So one of the sayings I use in my CREEPS is "the struggle is real." Whenever I make one of those, the truth of it al during this pandemic kind of punches me in the face. Not just because it relates to my life specifically but because of how it relates to pretty much all of us at this time. We may not be experiencing the same exact struggles right now, but we are ALL experiencing very real struggles of some sort. Another saying I use in my CREEPS is "Fear makes the wolf look bigger." I remind myself of that every day. My wife and I talk about it a lot and we both refuse to let fear dictate my days...our days. Do we need to be careful? Responsible? Cautious? Yes. Of course we do. And of course we are. My wife and my son both fall into the high-risk category for this virus. So we are taking the necessary precautions but we are still finding joy in our days. Joy in the new experiences and finding solutions to the challenges that social distancing creates daily. We have an almost 22 month old daughter who is THE most social and independent child I have ever encountered. Just like my wife, she LOVES people and human interaction. And just like my wife she has a very "I do what I want" spirit about her. There is no way to explain to her at this age what is happening and while we are partly grateful that she most likely won't remember this, at the same time, its hard when you can't explain in a way she will understand why she can't run up to the neighbors or why she can only see her grandparents through FaceTime or why she can't go to her Mom's Day Out play group and see her sweet little friends. It's tough and weird. But we have found new and inventive ways to keep this crazy and energetic little bird entertained and we just hope that it's enough. That this won't affect her social development in the long term. Throughout it all I am still going to the studio and working, creating...I don't know how not to do that. Even though all my shows through June so far have been cancelled or rescheduled, I still have to create things. It's an outlet, it's my drive, it's how I take care of my family. And even thought I don't have the outlets I usually have to sell and share my art, I can't just quit. So with the help of my wife, who is much better at technology than I am, I am doing my best to treat my website like it's an art show. Keeping it stocked, keep communicating, keep the conversation going, hopefully making people smile. I don't have as many of my large pieces online as I would have at a show because of shipping constraints. But hopefully, fingers crossed, this will pass and you can see them in person again soon. And on a related note, for the first time in years, I am currently able to take on commissions. I have never had the time I needed to be able to dedicate myself to commissions in the way I would want to do them. But I have that now. So if you are interested, hit me up and we can start that conversation. Also, the free shipping offer stands through at least the end of April, so should you decide you need some weird ass art for these weird ass times, use the code STIRCRAZY at checkout and shipping is on me.

I hope you all are doing well. I hope you're keeping busy. I hope you're enjoying the clear skies, time with your family, the quiet streets and finding the good moments in all this craziness. Stay safe, stay healthy, keep smiling, laugh a lot and find the clarity in this chaos. 

Much love from our family to yours, 

Chris Cumbie

PS - trying to dress a toddler who is going 90 to nothing has made this the motto at our house during these quarantine days...no judgment if it's one of yours too. ;-)