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......artistic disraction 2





Last week Daughter #1, Beloved Grandson and me made a trip across the big Valley to Santa Clara....On the way there we past a forest of these....each one about 5 - 6 foot tall and all smooshed together like a corn maze.....
At first I thought it was a giant milk thistle forest.
Then my brain came to life and I realized it was a forest of giant artichokes
...and bummer of bummers I had no camera.


I've seen artichoke groves

(I really don't know that they're called groves)
before, but never acres of giant ones.
On the return trip we stopped at the little fruit stand to buy fruit and to investigate...

Beloved Grandson and I decided to go into this amazing forest just far enough to 'feel it'. When we came out the owner of the forest was there and he came over to share with us that these giants were an experiment that went wrong while trying to create abigger, badder, better, artichoke....
seems it got big but has no 'meat'.
So they were allowing them to, 'go to seed

'....He offered BG one to take home and of course we both liked that idea....
thus the picture....
I think it's about 8 inches across! But no meat.



What this has to do with
artistic distraction is probably clear......


Is writing about artichokes really interesting or important in any way? Am I just avoiding the trip to the studio?...which may not come today because it was been sooooo freaking hot!!



....once the temp goes over 100 here it is too much for the little air conditioner in
my studio to deal with...

My studio is not very well insulated and the lights are hot.
So an excuse to not go, or a good reason???



"There is always a slight tendency of the body to sabotage the attention of the mind by proving some distraction." Stephen Spender



I realize I can always find a distraction or reason to stay out of my studio...what I need to do is learn to overcome the thing (things) that trigger the
NO I say when its time to do the work of creating.

I believe a big part of the studio anxiety, or whatever it might be called, is the desire not to just create something, but to create something that lives....
something that breathes and takes on a life of it's own.

I want my Spirit Figures to touch people, to be something worth loving. Something that becomes part of their journey.........
but first the process needs to turn me on, touch me, make me feel alive...make me
want to love it.

In creating a figure there might be 100 stops and starts, every time I allow a distraction
to take me from the work, I must start again...

a 100 time that I need to judge....

That stepping back and trying to see with other eyes.
I'll have been in the high zone, in the moment, making choices, appraising, changing, having fun and then
along comes the
critic!

Sometimes with the attitude of,

'come on julie, what were you thinking?....
THEY will find out your not an artist and then what?"
I remember how long it took me to even say, "I'm an artist."

"Sure I have self-doubts. I just spent three days trying to paint a to-inch rock and thought maybe I'd be better off wrapping produce in a supermarket."....Maria Mijares

It's important here that I don't come across as whining about how hard it is......
I do love what I do.


Really it's more of an observation.

Me trying to get more in touch with the creative process.

I have a neck injury and once a week for the past 3 or so years I go to a massage therapist...
We often talk through the first 20 minutes or so, but I have come to trust her and the process so much that when she says,
'ok, it's time to relax, let everything go', I do and I'm gone into the zone.

That's what I want from the beginnings of the creative day...I want to trust the process so much that as soon as I say, 'ok, it's time to create, let everything else go'...I do it.



"The artistic impulse seems not to wish to produce finished work. It certainly deserts us halfway, after the idea is born; and if we go on, art is labor..." Clarence Day






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.....the art of distraction....part 1


I sometimes have what appears to be creative block….
It’s when I will do almost anything else rather than go to my studio….
and I love my studio.
I love creating my Spirit Figures…
it’s not like I don’t have the time, I do. I have blocks of time.

I’m what I call a working artist…..
I have to produce & sell in order to keep doing what I love. I need to work my craft as well as all the marketing, networking, photography, art hops, etc.

It’s not that I don’t have ideas and inspiration….sometimes it’s very hard to choose from all the possibilities floating in my head. There are deadlines that often dictate a priority list….
so it’s not always possible to just go with the flow.

There are days when I take hours to walk the 20 or so yards to my studio…..
the other day I made it in the door but quickly left because I was overdressed, it was warmer than I thought…..it was too hot for what I was wearing.

I came back to the house and spent 40 minutes deciding what to wear……it became a production of choosing, trying on, putting away the discarded, before I came up with just the right thing…
No one is going to see me.

But the distractions didn’t end there….
and I kept saying NO to the actual work of art.

On the way back to the studio I noted that the potted plant with the yellow flowers was sending of shoots.....it needed to be put in some dirt right away…
that led me back to the house to get gloves, a pot, soil, etc….…
which led to the desire to wash the dog beds,
while I answered some email…
not getting back to the flowers until an hour later…
by then I was hungry so I fixed something to eat and took it with me to the studio to eat it…a good thing…

However by time I did the routine that generally leads me to creativity I realized it was almost time for the evening routine of greeting the Bear, walking the dogs, visiting with Daughter #1, who has started a new job, feeding the cats and watering the garden, feeding the dogs, maybe feed the Bear and myself……
So with only an hour to spend I was limited in what I was willing to start and not be able to finish…

I ended up rushing through the making of some bodies to be stuffed. In the end all I had to show for studio time were two little stuffed figures and one set of wings!!!
That is basically unacceptable!!....
I have 4 shows and 2 open studio tours between now and
the end of the year!

