Greetings!

I am an artist who doesn’t make art. A creative who cannot seem to allow herself to be creative. A fine art grad who has only ever had a “real job”, constantly fighting the need to take a chance on herself. Dear god, let’s change that.

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This blog chronicles the greatest risk I’ve ever taken: believing in myself as a creative person. Dare I say it? Believing in myself as an artist. (Honestly, believing in myself – period)

My name is Lacey. I am a proud SCAD graduate with a BFA in painting, who has worked as a nanny, an art educator, a customer service representative and a litigation legal assistant. I chose to go to art school while simultaneously holding the evergreen “starving artist” myth as gospel. (I had help reinforcing this belief by, um, I don’t know, everyone around me)

That’s a weird place to be in: choosing art school AND never believing you can be an artist.

Thirteen-ish years later, cue serious burn out from dead end or unfulfilling desk jobs (aka “real” jobs). I’m now moving back to my hometown in northwest Georgia with my partner of 15 years. I’ve taken a role working on the development and preservation of the small historic Main Street in the area. In the foothills of the Appalachian mountains if you’d like to get poetic about it.

We ran from this place nearly 15 years ago. As if it was on fire. We’ve lived in Savannah, Georgia for college, then Austin, Texas for a decade, and most recently Nashville, Tennessee for a year and a half. We said we would never go back (and we said it often). I can almost hear Life laughing at me in this moment.

The sudden onset of my dad’s terminal illness, followed by his quick, cruel decline and death two years ago turned my world upside in a way I still have trouble putting into words. Or understand, if I’m honest. He didn’t even get to retire and, it came out of nowhere.

So, while we make a total fucking u-turn, I’m also going to take a total fucking leap.

I am going to try something I have never done. I am going to bring my ideas from my notebook to life – consistently. I’m going to have an idea, follow through with it, and share it here. The good and the bad; any success and all failure. Any medium I wish. My interests are broad so at the least it shouldn’t be boring.

To boil it down – I want to build an artistic practice and see where it takes me. And hopefully build a rich and interesting life in the process.

I have no choice – the need to make and create is deep in my bones. As if something has me by the hair, I’m finally choosing to get up and walk instead of being dragged. And this blog will hopefully be my little accountability partner along the way.

Let’s get weird with it and see where this goes!