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.