I’ve been thinking about detoxification a lot this week.

detoxification (noun)
Biochemistry. the metabolic process by which toxins are changed into less toxic or more readily excretable substances.
The act of detoxifying.

I felt uneasy about using detox as the title of this blog, so I put it into an online thesaurus. But the alternatives seemed too fancy: cleansing, decontamination, reclamation. So, I looked at the antonyms of detox: contamination, impurity, decay… The list goes on, but I’m definitely in search of the opposite of that list.

Detox has been on my mind for a variety of reasons. Before putting out last week’s post, I had told several close friends about my decision. Advice flowed, as it does, and one item that kept coming up from my friends was letting myself “detox” from working life. A good friend described a period when she had packed up and left her job and city and spent time just driving around, figuring where she wanted to land. Another friend described a period when she had been on family leave and how it took her body six weeks to relax.

As I served out this last week, I spent some time pondering what life would look like the next week. When would I get up? When did I want to implement the food lifestyle change completely? How could I get more exercise? Stretching? Where could I find more fun? Were there projects that I had lying around. Did I want to continue with them?

I have no answers to any of the above questions. I can only report that I turned off my alarm clock. I’ll have to set an alarm for next Tuesday, my last working day, but I’m going to start this process by seeing if I actually have a preference for morning or night. I’m not a morning person. I’ve always said I was a middle-of-the-day person. But it seems like a good place to start this adventure.

In spite of grandiose plans to relax and detox, I’m still me. I’ve decided to apply (again) for the Alaska Artist in Residence Program. I have applied to be a member of the Pacific Artists’ Co-Op Gallery and have an interview on the 28th. I have signed up to take a two-day workshop (and probably two week road trip) with Kimberly Santini at the ISEA fall symposium.

Of course, I already had the 2024 Art on the Edge Studio Tour on my calendar, I’ve also submitted paintings to NWWS and WSO, so I’m waiting to hear back on those. The ISEA Winter members show, Making Our Marks, is up right now. I have a piece in it, and I always enjoy looking through the pieces and reading about the amazing art experiments. And I’m trying to beat the deadline (February 27) for the AAEA Exploring a Limited Palette show.

It’s early days (I mean, I haven’t even officially left yet), but I’m already starting to feel some additional peace. For instance… I painted this weekend. Nothing I’d like to show here, but I did apply paint.