March 28, 2011

24 Years and Loving it

This weekend I had a wonderful excuse for not creating art.  This weekend my guy and I celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary. We drove to Santa Fe for the weekend and stayed at the La Paloma Bed and Breakfast, visited a lot of wonderful art galleries and ate some great food, and just had a wonderful time in general.  Having two whole days alone with my husband and best friend was simply awesome. We have already planned on visiting again on our 2nd 24th anniversary. (our 48th) LOL. 

365 Creativity - Day 8

Well I’m so far behind on my 365 creativity art journal it’s not even funny.  I haven’t had any creative play dates in quite a while.  Too many other things going on to be make art.  Oh hell, that’s a lie, with the exception of the busy weekends, I just haven’t felt like working on art.  I’m feeling stifled and I can’t concentrate on it.

I’m feeling like the person in the anecdotal story told by Julia Cameron about the artist she knew that couldn’t create because he didn’t have a large art studio and the space he did have was too small for him to paint in. And a year later when he finally got the studio space he wanted, he started painting tiny works of art. And yes his original space had been large enough to create the tiny works -- had he found the motivation to actually work.  

I’m very much like that. Half of my art supplies and my office equipment are sharing a room with my precious grandson but if I don’t get the supplies I need from that room before 7 pm, well, I’m out of luck. When I feel that I may get stuck without the supplies I need, I think ‘why start if I may not be able to use what I need?’ It’s a damn excuse and a lousy one at that. I’ve moved enough of my supplies to the dining room to make due and yet still I can’t work.  Why? Another excuse -- The dining room is not “my room”, know what I mean? 

Damn it, I miss my California studio. It was tiny (8 x 10) but it was mine. It was messy but the mess was mine and I didn’t have to clean it up immediately if I didn’t want too. All my art stuff was where I could see it. Now some is still packed away in boxes in the garage, some is in the Nursery/Office/NoLongerStudio and the rest in the dining room hidden in the buffet or desk.  Everything all put away so it looks neat and tidy.. Choke, choke ARGH !!! 

And yet the following pages say everything I need to know in a few words….If only I would really listen to the message. I need to start seeing my flowers again.

365-Day8 - 1

365-Day8 - 2

These flowers are a rubber stamps on math book pages, colored with watercolor pencils. The colored circles on the left and right side of the pages is also a rubber stamp on math book pages and colored with gel pens. The challenge was to transform an old book into something new. Obviously I didn’t use a whole book just enough to get the spirit of the challenge. Some of the flowers were stickers from the $1 bin at JoAnn’s. 

What excuses are you using for not being creative? I want to hear yours.

2 comments:

  1. Don't be too hard on yourself. It is a big help to have your own space.

    I don't even bother with excuses anymore, I just go straight into the procrastination, haha.
    In my studio work I go in every morning at 8:30am. There is nothing else to do in there but create so I don't have trouble with procrastination.

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  2. This is a great post, enjoy what you do, (that weekend sounds marvellous)... I often use 'housework' 'chaos' 'where's my ???' but when I realise they are all really not relevant I sit my butt down at my desk on my broken chair in the chaos & mess and pick up any drawing implement & a blank surface & stop making excuses & just see what happens ;)

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