Painting and other musings

Well, the past few days have been a bit hectic after the move, but probably not for the reasons everyone expects. Friday morning at 8:00 in the morning, movers arrived to move me out of an apartment for the last time and into a house. By 3:00 that afternoon, the entire house was unpacked and organized. Saturday morning I spent the day hanging a few of my paintings and pictures, Sunday I bought three large canvases to create a three-piece art work to hang in the living room. Since Sunday morning, I've spent my free time working on this piece.

During the many hours I've spent working on this piece (in my own separate dance/art room, I might add), I was reminded of a time many months ago that I spent a night painting, making pizza, and listening to music with a friend of mine. This friend used to draw and sketch a lot. He told me that he stopped drawing because his girlfriend didn't really care for it and never really encouraged it. So, after five and a half years with her, he stopped. Hence the reason why I felt it a necessity for us to have a night of art to rekindle his love of art.

I'm not saying that he should have let his girlfriend dictate whether or not he continued with a hobby, but it just baffles me that people are willing to abandon something they love just because their significant other doesn't really like it. Call me selfish, but if Austin didn't want me to paint or dance or continue with photography, I'd pretty much tell him to shove it. These are things I love and things that make me me. Why should I kill off a part of who I am just because someone that supposedly cares about me doesn't like it?

I guess I'm really lucky in the fact that Austin not only encourages me to continue with the things I love, but he's allowed me to claim an entire room in our new house for my own. He's let me take one of the extra rooms and use it as a place to practice dance and work on my art. Maybe I've just gotten used to such an encouraging partner that wants me to have things that are all my own outside of him and our relationship. And I want him to have the same things. Just because he likes basketball and baseball and golf doesn't mean I need to; those are all things he can enjoy (and moreso because I'm not there bitching about being bored).

Maybe what this all boils down to is the fact that I don't understand couples that feel the need to have everything in common and seem to eventually morph into one ultra-lame individual. I don't think I'll ever understand why people feel the need to do everything with their partner and why individuals don't want to have a life outside of each other. I wish people in that sort of relationship would also realize that they don't have to give up things they love and start things they don't really want to do just because of their partner.

And I also just wanted to brag about the fact that I own a house that has a dance/art room all for me!!