I'll meet you there

new this week (this painting no longer exists)

Hello Dear Studio Blog Readers. 

Thank you for being here and spending some of your sunny time with me. 

It's positively roastin' here in auld reekie! My niece Elena has been here with me since late Saturday night taking a break from her world travels. It's been great to have her back in Scotland.

I am pleased that I managed to maintain my studio, my Tuesday Studio Video Visit, and now my blog schedule and even did some work with the Scottish Artist's Union this week. I am really happy that I was able to put my studio practice high on the list while still enjoying the sun and some of the sights with Elena. After where I've been lately, this feels like a noteworthy accomplishment.

That's the thing - these things don't need to take a lot of time, just some time and consistency - a promise. Magic happens when you show up even in short bursts. 

This is Elena's last full day in the city, so after I write this I am off to jump on a bus and meet her in the wild for a bit more exploring and sunshine. 

Now to the art. 

Currently, my studio work schedule is Monday, Tuesday and Friday. 

I managed to start two new pieces this week and work back into one I started last week. At last count, I think I now have 9 pieces on the go. This is a good feeling. Currently, I am only using materials I already have in the studio - trying to avoid purchasing any new materials for the time being. I am curious how long I can go. I like to set myself a challenge. 

a piece from last week that I worked back into that is now finished

Here's the Tuesday Studio Video Visit if you missed it on my other social networks. 

In other news, the brilliant Blunt Knife Co. is closing its doors on Thistle Street in Edinburgh so make plans to go by soon and buy one of my prints, pretty please!!  Their last trading day is Saturday 15 July. Make Haste! Support them and me!

Available Now at Blunt Knife Co. Edinburgh for £25 each!
Get one from the shop before they close!

In other other news, I did some more litter cleanup this week, I highly recommend finding a small area nearby and just cleaning it up - it is amazing how much satisfaction can be felt after working for an hour or less and making a visible difference. A cure for what ails, I tell ya! If you do this - take a before and after picture and message it to me and I will send you a coupon code to save money in my shop. Thank you for making the world a better place. 

That's all I have for you this week on the Studio Blog. Be well and enjoy the sun. Thank you for staying the course with me. 

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Out of sync

Darkness comes in stages 

12x48"/30.4x121.9cm mixed media on canvas

© 2016 Megan Chapman

I have a cup of tea, the window is open blowing the paper prayer flags in the wind. I am listening to the beautiful music of Ólafur Arnalds "Island songs" on my headphones and tears could easily come to my eyes, but just now I can blink them away. There is something in the air today, a cool melancholy.

There are so many things I would like to write but it is complicated as this is an art blog, it is complicated because my attention span seems rather limited and because I am not sure how to form my thoughts into words. I just know I need to write. There is so much for us all to process and everyone is experiencing some form or another of grief and it is not going away.

Racial hate and divide, xenophobic fears and hate, transphobic hate and murder, a global pandemic that isn't magicking itself away, the desperate loneliness of so many bursting to be touched and loved as they flock to the beaches and parks leaving their human mark, so much litter to say I WAS HERE. WE WERE HERE.

We are back in a celebration of trash and consumerism. We are back in a forgetful haze. We got too close, saw too many, hashtag black lives matter, can I have some of your crisps, the bin is full, just leave it.

I want to love you. I want to put my arms around you but we are out of sync. I always cheered for you, always believed the best, always hoped for the future but now I must believe what I see. I don't want to.

I am so damn tired and I am not even sure I have the right to be.

I will never understand why we can't love everything and everyone. I will never understand that there are actually greedy people, bad people, mean people, people who hate and kill, people who prey on the vulnerable, people who do not think about the animals, the earth, the air.

But then again I must understand humans and I know we are messy creatures. I have hurt and disappointed other humans. I have not done my best always. I do take responsibility, I do try to learn how to do better and I try again and that's all I can do. Sometimes it is not enough.

I'll keep loving you because shame never fixed a damn thing. Protests and boycotts do, voting on your ballot and with your money can, making the personal political can help, dedicating yourself to creating tiny changes in your community (it starts with you, then your household, then your friends, then your associations) and that can help a lot.

I developed this quality slowly over time where I come to the table with problems and then I think about all sides and then I shift my perspective and then I think of positives and ways to change, ways to help, and ways to make a difference. So I came here to write from deep sadness and some rage but by the end of it, I stop myself and hope rears it's head again. Hope doesn't stay down for long.

I wish this was true for us all but I know some brains don't work that way. Some have been hurt too deeply, bruised, abandoned, and let down too often.

Collective hurt hurts us all.

Deep in our veins, it flows through us and we change shape. We flow through our cities' arteries spreading, spreading, spreading.