I was excited to return back to work on my piano for the Pianos About Town project. Last weekend, I had blocked out all of the colors for the sky, grass and tree, painted all of the red and yellow stripes, and I had sketched out all of the animals (first in chalk and then in pencil). It took longer than I had anticipated, so I was looking forward to making some real progress this week. There were a couple of things that I did differently this week:

I showed up early

I almost finished this side. I ran out of steam and decided to “call it a day” and return to it later with fresh eyes.

The first week, I was stopping by the Oak Street Plaza around 11:30am everyday to work on the piano. They were long days and I felt pretty drained upon finishing, so I decided to head in earlier in the morning. I made it a habit to arrive between 8-9am mostly to beat the heat, but also to enjoy some quiet work time before Old Town wakes up.

I’m happy to say, that I made a lot of progress and finished all of the goals I set for myself this weekend: finish painting the piano front, top, and sides (well, I almost finished painting BOTH sides).

You can get a lot of work out of the way when you don’t have to work around piano players. People love playing the pianos, and I love listening to them play. There are a lot of talented musicians in our community, young and old. I wanted to get the front and top of the piano finished so that way they could enjoy playing the piano without me getting in the way of their music making.

I thought of my work as “ministry”

I was talking to my friend, Emily, who is a wonderful role model to me. She had stopped by with her daughter to visit me paint last week, and later on we got a chance to reconnect with our daughters at the park. I was telling her the progress on my piano and how some days were slow because people would stop and talk to me, sometimes disrupting my work flow. I was talking about how hard it was to listen and work at the same time. She was saying that I could think of my work as its own form of ministry.

There are a lot of people in Fort Collins, and when you’re painting on a regular basis, you meet the “regulars” who stop by the plaza a lot. You also meet people who need someone to talk to and tell their story to. This week, I talked to a homeless man while I worked for probably close to 2 hrs. He was a kind gentleman, and I felt glad that I could be a listening ear for him. He kept asking, “Am I bothering you?” to which I would reply, “No. You can talk and I’ll listen, but I have to be working on my art at the same time.”

I also talked to a little girl for about 2 hrs on Sunday. We talked about her love of books, why we thought the berries on the nearby tree were ripe or not, watercolors, bicycling, sewing, and how it takes a long time to paint a piano. She probably spent a good 40 minutes peeling off the dried paint from my palette and she loved it. I hope I can raise my daughter as inquisitive and thoughtful as her.

I thought about how lucky I am to be an artist

In the plaza, there are a lot of kids and they’ll ask me, “Are you an artist?” and I’ll say, “Yes, I am. It’s the best job in the world. I basically get paid to color.” I say it with a little bit of jest, but I’m thankful that I actually do get to be privileged enough to be bestowed that job title. I had always known I wanted to be an artist growing up, and now that I’m a “grown up” I’ve realized that you’re not always given your dream job, so I definitely feel blessed that I’m offered opportunities to teach, create and sell artwork as a career. I try not to take it for granted and I have to work hard to find opportunities to continue to make art my career.

My co-worker and friend, Jenna, once said that “art isn’t just a career, it’s a lifestyle” and it’s so soooo true. In church, we’re always talking about time and talent – basically, we are all blessed with different gifts and we need to find ways to share them with others. I am thankful to God that He blessed me with a love and talent for art and that He has helped me find opportunities, like the Pianos About Town project, to share that gift with the community. I’m thankful to my husband, who is also an artist, who supports my art making.

I’m looking forward to finishing this piano next weekend so that the community has an inspiring piano to make beautiful music on.