OUT OF THE RUT

Well, enough ideas.  The time came for me to make art.  I have a close personal friend who is also an artist who has been struggling with "having ideas" and too many life events to do art. We decided to a project together, even though we live in different parts of the Northwest.  Her is a description of what I wrote the night we decided to work together. 

" Plain and simple, I was in a rut.  And I was not alone.  My friend Melinda had been in the same sour rut, but not quite as deep as myself.  We had discussed the problem many times in our weekly chats.  Really, I want to call them chats…they were marathons.  We were therapy to each other from art to family and back again with illness spattered in between.  Both of us had this angst about climbing over the edge of the rut but we kept getting slammed down again.  First I dealt with a bum hip and then cancer, we moved twice and then I had a three year stint with a chronic illness that got out of hand.  Then if that wasn't enough, I got a bug in my spinal cord of all places and spent six months healing up from a neck fusion.  Melinda lost family members and friends, had to play nursemaid to everybody else and then her body gave out from stress.  Not just a little bit, it slapped her on the ground.  Rut, rut, rut!  We wanted out!

My husband Bob and I had gone for my six month check with the spine surgeon and we managed a trip to see my daughter Aimee, her husband John and my sweet grandson Sam.  Everyone was either sick with a cold, was recovering from a cold or was getting a cold.  We decided to go home early.  On that long six hour drive from Eugene back home to Seattle I kept thinking about my life and how I wanted it to change.  Silently my mind went back to some posts I had noticed on Pinterest about different items an inch square in size.  I had even made an inch square book at one time. 

Melinda loved tiny things as much or more than I did, and in a flash I knew how to get out of the rut.  We would re-enter the world of art one inch at a time.  I called her as soon as we were home – literally!  The bags sat at the garage door as I was on the phone.  In a few minutes we had both said “yes” to the idea and had decided some important parameters to guide us on our journey.  We didn't want to commit to one inch a day, but four a week sounded do-able.  We wanted some sort of color harmony so we decided on a large scale from yellow through purple.  No red!  No orange!  It could be as flat as a hair or as high as a cube.  It could be from a magazine or from nature. We wanted to keep our time to just a half hour, though on special occasions or to celebrate special things, we could go a little longer. We wanted to do this by month because most months have 4 weeks in them and we would be doing this project 4 days a week and that would make a cube.  We both liked that concept.  The only problem was that it was January 21 and we were already 12 inches behind.  We decided to go for it because the challenge would get us going at a run. 

The first night I got out my sketch pad and sketch kit and sat down to watch TV with my husband.  I have known for years that the best way to watch TV is with something to do in my hands, but during all of the “rut” I sat blankly staring at a television set.  We are strict around our house, no cable and no network TV; just movies or Netflix.  Still, I had way too much television on my score pad and now was the time to make use of some of that down time. 

I began sketching…”ho hum, what to sketch, what to sketch” and then I saw Bob’s shoes.  That’s better than the typical thumb for the first thing to sketch, so I was away at it.  Unbelievably I was able to get both shoes and a sock into the picture, leaving room for a little floor and wall.  Shoes and all were living in an inch in my sketch book.  An inch! 

The next sketch came without even thinking.  We have living with us a brother/sister pair of orange tabby cats named Yahoo (f) and Google (m).  Yahoo had just sprinted up to my lap and was peering into my face with her nose about three inches from my face.  I drew her great big nose as my eyes saw them, without even thinking about the proportion.  It is just how it appeared.  Drat!  I had used ORANGE.  The second drawing and I had erred.  I have always had trouble sticking to the rules."

Over the past month I have finished all of January's drawings and sealed them in an envelope.  I don't want to depend on looking back, only looking ahead.  I have finished February's drawings early for three reasons: 1) I want to put my drawings into book form and I need to allow time to actually make the book, 2) February's drawing process took on a life of its own and I just kept going, 3) I want to allow space for the unexpected in life.  This feels right to me.  It seems like maybe I should be working (i.e. our expected pace), but February seems complete to me and I want to honor the muse of completed work.  

Now, to use that extra time to figure out why my phone won't sync with my computer so I can publish a photo of what I'm working on now.  Coming soon...  

BIG IDEAS

It has been some months since I have been well enough to think about art, but recently I wake up in the middle of the night with an idea in my mind. I want to make two books and the ideas for them have been 1) in the making for four years and 2) just popped into my mind last night. Lest somebody from the group I am making these books for should read this, I will not speak of what they are about. The important thing is that my art is coming back to life in my mind. Pretty soon my body will be back in action too.

