Too Much

A friend reached out to me and said they missed my blog. I responded to him, “Almost too much to get down in writing.” So, of course, I’m sparked to write.

And there has been too much. More police brutality since George Floyd’s death. Marches have been happening in St. Pete every day. Multiple times a day. And it’s inspiring. I’ve participated a bit in those.

I’ve also been working to empower the voices of fellow members and my own in my union. There’s drama going on. Don’t want to go into details too much. I’m conflicted to even bring it up, because it seems like small potatoes in comparison to the oppression our black siblings are facing.

David C. Coates said, “An injury to one is an injury to all.” And overall, each person’s liberty is bound to others. Making sure every member of my union feels safe bringing forth dissenting views is important to every single person. And perhaps, once we begin to change the culture that encourages the silencing of member voices (among others), we can also begin addressing the systemic racism bound in our policies and procedures. Racism is not the current focus, but hopefully we can get there through addressing the current drama.

Short story … I’m hoping that by working against one form of injustice and oppression will help to break down other forms.

To help manage my emotions about all that’s going on in the world, I’ve been creating a lot of art. Awhile back I learned about Sketchbook Skool (SBS), and I signed up for my first class through them around the time quarantine started. I signed up for their Art Bootcamp, which was a 6-week dive into a lot of different art media.

My drawings started off pretty crappy, but I definitely saw improvement by the end. And it was fun playing with a bunch of different media.

Then I took their Drawing Without Talent class, because drawing is something I do want to get better at but still feel really self-conscious about. Since the Art Bootcamp contained two weeks of drawing lessons, I didn’t start completely cold. But I learned a lot of tips and tricks in that training too.

Now I’m working through their Mixed Media Journaling course. I think it’s my favorite, though I’ve still been drawing too. My work was even featured in the student bulletin!

This one was featured in the SBS student bulletin.

So some of my art is about serious stuff, but a lot is just creating for the sake of it. And it really does help me manage my complex emotions. Which ultimately helps me to get back out to march or deal with the next union issue, or whatever else might come up in life.