Cocoon
After a break from writing blogs, posting pictures on flickr, and updating my website, I am coming back to life- internet public life, that is. I have spent the last six weeks or so in a little cocoon, finding a better focus for making art. This also involves deciding what to keep and what to let go in other areas of life in order to allow the art-making part to thrive. (The husband and cats stay, some volunteer work goes.)
Bob
Lucy
Velvet
I'm cat-napping with Prancer
Perhaps there are creative types who can go at break-neck speed from day-job to volunteer job to caring for family to social life, and still have emotional room and physical energy for making art. That is what I’ve been trying to do for years, and it isn’t working! Even if I technically have time to do all this, I find that I need less going on in my life in order to focus my emotions on doing a few things well, rather than doing many things.
One conclusion I reached while in my cocoon is that I really need to make a studio in which to teach classes. I love to teach because I love seeing students of any age invent new ideas of their own. In the interest of having some samples to use in teaching classes, I am spending time making them, in addition to making the art pieces which carry my heart in them.
Here are three stepping-stones which exhibit various materials and techniques:
Daisies
Cake Top
After a Rain
Hi Lynn,
I’m glad to read that I’m not the only one trying to do too much. I’m so drained that the creative juices haven’t been flowing too smoothly. I wish you the best and hope to read again how your new schedule works.
Valerie, I think that this is a disease of our culture! It is easier for me to let go of things, since my children are all grown and gone. To do fewer outside activities with children in the house is to completely disregard society around us, which is very challenging.