Abby Junge is a multidisciplinary artist currently living in Holland. This is her second installment in a four-part series as Artist Strong’s Artist in Residence.
You can view more of her art on Instagram @abbyjunge or visit her website at www.abbyjunge.com.
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Do you know that feeling when someone is BS-ing you and you start to get itchy and want to leave that situation but for some reason you are stuck listening to this schpiel, but cannot move on?
Well, that’s what I felt these first few days of creating. I knew exactly what I needed to do. I needed to start carving the next piece of a series that I started working on before my forced sabbatical. But these (amongst other) thoughts came along:
I should practice carving before i do carving.
I think its too serious a subject, maybe start with something “lighter”.
I want to make a different series.
first I’ll make a fun print.
I should draw and sketch to loosen up my hand.
Ill do that next week.
Ugh, my studio is all messy, I should clean u before I continue.
not to mention laundry, dishes, and other things around the house.
so here is a collage of things I made, just not to start:
You get the idea. I sat for 3 days pretending to do something, anything just to postpone the actual work. I actually did research for a whole other idea (you see, research is very time consuming) and I might do that another time. But now, my demon sat behind this print of my grandfathers wake. And I couldn’t get myself to face it. This was the plan from 3 years ago, when this ongoing series, about how we cope with loss was born.
In this print, you can see my grandparents living room , with all the people , and the phone on the table. When my grandfather passed away I was pregnant with twins and not allowed to fly. So I spent 7 days (as is done in Jewish tradition) on the phone on speakerphone on the table while people came to the house to give their condolences. Sometime people would talk to me but others I’d just listen, and that was as close as I could be; I grieved alone. kind of… Anyway. thats what this print is about.
The funny thing is, after 3 days of pretending to do stuff, I finally caught myself in the lie, gave myself a metaphorical slap, and told my self to cut the BS; and once I started carving it felt so good, and normal and natural and not trying like I was trying hard at all.
So the lesson is: cut the BS and just start.
This is the piece. At least we know now what we will be doing for the next few days. 
Every month, 1-3 artists show up in our Artist Strong community to share their artistic process, journey, explorations with us over the course of a month.
The goal is to normalize the MANY, VARIED experiences of being an artist.
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