4January 2011
I have not worked on this blog for a long time.
In 2009 I was hit by a car. It was very serious, I suffered a traumatic brain injury that has changed my life completely. When I say it has changed my life, I truly mean every aspect of my life.
My professional career as an artist suffered as a result of the accident. Normally, over the last 12 years, I have always had a rotating collection of oil paintings. I would always have at least five new works, three or more that I was working on, and three or more that were leaving the studio door in sales. I was able to keep that up because I was able to paint all of the time, every spare moment that I had I painted. As a result of my recovery time, my remaining works were sold without me being able to create replacements.
I intend to rebuild my collection, and then open sales up again. I will be taking commissions and continuing with my commercial works during this rebuild of my studio collection. I will need some time, as I work slower than before.
Before the accident…
I worked full time and very often worked overtime. I was never working less than 40 hours a week. I went to college part time and maintained a 4.0 grade average. I also was working on my oil paintings daily and maintaining a professional career in the arts as a professional artist.
My average daily schedule was…
Wake up about 5:30 or 6am, get ready for my day and then start working on my oil paintings. I worked on my paintings until 7am when I had to leave for work. I worked a full 8 hour day. On school days I went to class then came home and did my study work until about 12 or 1am. On days I didn’t have class, I went right out to the studio and painted until about 12 or 1am. Then I was right back up at 5:30 again. On my two days off (if I had not signed up for overtime which I did on a regular basis), I worked in the studio all day from 7 or 8 am until about 2am. I didn’t go out more than once or twice a month, and when I did, I had a pretty good time. I also rode my bike everywhere and I was in fantastic shape.
I had lived this very busy life for 12 years straight. It was who I was and I loved it.
My life after the accident…
First off, I was out of work for a year and four months. The entire time I was completely unable to paint. I first started back to work 4 days a week, but had to reduce my work hours to three days according to my doctor. I can’t paint for very long because I live with a bad headache every day. When I say a bad headache every day, I mean it. I have been on 15 different kinds of drugs to help with my headaches. Nothing works. I’m tired all the time. Not just tired, exhausted.
I can’t ride my bike for several reasons, the Number One reason being that if I exert myself, I’ll get a migraine headache that lasts an entire day.
So needless to say, it will take me longer to create a new set of oil paintings, as I cannot work fast and my responsibilities commercially are pretty heavy. Eventually things will return to normal for me. I will keep posting as I complete work.
-Adam