One week later . . .

It is one week since I last posted and I still find that my studio is a work in progress.  Whilst I have puttered in that room each day, opening boxes and shifting the contents around to fit in with all the other items that I have unpacked, I find that my progress is slow.  I am trying to find a way to speed up this activity and am at a loss for a method to make me gain on the vast quantity of boxes that have yet to be opened.  I find that I tend to look at each item as it is unpacked and reminisce over how it came to be part of my family of art supplies or how I have used said item in other pieces of art.  Every piece seems to have a story and it is these stories that seem to be slowing me down.  Even newer pieces that I have not used slow me down by my needing to think about how I want to use them.  But, in order to use them, I need to move more quickly and think a little less it seems.  I suspect my inner muse is guilty, or so I would like to believe, and is the part of me that brings about the daydreams of working artistically, adding new dimensions to my craft.  What I need is to straighten my shoulders, stiffen my backbone and get down to the actual work and with great determination, tidy the shelves, stack the neatly labelled boxes and sort the unending amount of various elements that are all a part of my life.

It is with a sheepish laugh that I tell you all this.  I used to be able to tidy up, inventory my supplies and get my smaller flat ready for another day of artistic endeavours.  It appears that having an entire room to dedicate solely to matters related to art is not helping me in producing more or anything for that matter.  I would have to say that my mind requires as much of a decluttering as the physical part of the studio.  How does one declutter the mind?  That requires a strong will and a definitive idea of what must be filed away for future reference and what should be tossed away in a bin.  I will progress to that point, but it seems that first, I need to dust off my resolve to "get it done" and move forward with arranging the studio quickly without wasting too much time thinking about whatever I am holding in my hands at that very moment.

There seems to be progress since there are quite a quantity of empty boxes on the floor taking up space.  So, I think my first logical step is to gather up all these empty boxes and put them away in the general storage room, giving way to more space to move about and sort my treasured supplies.  I think if I do this, then set about tidying and sorting from one end of the room and work my way around to the other, that I might make more progress quickly.  Setting up the lights that I do have in strategic areas so that the entire room has light beyond sunset will be my first task (after moving the empty boxes to storage) and allow me to assess the level of light that I have for the studio.  I suspect that I will need to supplement the lighting at some point as my savings allow.  The room is a good sized one and the few lights that I do have will not suffice.  I have two lights with clamps on them to attach to my easel/drawing table.  One floor lamp is currently sitting beside the bookcase and two other table lamps are sitting on tables that have a number of boxes with some of their contents spread around them and onto the floor.  There is not an overhead light fixture in this room so the flick of the switch just inside the door yielded nothing until I found out which one of the many outlets would turn on a lamp if I made the correct connection between the lamp and the corresponding outlet.  Note to self:  mark out this fixture with an adhesive dot over it so that I know which of the eight outlets is wired to the switch.  This information may come in handy should I unplug and move the lamp to another location to increase the level of light for a particular project.

The storage room within the studio is filling rapidly and I admit that I was overly optimistic at how much it would hold.  The double shelving unit is full of small shoe box sized bins, the shelf over top of this area is the holding area for untouched, pristine canvases.  The shelf across from this one is holding most of my Christmas treasures with the area below this destined to be the area where the bankers' boxes will be stacked.  I am hoping that I manage to place fifteen of such boxes in this area, but that may prove to be a figment of an overly optimistic mind.  I will get organized at some point, but sooner is preferable to later.  I desperately need to get back to painting.  My routine has been disrupted for far too long and I am feeling the lack of making art is weighing heavily on my soul.

Routine is something I need to define my day and I had hoped to be establishing myself into one long before this time.  There always seems to be something that needs to be done that is of more importance than art.  I am horrified at that thought, but must agree that returning the call to my solicitor does rank higher on the to do list for Monday even if it is only to go over the paper work that he mailed to me last week.  I am a visual person and I know that it would be far better for the solicitor to e-mail me with all the details so that I can read the information whilst looking at the documents.  I suspect that even he realizes that as he has said that he would review the information with me and that it would likely still be as clear as mud.  Oh well, perhaps after that conversation I can make my way to the studio room and do some serious clearing that will allow me to at least set up my painting area.  That will make it seem that there has been visible progress in my journey.  But, one knows that every path in the journey yields a surprise or two.  Consequently, a delay or two may be encountered.  I am going to pray for Divine intervention and hope that I am rewarded with unencumbered time that results in cleared floor space, cleared off table tops and a tidy storage room.  An artist can dream, right?  Sometimes dreams are what makes the impossible become reality and I am hoping that this is one of those times.

For now, I am going to forgo the Thursday postings in order to free up a little more time to get myself on track again.  I apologize for this as I look at posting as having a conversation with a grouping of my friends.  This is a ritual that I hold dear to my heart.  I make a cup of coffee or tea, depending on what time of day I am writing, sit down at the computer and tap away at the keys, spilling my thoughts out on the page for you to read.  When some of you respond with a comment either through the blog or through Twitter, I am delighted to hear from you.  Never doubt that I take this for granted for I do not.  Each and every comment is taken and thought about with serious contemplation.  I look forward to your comments and try to respond to everyone who takes the time to contact me.  So, know that I will get back on schedule as soon as possible and that means posting twice a week here on my blog and tweeting regularly on Twitter.  How did we ever keep in touch before social media made it so much easier? 

Have a great week!  For those of you celebrating, I hope that your Easter was a wonderful gathering of old and young, that traditions continued and new ones started.  But, most of all, there is the never ending question:  Did you eat the ears first or did you start nibbling on the tail of your chocolate bunny?  I hope all your days this week are filled with chocolate treats or a rainbow of jelly beans.  Just remember to check all your pockets before you do the wash next weekend!

Sincerely,

Rutheemac