Thursday, January 28, 2010

Inspiration vs. Exasperation


We all have 'those' days; those days when focusing is the Impossible Dream. The phone keeps ringing, everyone wants to talk. The grocery store beckons, a doctor's appointment, a friend drops by, the dog must be walked, the kids are coming home, the husband can't find the Scotch tape or glue- (naturally because it wound up in my studio for a collage!).

I had a plan, or so I thought...what happened?... Life happened. If it continues to happen for a week or two, I know, as a creative, I can start getting a bit annoyed; not so much at the people or events, but at myself. Sometimes making the all important time for our work, joy, play and organizing can get placed on the back burner. I start with work because the work is the joy. Sometimes, a few our loving friends or relatives don't take our work as seriously as we do. I tend to think that they feel we are just 'piddling around'. It's not their fault... (That will be another blog in the future)... They may feel, within, that they must separate us from what drives us because, many times, they need a bit of something filling their creative souls. We become 'it'. Maybe they enjoy living vicariously through what we do, because they take pride in us, or that we tend to accomplish something we love doing. They have pride in us.

Human contact is important for growth, but the creative venture is a tough gig! So much thinking, planning, starts and stops going on. Between finding inspiration, the joy of pulling out a fresh, white, new canvas, placing the first paint swatch across it, or gluing down the found paper... why, it's like a love affair...conjuring up the idea of it, massaging it in our mind's eye, touching it to the substrate... and who among us likes being interrupted while infatuation is taking place? Thoughts?

Monday, January 25, 2010

Breakin' Free!

Well! Here I am blogging! Who would have ever thought? I tried desperately to move myself in the direction of my studio day after day these last two weeks, to work on a commission, but the darn computer and a great friend kept hearkening me to get it started. So here it be.

As an artist living in the great rural Southwest with my guitar playing husband, the desert can be as desolate as an island in many respects. But the beauty and solitude can also be the quiet we both need in order to create.
Sometimes, as artists, we'll get side-tracked, unfocused with too many things to want to delve our fingers into, or just plain want to "Break Free" and play! Learning something new, no matter how frustrating at times, is a good thing. It keeps the mind active and supple- unlike my backside at this point!