Category: life

life and living vs suicide and giving up: do not make any important / critical decisions when you are depressed

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May 2025 Customer Newsletter – Renewal

pink peonies with green foliage, one large peony in middle in sharp focus
Newsletter 1 May 2025

Watercolor Wildflowers Resin Artist

This month’s winner of a Planetary Nightlight is Tim Conway of Omaha. Subscribe for free to this newsletter: SUBSCRIBE

Renewal

Welcome Spring! So glad you’re finally here. We had a survivable winter in Omaha but I love the warmer weather and increased light. I grew up in Tucson, AZ so light and warm are important. I’ve started a new part-time job at CNC Surveying, just a block away from my Resin Art Studio on Leavenworth St. If you come by the studio please call me, ’cause I’m just 5 minutes away at work or at home. Going back to work is actually great. It means I can pay rent for the studio and slow burn through my fantastic ideas for resin art projects and paintings.

transparent resin painting in blue, green, black, and yellow with light blue mica powder.
Bioluminescence 23″ x 28″ resin
This is my abstract impression of a dark night glowing with bioluminescence washing ashore onto a moonlit beach. The horizon line from the ocean melts into the distant dark sky of stars.

My younger years were the opposite of a slow burn. I liked that though. I have always been willing to work hard. But the stress of a career and family occupied my thoughts more at 60 than ever before. It had a lot to do with my expectations.

resin art painting of orange lillies in a green garden
Orange Lillies 22″ x 28″ resin This abstract garden piece is a warm mid-summer day. Orange lillies pop out from the garden of green foliage and yellow light.

Worse than it really is?

The problem with age is comparing where you are, your family, your life, against the expectations you built while working to fulfill the dreams of youth. Combine that with inevitable changes in health and you have a greater potential for stress, more health problems, more worries and more reasons to be upset. Add some regrets onto the mix and

THIS is why people need time to relax and repair. Plan, and then take some deserved scheduled time off to rest and re-align. Spend time without the stress that brought you into those difficult thoughts. If you don’t recognize yourself anymore, you need to make a significant life change. I was lucky to be in a position to semi-retire. And for God’s sake, listen to the people who love you. I’m happier with simple. What I do now at a slower pace leads to greater creativity. COVID taught the world that people, and time, and the pursuit of happiness are SO much more valuable than things, and hurry and hate. Please be kind to others.

I’m glad my perspective changed. I had to see my achievements of a long marriage and a happy family as greater than anything else accomplished in my career. I realized that ambition doesn’t guarantee success.

That is not to say I wouldn’t love to sell some of the art I’m making. But, the pressure is off and that feels great!

Poppies and Thistles in watercolor
Poppies & Thistles in watercolor, 27″ x 16″

CALL OR VISIT MY STUDIO 5069 Leavenworth Street Omaha, NE 68106 (402) 943-7516

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Melting Ice and Eroding Desert: Art Reflecting Environmental Change

Top down less reflective view of resin art sculptures
Top down less reflective view of resin art sculptures
Top down less reflective view of resin art sculptures

My watercolor art took a sharp turn into plaster this summer. The warm dry weather allowed me to work outside. This made the plaster and resin easier to clean. I created a design which was inspired by the braided curving river flows in Iceland. The runoff from higher elevations would lose energy in the flat coastal lands. It would then bend and weave through black volcanic earth. This created intricate patterns looking like veins. See Andy Mumford website for incredible landscape photography of Iceland. I re-used the design for the desert, which was cast in plaster as well from the original mold. The waterfall is made of resin and the plaster cast of the landform is supported by Styrofoam skinned with plaster. The resin base helps to protect the plaster, which has a tendency to crack until it is supported. These two pieces will stand the test of time.

The earth, however, may not stand the test of time. With our industrialization of the world, humans have caused global warming from greenhouse gases and carbon emissions. Many countries and people are working to reduce their carbon footprint, but many are not; see https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-greenhouse-gas-emissions. We are all in this together. We need to take climate change seriously. This is necessary to save the glaciers, rainforests, and Earth One. We do it for the sake of our children. Here are ten simple choices you can make: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/ocean/earthday.html

plaster sculpture of melting glacier sheet looking down at flowing water.
“Artic” topographic art depicting ice sheets melting
"Desert" topographic art showing desert soil eroding from floods, a sculpture made with plaster and resin. Watercolor was used to create shadows.
“Desert” topographic art showing desert soil eroding from floods, a sculpture made with plaster and resin. Watercolor was used to create shadows.
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Overcoming Depression: A Personal Journey to Finding Hope and Help

Misty Mountains California. Clouds over mountains with Eagle flying above dry grass and treed area.

Most of us have experienced being lost, if only slightly lost or lost for a short time. The feeling can grow from general anxiety to full blown panic. The concerns of being lost are for ourselves but also for the people who we know are worried about us. When I left my job and family in Omaha I was already lost. We can be so lost that we don’t recognize our surroundings, ourselves, our friends. My wife knew I was down, deeply depressed, and that something was likely to happen. I did not want to hurt her or the rest of my family. It would have hurt them greatly to commit suicide. It is this point, this feeling of being lost, this state of confusion, when a resources list is needed.

I have a safety plan app on my smart phone. It contains “go to” instructions to follow when I’m down. My first go to is walking. Brisk walking helps me focus on the here and now. It gets me out of my head. The next go to is a list of phone numbers of AA buddies. These guys, I know, will help me in a moment’s notice. Then there’s other phone numbers, resources, organizations, and destinations. The most important thing to keep in mind when you are lost is that being lost is temporary. Just like depression, it won’t last forever. But you need to seek a place of safety.

Yosemite at Dawn
Yosemite at Dawn