view my latest virtual theatre project – Wonder Tales: Fairies, Talking Animals & Magic. It’s an evening of six short plays (I am directing three) presented by Planet Connections Theatre Festivity.

A year ago in my interview here on MilSpoFan, I talked about my philosophy of “bloom where you’re planted”, meaning make the most of your location, stage of life or circumstances. This past year has put that philosophy to the test in more ways than one! But even with all the uncertainty, disappointments and changes of this past year, I feel like I’ve been able to bloom. I learned an important lesson about applying something I’ve always known as an artist to my everyday life. In reflecting on this past year, I find hope in these lessons and I pray you do too. 

Love is in the air at MilspoFAN. Mil-spouse and romance writer Siera London offers a peek at the allure and escape of a nom de plume, provides intimate craft details for writing romantic literature, and shares secrets to a successful writing process.

The city living was not for us, none of my family was happy. We found a small mountain town three hours away from Las Vegas that is just perfect. We are in a small community in the mountains, surrounded by cows, mountains, and springs. I feel like I can breathe here. The only problem is I don't have an art outlet close by. 

A bit of research and planning can help make a PCS a little smoother. Army spouse/artist/illustrator/printmaker Mirka Hokkanen talks about transition and transformation in this January 2021 MilspoFAN interview.

“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.