Finding the Groove
I got to work this afternoon on a new design; one that’s been bumping around in my head for a while. It’s a difficult design. It doesn’t want to go together easily, making me work for it, really making me think about how to compose it. Making me think about the story I’m trying to tell, about the characters, the culture, the history.
I suppose that’s a good thing after a dry spell. It’d be nice to have something just roll off my fingers onto the page, then to the paint. Oh, to the paint. The Zen of running beautiful clean lines, of paint flowing from the tip of my brush. It feels so good to be in that groove. The room temp just right so the paint has the perfect flow, the paint loads into the brush swelling the belly, runs out the finely haired tip like a stream downhill, long lines flowing, fat lines growing... Ahh, what a place to be.
But that’d be too easy this time. In the past it’s been a good way to get back into the work groove after dealing with grant writing, customers, money money money. Just fall into a design and paint. But like I said, not this time.
Too much thinking has occurred over these past months: thinking about new directions with the work, new directions for making enough money to survive, thinking about history and culture and the place they hold in the today. Thinking about my place in all that. And of course, daily life.
This time I’m going to have to work for it and it feels like it’s the right thing even though I’d like it to be simple. It does mean that I’m moving things up a notch, moving up the caliber of design, the depth of meaning in the designs, the type of work I’m doing. Maybe not so many drums this year. Maybe some big things. Public art. Big bentwood boxes. Work that really challenges my skills, ingenuity, creativity and understanding.
It’s exciting when I start feeling it’s going to be the kind of year where I have to really stretch myself and my work. I came out the end of last year exhausted and depleted. Spent the winter thinking and talking, studying, writing…Finally the exhaustion is starting to abate and everything I did through the winter is starting to come into form, come into formline, come into new designs, new ideas for serious projects.
I got to work this afternoon on a new design; one that’s been bumping around in my head for a while. It’s a difficult design. It doesn’t want to go together easily, making me work for it, really making me think about how to compose it. Making me think about the story I’m trying to tell, about the characters, the culture, the history.
I suppose that’s a good thing after a dry spell. It’d be nice to have something just roll off my fingers onto the page, then to the paint. Oh, to the paint. The Zen of running beautiful clean lines, of paint flowing from the tip of my brush. It feels so good to be in that groove. The room temp just right so the paint has the perfect flow, the paint loads into the brush swelling the belly, runs out the finely haired tip like a stream downhill, long lines flowing, fat lines growing... Ahh, what a place to be.
But that’d be too easy this time. In the past it’s been a good way to get back into the work groove after dealing with grant writing, customers, money money money. Just fall into a design and paint. But like I said, not this time.
Too much thinking has occurred over these past months: thinking about new directions with the work, new directions for making enough money to survive, thinking about history and culture and the place they hold in the today. Thinking about my place in all that. And of course, daily life.
This time I’m going to have to work for it and it feels like it’s the right thing even though I’d like it to be simple. It does mean that I’m moving things up a notch, moving up the caliber of design, the depth of meaning in the designs, the type of work I’m doing. Maybe not so many drums this year. Maybe some big things. Public art. Big bentwood boxes. Work that really challenges my skills, ingenuity, creativity and understanding.
It’s exciting when I start feeling it’s going to be the kind of year where I have to really stretch myself and my work. I came out the end of last year exhausted and depleted. Spent the winter thinking and talking, studying, writing…Finally the exhaustion is starting to abate and everything I did through the winter is starting to come into form, come into formline, come into new designs, new ideas for serious projects.
