Yes! Art Office’s Holiday Mini Session is happening now! And dang, does it feel like this one’s going to be productive. We had our first meeting last night (Monday, November 9th), and I have to say I was so relieved when many– if not most– members confessed to having done nothing over the break. Turns out, Art Office works! Hooray!

This session is mostly comprised of return members from the Gamma Test Group, but we did welcome one new member to the team last night, and his name is Tom Buckholz! You can check out his bio page under “Current Staff.” To be perfectly honest, I don’t know a whole lot about Tom’s creative practice, even though we worked together at Blick (an art supply store) for a while. Oops! Anyway, we’re all looking forward to getting to know Tom and learning more about what he does.

At our meeting, we shared what our session-long goals are, and also what our upcoming week’s goals are. Several of us, myself included, have the ultimate goal of getting all of our Christmas presents finished on time. Hope mentioned that she rarely gets started this early on presents, and neither do I– which is why my gifts are either hastily-thrown together, or very late. I’m really looking forward to getting my ass in gear to make quality presents this year.

The downer news is that, unfortunately, I’ve just been diagnosed with breast cancer, dang it! I thought about canceling this session of Art Office, but only for a micro-second. If I know myself at all, I know that art is my best mental health medicine. I need Art Office to push me into creativity, or I know I’ll get bogged down by my physical health. Of course, there will be occasions where I can’t be the acting boss (surgery and recovery and whatnot), so I’ve decided to knight a couple members, to help me during those times.

That’s all I’ve got for today! If you want to read more about my cancer experience, feel free to follow my personal blog: @carlabaudrons Thanks for checkin’ in! Back soon!