Catching up with Kathrine Meuse

Hi MilspoFAN community. As usual, my creative practice has been all over the place, and yoga continues to drive much of my inspiration. I am still exploring the mandala and working on a series of seven - one for each of the main seven chakras. It’s a fun balance of using my intuition and weaving in elements that actually correspond to that specific energy center.

I also began creating mala bead necklaces for an upcoming workshop at the studio. Well, the studio changed hands and the workshop fell through, but I caught the mala making bug and kept going…creative, meditative, and they look pretty!

This past year brought a couple opportunities for me to dabble in the graphic design arena too. I worked on branding and designing new small businesses…business cards, logos, websites, and packaging. One client wanted an actual art piece for her logo, so that was fun! I started with pen & ink, then she wanted to try linoleum block print, and we ended up back at pen & ink with watercolor.

Balancing the creative work with our military life doesn’t go away, but hopefully we can give ourselves grace when things slide for a while. I know this upcoming year will be challenging as my only child will be a high school senior and it’s PCS time for us. My husband will most likely geobach so the kid can finish his senior year. The college search has started and the empty nest experience is not far off for me. I imagine this is a very different experience for the families who are still moving within the military than those who aren’t. Many of you have already been through this, so I’m all ears for pearls of wisdom here.

Keep creating when you can, and accept the times when there’s a gap. Life takes us in so many different directions, and it would be good to remember we are enough whether we are producing work or weathering a PCS move. All moments have their importance and make up our lives.