Sunday, November 20, 2011

So many ideas, so why am I not progressing?

It has been a couple of weeks since my last blog post and I really do not have a good reason as to why.  I love to blog, it feels very much like I am having a chat with you about what is happening in my studio.  Maybe the truth is that I seem to be at an impasse artistically and not able to decide which way I should be heading with what I am doing.  Or, maybe I am trying to go in too many directions at the same time and am not able to focus clearly on any one thing.  I suspect this last thought is the one that is most accurate.

So, when I find myself in this situation, I sit back and look around the studio hoping to find some divine direction and when that fails to materialize, I decide to gut the room and rearrange it.  And this is what I have been doing for the past two weeks.  First the storage area got a good tidy up, but that meant that a lot of boxes ended up sitting on the floor of the actual studio.  It was then that I knew that the whole set up in general needed tweaking.  Bins have been moved and still have not found their way to their permanent placement, boxes are still scattered about, but a new six foot table has been put in place necessitating my moving another table and two storage towers to new locations.  I am bruised, but the feeling that I am getting closer to having the room set up so that it better suits my varied interests keeps me motivated.

Hopefully, by the end of the day on Monday, I will be organized and ready to tackle some of the many ideas floating around in my mind.  I know that I need to focus on one project at a time, but that never seems to work out for me.  I tend to move from one area to another and work on different artistic endeavours on a whim rather than out of an organizational method.  I try to justify this telling myself that while one piece is drying, I can work with some clay, beads, ribbon and whatever else draws my attention. That in turn draws me over to the bookcase to get some information that might help with what I plan to do, but then I get interested in reading something and before I know it, a few hours have passed by without my being aware of the fact.  The same holds true whilst I have been organizing the studio - I start going through a box of stamping materials and get distracted only to find myself setting up a box of stamps to use in another project.
Seriously, I have major issues with committing myself to one and only one project at a time.  I say this with a smile since I cannot take myself too seriously when it comes to organizing my room.  My little furry assistant, Molly Cat, does not help matters when she jumps out of boxes at me or runs about the room with small rolls of ribbon, decorations, paint brushes or whatever else captures her attention.  I suspect I would get more done if I were to close the studio door with Molly left to roam around the rest of the flat.  But, it would not be near the fun that we have together in the room.

This will be the week that I get organized.  I am determined to accomplish a few mixed media pieces over the course of the week and hopefully have something worthy of submitting for a competition wherein I show that stamping is far from passe and that it does have a place in art pieces today.  I can see in my mind one of the pieces that I want to capture on canvas, but whether this translates well in the final piece is still debatable.  Fingers crossed, I will make this happen and be satisfied that I have achieved what I set out to put together.  Somehow, I always change elements of the design at the last moment, but maybe this time I will leave well enough alone and see what comes of it.

I hope you have been working on something artistically satisfying over the past few weeks.  I would love to hear your suggestions as to how you keep on track and not roam all over the map trying too many ideas at the same time.  I suspect I am not the only one who finds this a problem, at least I hope I am not the only one with commitment issues. 


Have a great week!  And, I will commit to letting you know how the studio turns out and if anything of merit was put together over the upcoming week.


Sincerely,   Rutheemac

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