Reboot and Refresh - Happy 2023!
Amy Shawley Paquette
Hello….*tap tap* is this thing on?? Wow it’s been a good long while since I checked in to my blog, 2yr 3mo to be exact, but seeing what the last post was about (market season) leads into why I haven’t been around here! So what’s been happening?
My booth at the Crozet Arts & Crafts Festival, May 2022
In the Fall of 2020 I began doing a consistent circuit of outdoor art markets in our region, starting at smaller vendor shows and applying to bigger and bigger events. Doing art markets/fairs/festivals has been a dream of mine since I was little, so I prioritized this path and have been so happy I did so! Outdoor events and online teaching kept the workflow steady and I was painting more than I had in many years, thus spending less and less time on the computer or developing online content.
July 2021 I gave birth to our third child, a daughter! She joins two older brothers and we’ve been having a blast even though life with three kids five and under has been a wonderfully chaotic blur! I continued doing markets and could bring baby with me for many of them. 2021 ended with a bustling holiday season and many sales through my Etsy shop which had grown considerably throughout that year! I also added more “stockists” that carry my work and will share info about that in/on another post or page!
Then 2022 came, which for many in our family was one of our worst years on record. I can’t overlook the many beautiful and amazing moments that marked the year as well but we kept coming back to and processing what we now refer to as The Big Three. After a brief illness my Dad (the unstoppable force known as Steve Shawley) died unexpectedly at 69 on Feb 26, my husband suffered a heart attack around March 29, then on July 8 our baby daughter was the victim of a mysterious accident outside of my care that left her with 5 broken bones at 10 months old. Wooooo boy. Each of these events has its own long backstory and greatly impacted our year and lives in general. The good news is that my husband has made a remarkable recovery after a stent placement and is feeling great, our daughter recovered swiftly and is fully walking now with the silliest sassy attitude, and life kept moving forward. We had to put one foot in front of the other even when the path wasn’t clear. We allowed ourselves time to deeply, intensely assess our lives and what we wanted and needed to do to survive and stay happy and healthy, both mentally and physically.
This was surely a time when I questioned a lot of things about what was working and not working with/for my art & teaching and I became quite a bit reclusive for the Summer, working towards a big art exhibit I had in the November. Along the way I started to make some tweaks and changes to my art and business processes to ensure that I still felt good on that path. SO much more to share on this in future blogs but to close out this round of updates - one of the things that’s really kept my art going is how much support I’ve been getting from longtime art friends, new folks I’m meeting at shows or online, and of course family… whether it’s positive feedback on social media or Etsy, shared posts, print or painting purchases, it all has gone such a long way to keep me confident that I’m in the right spot in my professional life and in the right spot for our sweet little family and community.
I can’t wait to share more of what I’ve been working on and look forward to seeing you in person or in an online space this year!! For more consistent and brief updates, I encourage you to follow me on Instagram or Facebook, links below:
