An Artist’s Perspective by Esa Everroad
The early winter season is a favorite because of the holidays. This year’s season has been one of the happiest for me because I’m being purposeful in my enjoyment of this holy time. I’m slowing down and listening to my inner self more and finding real joy in spending time with my loved ones, plus the pure pleasure of reaping the rewards of a job well done this past year at Purple Pelican Gallery. I never forget how blessed I am that doing what I love is my calling as well as my vocation!
Business has been good this year but even more than that it’s been rewarding. Thanks to all my customers and clients who shop locally and make what I do possible. Patrons are the water source for an artist’s garden of imagination. Visual art isn’t art until it’s been seen and appreciated. Thanks to all the friends of the gallery for a great season!
Now is when I paint and write and catch up on restoration and framing for customers during the day and read and study new techniques and formulate creative ideas at night with my husband of 38 years, Terry. I’m studying this winter for a certificate from the New York School of Art and Design, working on decorating a new house for a client/friend, adding new designs/paintings to my Anna Banana line of clocks and tins and if I have any time left, five new original paintings for the gallery in addition to the regular work-day stuff. Wish me luck.
“Art oh beautiful art, how pleasant to fill my days with you without guilt or fear of reprisal!” -Esa
Thanksgiving and Christmas come so quickly together with so many festivities that when January comes I’m so ready for the quiet of the ‘deep freeze’ that I actually long for it. Seclusion is the stimulant I crave for creativity and this goes against my very essence. I tend to be gregarious and sanguine and being with people charges me up so that my cheeks flush with blood and my heart races. Words just tumble out and I laugh and talk and talk and laugh until I’m worked into a frenzy of pure unadulterated joy! Which is why the gallery is so good for me. You may have been privy to or blame for one of my fits of bliss. I hope so!
Solitude is something I fight with and for. It goes against my nature so much to be alone and quiet that I feel I need to tie a rope around my foot when I enter that sacred space so someone can pull me out if I end up lost! When I finally get there, I get so in a zone that I can paint or write for hours without realizing it. Hence my longing for the ‘deep freeze’. I can’t wait to see what comes out of my consecrated time this winter. Don’t be a stranger. Come see what I’m working on, be a part of the process; visit the gallery if you’re close enough or visit the website and blog if a trip to the gallery is too far.
© Esa Everroad // Purple Pelican Gallery, 2014. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Having been involved in creative endeavors for as long as she can remember, Esa Everroad has owned and operated the Purple Pelican Gallery, a retail art and craft gallery for the past decade where she is the artist in residence. Along with her husband, Terry she is living happily ever after above her art gallery in a self-designed loft apartment in a restored heritage-aged commercial building, nestled in the lake country of northwest Wisconsin.
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