After a very difficult 5 year hiatus, I have started selling my work at The Granville Island Public Market in Vancouver again. I am so grateful for this experience; it has been filled with so many lessons and reminders, validation and inspiration. It has been absolutely, overwhelmingly positive.
I've been making my jewelry for almost 20 years now. And for many of those years, I had the great fortune of having a booth at the Granville island public market here in Vancouver, which, if you haven't been here before, is unequivocally the heart of the city. I have always felt it was my creative home.
Every alley-way and corner are filled with art studios, glassblowing studios, handmade broom studios, art supply stores, galleries, fiber artist studios, even artisanal Saki makers! I mean, anything you can think of in the creative realm, has a home at Granville island.
And it's hard to get a spot there as you can imagine, the competition is kind of fierce. Every couple of years, there's an adjudication process for people to apply, to have a booth in the public market and for almost 10 years, I was very lucky to have a spot there.
And then one day I didn't get in. And then two years later I didn't get in again. And then COVID hit.
In that time, I realized that I needed to leave my marriage even though I had two very small kids, I was diagnosed with a tumor that needed to come out really urgently and I really sort of lost myself in a lot of ways. I didn't have an outlet for my creativity. I'd sort of forgotten who I wasn't as an artist, and I began to forget how much my work has meant to people over the years.
Sure, good things happened in that time (it was in that time that I had the lightning bolt moment realization that I needed to start The Creative Genius Podcast)
But truly, overall it was devastating. It was a long five years.
In February there was finally another adjudication and I was given a spot back at what I feel like is my home at Granville island public market. I was overjoyed in a way that words can't describe.
So far, I've had two, four day stints back in the market. I've had regular customers, who've been collecting my work for 10, 15 years come back and see me and show me my jewelry on them and tell me stories of how much it means to them.
I've met brand new customers who I've laughed and hugged and even cried with - it has just been one of the most amazing experiences; my cup feels truly full. I am so grateful. I truly feel like I am coming back to life.
Looking back, I can see how I needed to not be in the market to embark on the Creative Genius Podcast work, which also feels like my life's work in a different way.
But not being in the market and not having an outlet for my artwork had an even bigger impact on my mental and emotional health than I realized. And I am so grateful to be back. I've cried with gratitude more than once.
Sometimes life takes us on a little bit of a journey where we lose sight of ourselves for a while. And in that time, we can forget what an impact we've already had on people.
We can forget all the work that we've already done, all the conversations we've had, all of the ways that we've touched people over the years in our lives - moments we can't even remember still thrumming warmly in other people's hearts out there, alive with meaning.
I needed to come back to the market to be reminded that people are bringing us and our love and work to life in ways out there in the world that we may never even get to know about.
I am lucky enough to be being reminded of this at the market and I wanted to bring that to you and remind you of the enormous impact your work has already had and to keep going. To keep creating.
Thank you to ALL my collectors and supporters old and new, and to the amazing humans who run Granville Island and to creativity itself, who has not given up on me even once in this life - it is a tremendous gift for me that I get to create all this beauty and share it with the world.
with so much love and gratitude,
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