Sunday, January 10, 2010

Days Like This

Some days when I'm in the studio I make all the "right" decisions. Things just seem to go smoothly and I'm in the flow of it all, moving toward a conclusion or completion. Other days - such as today - I'm just in my own way and feeling too scattered to get anything done or even make a good start.


On the highway to studio hell (not really)

I began five or six different pieces today and was dissatisfied with all of them. I started building something and put two pieces of wood in the wrong place three different times! All I could do was laugh at myself and be happy that I had noticed before the glue dried and it was too late to move them.






One side wasn't talking to the other - or maybe they were both talking at once.


Days like today used to worry me because I thought I had lost "it" - that magical essence that allowed me to make art. But after many years I know that I was just overtired and unfocused. I started a new job (project) this week that drained my energy and took away too much studio time. And there was my poor brain today - stuck between hemispheres: the left brain being the bookkeeping I've been doing all week and the right brain being me foundering in the studio.


So I just kept going, moving from one thing to another, trying to make a good move. I was working on one of the special projects New England Wax has taken on: using encaustic with paper. I didn't like the size and the paper didn't allow me to work the way I usually do, so I had to invent something new and it just wasn't happening. Finally, when I was just ready to go home, I think I came up with something that had some potential. We'll see.


Some Good News: I was invited to participate in the 5th Annual Encaustic Invitational at the Conrad Wilde Gallery in Tucson, AZ in March. Wouldn't I like to take a trip out there for the opening! March is a great time to leave New England - for any reason, and I'd like the opportunity of visiting Tucson. I hear it's a great place.


5 comments:

Kim Hambric said...

Getting in your own way -- I've never heard it put that way before, but what an accurate explanation for what I seem to do every third day.

The left/right side of the brain thing was quite amusing. However, I'm thinking the left side of my brain is just not up to par with the right side. Never.

Hope you get your wish to go west in March!

Joanne Mattera said...

You made me laugh out loud with your identification of the brain hemispheres.

Nancy Natale said...

Thanks, Kim and Joanne. Glad you got a chuckle from the hemisphere identification.

Binnie said...

Hi Nancy:

Congratulations on Conrad Wilde!! Hope you go!

b2

Anonymous said...

Love the brain thing! Glad you finally got out of your own way!