PUPPY ART

Sometimes people make art every single day, sometimes they make art when the mood strikes, but I'm making puppy art. That means that I'm training my own assistance dog so that he can help me walk. My time is brim full of puppy art for about one more year.

SWIRLING MIND

Lately my mind has been swirling with ideas for my art. I have paste papers begging for more color to be applied to them and drawings waiting to be drawn. I have words to write for inspiration and colors to see to satisfy my craving for color 'ad infinitum'. If all I had to work with was color and a stick, I could paint. I guess that narrows down what I need and don't need. However, I do loving having lots of supplies to get just the right effects.

I have had a long love affair with wood. Recently I carved two Jatoba or Brazilian cherry crochet hooks - one for my mother and one for myself. This is a very hard wood - harder than oak and almost as hard as ebony. They have a protective coating of beeswax on them which gives them a lovely lustre and a feel of ultimate sensuousness when working with them. Handmade tools are always the best. I have carved a little elephant for Sam and he carries it around a lot. I've carved a curled up cat once and also a detailed face sculpture. I would enjoy carving more faces in the future. For now, my carving will be limited to a Noah's ark set for Sam. Hopefully I can finish it by next Christmas when he will know what it is.

SWIRLING MIND

ART STUDIO ORGANIZATION

Okay, so it was a blog something like this that helped me to design my studio. We live in a small house and don't entertain often, so we decided that the dining room was the perfect space for my studio. My studio is roughly 10 ft x 10 ft. Not much of a space for dining, but adequate for housing a studio/office. There are two doorways, so that takes away from some of the storage space. My previous studio was 13x20 so you can begin to imagine the steps it has taken to downsize to this small space. As well, my previous studio had built in cabinets and a walk in closet. We moved into this studio with no storage except for some plastic Iris brand storage carts and my paper cabinet.

The first thing on the agenda was to visualize what one would see when walking in our front door. I didn't want that to be the mess of making art, so we handily located three bookcases that occupy the view from the door. Then we found two armories to house my pens, brushes, and the things my cats would want to play with. Once we had that down I needed to figure out where to house my laptop for convenience and also how to approach my art table. Initially we used two folding tables, but it made the space clumsy and difficult to manage.

In our eating space in our great room we have a Danish table with leaves that store under both ends. I felt that if I were prudent in scouring Craigslist I just might find a used one for sale. After many months of relentless searching I found my table and for a small price. By the way, the armouries were under $60 a piece. Having this table allows me to change the table space in my studio a great deal. It also allows me to have visitors to this small space and share working on art.

The next goal was to find a table to suit my computer needs. One armoire houses my printer, but I didn't have a table to fit my space. After looking at the Dania website, I found just the ticket: a small table with two leaves that allow the table to become a larger workspace when necessary. I use a wireless Ott light by my station, we put a large fluorescent light in the ceiling and my lamp at my work table is balanced spectrum. My phone has caller ID so I can ignore it if I need to and know who to call back. Currently I have four Iris carts - three for miscellaneous inks, paints, and odd items, one for scrap paper, and one for collage materials. By the way, never throw away any usuable scraps. They can become tiny works of art, or be used to prepare for larger works. Good paper is worth keeping.

I have also made use of wall space for storage. My works in progress are stored in boxes from the local garden store (larger size) and I store things I use frequently on the shelves. My paper cutter stores on my paper cabinet, and above that cabinet is my bead collection and tools - all on shelves.

I'm still searching for a place for my over sized papers, as they don't fit under a queen sized bed. Once I figure that out, I will have successfully downsized my studio.

One last thing. I am still in the process of weeding out the things that I have already learned from books and selling those books off. I'm also looking at all of my paints to make sure they are all usable and in good condition. If I don't think I will use it in two or three years, it goes to the local school for their art program.

I hold sacred some of the inspirational items from my art journey and these things will always be displayed to inspire me. I also have a box of things that inspire me through tactile ability and color. It is good to save the things that might inspire you, but keep it to a minimum so you can browse through it in a short time. Inspiration strikes quickly.

If I were to give advice to someone trying to organize a studio it would be to first assess your needs. Don't buy anything until you are sure it will serve you in more than one way. If your studio will be in view of public coming into your home, find ways to hide the messy parts of it. I'm still thinking of an artsy curtain for a mask to my private space. Most of all, your studio must work for you. Clutter blocks creativity, so always clean up after each work project. Then you are ready for the next. Pictures of my studio will follow, but I've just finished Christmas and haven't yet had time to clean:)

ART ENERGY IS PERCOLATING

Last night for the first time in ages I did some art. No stalling and waiting and then going back and then waiting and then stalling. I just walked into my studio, picked this item up and went to work. That hasn't happened in a very long time. Hurray, the artist in me has awakened!