"Why would you waste vacation time on making art?"

I told a friend of mine tonight that I was going to spend a week of vacation at the cottage making art. He looked at me and said "Why would you waste vacation time on that?" I was shocked by the blow. Instantly deflated. Vacation time IS precious and I don't believe in spending a single day on "relaxing" or hangovers or other such things that my friends allocate vacation days to. I dream about travelling all year long. I yearn to seek out and discover new places. I don't own my own condo or have a nice car. I have invested all my free time and money into travelling. I have chosen to live life to the fullest and I don't regret it. If I could, I would spend a good many weeks per year exploring the earth. But today, TODAY, I have only three weeks per year. I have chosen to spend one of these weeks at the cottage with my mom creating art. We will head up with armfulls of canvases and paints, sketch books and pencils. We will listen to RECORDS circa the 1970's on the record player. We will swim and boat when it is hot. We will paint on the rooftop dock overlooking the lake, drink wine and watch art and horror movies in the evening. We will create.

Is this a "waste" of vacation time? It is not *my* average vacation. Part of me feels the pain of reducing the length of a potential trip to Argentina to accomodate my "art retreat". But I could NOT skip out on this trip. Taking a week to create art seems like less of a choice than a necessity. I NEED this week. I NEED to relocate the love I once had for painting. I NEED to make art for art sake.

Resurrection!

It's coming. It's time. The blog is currently being redesigned and resurrected. The Erin Askew blog will be host to many new brain farts very soon.