Traditionally, the third Sunday of Advent is centered around the virtue of JOY.  Growing up, the nuns would tell us that true joy hapens when we follow the order of the lettering....Jesus-first, Others-second and Yourself last.  There is some truth to that maxim, although this kind of thinking flys in the face of our increasingly "me-centered" society.  I haven't felt too joy-filled of late and have begun to suspect that something is out of order in my own life or in my life as an artist. Pursuing this line of thought, I've come to understand that, like the Jesus-Others-Yourself maxim, there is a similar "right-relationship" order for my art-life that needs to be kept in balance.  I call it JOY by another annacronym:  Job-Order-Yes. 

I think that at the very root of my art-funk is my thinking.  I admit that I basically think of myself as a hobbiest. Although I am a serious artist and have worked my way into being an "almost" full time artist and am known as an artist, I suspect that under the covers of my thinking, I still see myself as a hobbiest.  The difference between art as a hobby and art as a job is huge!  As a hobbiest, I allow myself studio time only when I have the liesure to do so.  As an artist, I would go daily to the studio and work full hour days.  As a hobbiest, art happens only when there is a deadline or a compellling idea. With a job as an artist, I would work consistently, regularly while inspired or uninspired.

Ordering my life in the light of art-as-a-job would be easier.  As a hobbiest, I now take the time to view new e-mails as they arrive or answer the telephone on the first ring.  If my art were my job, I would order all of those constant interruptions to the end of the day or at a lunch break.  So much of new technology has allowed me to be always available, leaving me unavailable for what I truly want to do--ART.

So, what is stopping me from changing my thinking and revloutionizing my life?  One word...one big word.  "YES"   So that is what I will work with this week, transforming my insights to a new me.  Re-ordering my work from hobby to job. Saying "yes" by saying "no" to interruptions and non-essentials.  Practicing the virtue of JOY and hopefully feeling a little of it myself.