The following day was not a whole lot better…I never even made it to putting on the studio clothes…

I know that part of the block is really avoidance…..
sometimes it’s hard to go through the process..…

and I have a huge one…it’s like revving up…
and it takes place in my studio…
the walking around the work table…
picking things up, putting on some music,
talking to the girls…some putting away……
I start thinking about where to start…
I usually have 2, 3, sometimes 4 figures going……

There is always bit of chaos at the start with me moving from figure to figure....staying with some for a minute or two before I feel the need to move around and just play with stuff...…
and if I’m lucky …

I start to feel a bit of a tingling sensation in my spine….and soon I‘ll slip into the zone and settle into to the work of creating art.
But I have to get into the studio first.

........amma



I'm sorry I had to take the photo clip down...it was very cool...showing this Spirited Figure in her new surroundings....however it didn't seem to work well on my blog so I was afraid it might make your computers react negatively too.

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.........posting Amma again because of a glitch



....I had to take the little montage down...
my computer didn't like it...so here she is...

I hope you like her....
A bit about the day I delivered her is in an earlier post....

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.....Amma goes home

I delivered the Amma Spirit Figure on Saturday....
I'm always a little nervous about unveilings...even though in my heart of hearts, I knew that the energy from Sharon, the woman who asked me to create the piece, along with Amma's energy had come together with my muse to create a wonderful Spirit Figure.....

I arrived Saturday morning, her husband let me in....Sharon was on the phone...they are awaiting the birth of a new grandchild....We waited for Sharon to come into the room before taking her figure out of the box...

my anticipation was huge....

I knew immediately that this figure had found her home....

they love her as much as I do.
I didn't know when I decided to put roses around the her neck that Amma always smells like roses.

I was able to hang her on the wall of her new home..in a sunny room near the garden, it felt like it is the room the family comes together in...

I left feeling good about what I do.
And I feel I have made a new friend..


Later in the day I found the montage below in my email box....
Sharon gave me permission to post it...so I could share with you.
Hope you like her...
I seem to have made it a bit to big for my blog space....
right now I haven't the time to find out how to make it smaller...

.....a give-away

This is one of many wonderful give-away items that
To Dwell in Primative Thymes
is offering in celebration of their 100th blog post...
And everyone has three chances to win!

Your chance to win ends on Sunday the 21rst

.....Amma, Amma, ready to go


Well, she is furnished! Amma...amen....
I'm excited because this Spirit Figure has such fabulous energy and she looks good too. ....from start to finish this figure brought everything together in such an easy way...like finding the perfect size prayer flags in Oregon....I've put up the little mess & I deliver her either tomorrow, or Saturday. .

One of my favorite things about this experience is knowing where she is going...a very inviting, loving space...it feels gentle...a place where I was offered tea and homemade biscuits when I arrived to talk about the figure and what the vision was. She will have some fine and wonderful art & craft & flowers around her ....I'm excited to share her with you and with the lady of the house.


It was needless hugging ...
it wasn't a greeting. It was happening all day."
-- Noreen Hajinlian,
principal of New Jersey middle school that has banned hugging.


One must be on guard against needless hugging!
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.....warriors


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.....red, white and blue




I just got back from a walk, and I realized that I'd been kind of gloomy on my blog. You know, the war stuff...I wonder if working on the Amma figure has had any effect because I envision her as anti-war....and I was asking her to guide me. And I'm your basic patriotic war hater. And maybe because in the last few weeks it seems as though everywhere I go there are red, white and blue flags flying. Right now, seeing our flag brings war to my mind and the cost in lives, and the wounds both visible and invisible that families everywhere are dealing with. I'm praying the warriors young and old receive what it is they will need to heal and live.

Even the Music in the Meadow venue, here in Coarsegold, this weekend was awash in patriotic colors... the theme was Quilts of Valor...

We pledged allegiance and sang America the Beautiful. I'm betting that there were veterans there from every conflict since WW2.

It was like a 4th of july picnic...loads of bbq'd chicken, complete with beans and salad and homemade brownies....It is an annual fundraiser for the Coarsegold Museum.

There was.Blue Grass Music, and a bit of flute playing by some friends of mine. Mellow day for sure. A bit of art, and a bit of craft, and someone selling herbs and lilac plants.

I learned quilters all over the country are making quilts to be given to veterans, Quilts of Valor....a woman from CA just drove across the land to deliver some quilts (100s I think), in person, as the soldiers come off of the plane bringing them home from war to Camp Lejeune, a Marine place in North Carolina...now that's a drive..The quilt guild here in the foothills had made 70 or so to be sent off...the quilts...all red, white and blue...A very cool thing to do.
...quilts are comforting and warm.

I promised, while I was standing in front of the Wounded Warrior at the Memorial Gardens on our way to OR., I would blog about veterans & a little bit of war.... So bear with me please...It won't last forever. I feel as though it's important to bear witness.

~ more memorial

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The Greatest Generation

This sculpture depicts the second raising of the flag on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima, on February 23, 1945....it is the artists tribute to the veterans of WWII....

He says, "This sculpture expreseis the love, admiration and thanks we all have for the generation that fought this most terrible of worldwide conflict....
"

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