Wide awake and completely exhausted, I attempt to slow things down. A sudden career shift, taking up residence in suburbia and newly married, I am having serious yet surprising thoughts of producing small children, limiting my love of profanity and splurging for gigantic ceramic pots. Everyday stresses and anxieties are dimmed; daily moments of awe are wonderfully enhanced. However, distant dreams and concerns of yesterday repeat in my mind like old patterned wallpaper ready to be torn down. Patterns develop, repeat and repeat again. Thoughts take flight and land, arrive and leave and land again. I want to breathe in and out, build a nest of soft twigs and stay awhile. Motivated by daydreams and guided by passions that play a daily tug of war, I visually integrate reality with a spectacle of childhood fantasy, creating a transition between what was then and what is now. Trying to stand still, I physically hold each pose as I paint from direct observation, Aided by wigs and costumes, I alter my appearance while I labor to best portray a desired emotion and endure any necessary discomforts to fully express it. I struggle to slow things down and now, wide awake, I take the time to smell the paint as it dries. Freeman received her education from the University of Wyoming and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, BA and MFA respectively. She has held numerous jobs that had everything and nothing to do with the arts, traveled extensively, painted in Italy and France, and taught in Provence. Her artwork is in a number of private and public collections around the world and has been exhibited in the United States and France. Since 2002, she’s been a fulltime educator at both Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia and East Carolina University in North Carolina. Currently, she is taking a break from teaching and working uninterrupted as a studio artist.