Skip to main content

Tapered Fall/Winter Musings

A Leaf on the Wind - Tissue paper, Fall leaves, Sharpie

My musings have been tapering-off for a while now. A slow drain and depletion of my usual spontaneity. I’ve found myself explaining to others and myself that “I just don’t have the time I used to”...”this week has been busy”...”maybe next week?” ... “or the next”...


The excuses are piling-up and so too are the stashes of ideas.


Lets get one thing down, just because I have been unable to work on any one given thing for any length of time does not mean that my “warehouse” is empty. Oh, far from it. With all the work and life stresses I still ‘think’ in pictures.


So, as things go when they don’t GO the way we are used-to. I now find myself compensating for my recent lack of habitual visual expression by squirreling away idea stashes. A pressed leaf, a meticulously emptied and unfolded tea bag [quite reminiscent of the mantle of turin], word clippings, and half a vespa. The stashes are everywhere. Journals and books are replete with flattened and falling-apart things that needed safe-keeping. These are different from my usual collections of items which are kept in purposeful drawers and boxes with similar objects and labeled. In sharing the crease of a book the squirrely stashes are held together -- a loose promise with the hopes of becoming something more.  


“I just don’t have the time I used to”...”this week has been busy”...”maybe next week?” ... “or the next”...


I used to have a phrase written on my work desk: A messy desk is signs of a creative mind. After long days of putting-out fires, work on my dissertation has slowed to a crawl. Taking time to draw, or paint, or journal (much less blog) seems counter intuitive and even shameful. How could I dedicate time to this escape, when I have so much to do!?


Now that I know, maybe I can reverse some of it.


In some of my web-wanderings I came across a blog post where ‘art’ was categorized for the purpose it served. Maybe its’ intention. It was just a line, maybe a title to a section but it stayed with me and after a few minutes that is all I could think about. Here is where that crumb trail lead me.


I have been making art for most of my life, and for most of my school-aged-life it has been for the amusement of others (ie. teachers, schools, parents, etc). It wasn’t until later-on that I started to create just because I needed to. A brief look back gives me the following outline as to some of the reasons why I create art -- or more aptly: visual artifacts.


(I create) Art for the sake of...


...understanding
    - a series of events
    - a particular experience
    - an emotion
    - anger
    - frustration


...memorializing
    - those who i love and have to let-go
    - those who i need to let-go
    - those who i’ve only recently met
   
...remembering
    - dreams
    - stories
   
...processing
    - expected change
    - unexpected change
    - loss(es)
    - relationships





As long as I keep going musing-making-creating, the gaps won't seem as daunting in retrospect... So here’s to the culmination of a year of many firsts and the welcoming of a productive-creative-inspiring year.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

March Days of #creativedeed365

and it continues! #creativedeed365 continued through the struggles of march with lots of support from the Facebook group, family, friends, and even spouse. After the first 2 months of #creativedeed365  with Gretchen Miller , March began with a plan. Using the stained cards from Murphy in the Art Space  which were already cut into 3"x 3" squares I set out to conquer Marchs' 31 days. One day  card at a time. Much like the prior months I prepared the back of the cards with the # of the card and date plus a blip about the creativedeeds. Each day I found a few minutes to create the entry. Saving the cards for distribution once I was in public spaces such as the local university, coffee shops, or restaurants. This month I saw a couple pop-up on Instagram from people who found them and then found me through the #creativedeed365 tag. I was surprised by how exited I was at realizing where these cards had made-it to. Glad they were in good hands. Through the making of ...

Leftover Tie Dye? Work with it!

Summer seems to be the time for tie dye and outdoor activities -- in Florida that also means spontaneous monsoon-like thunderstorms and zillions (yes, zillions) of mosquitoes. So, if you’re stuck indoors with weeks old (or older) tie dye, this post is for you! As seen in previous posts I love re-purposing and up-cycling, however believe me when I say that I do not go looking for these opportunities. I just go with it when the muse calls and sometimes it works out and others it does not. This was one of those creative opportunities that paid off. 1 First, I happen to find some tie dye left by my students (maybe as far back as April or early May). It had been mixed ages ago (months) and packaging instructions say to discard after a few hours...umm. OK so I couldn't bring myself to pouring it down the drain. 2 Finding some pieces of light color or white absorbent cloth (mine were about 4”x4” bed sheet cloth) I set to purposefully experiment. I folded & wrapped e...

Layered {Response} Art

Inchies in process of being stained. I recently read artist Seth Apter ’s post on a question we artists are often asked: How long did it take you? The following blog post will be my response to his thought provoking post which I found rang a few bells for me. Seth’s post for October 20th, 2014 can be reached via this link: The Surface of my Work So, how long does it take to create? ...the art therapist’s perspective. I will give voice to some accumulated thoughts on the particular topic of response art. I feel it is important to make the distinction between response art and other artwork I may engage-in for the purpose of “creating something pretty”. Response art to me indicates a creative process (and/or artifact) that seeks to process an experience; usually to do with intense experiences encountered as a part of carrying out the duties of our profession [for more on response art in art therapy see Fish, 2006, 2008, 2012]. Beginning. When the creative bug cal...