Predawn Ponderings

I had the World's Best Blog Entry all in my head yesterday as while I was walking the dog. Of course, after the day late in the evening, by the time I sat down to get it out, it was gone, lost in the muddle and confusion of the day.

So I'm on blog early this morning. Coffee is made and my window faces east...when the light (there'll be no sun this am, its heavy misty foggy out there)comes over the ridge I'll know to stop and go walk Lucy, and the day begins. Day job, life maintenance and the hands on the clock turning.

It occurred to me yesterday that as an artist, my best work happens on the edges, the fringes, in the wee hours and dim light, mostly by accident or sheer luck. This isn't to say that I can't produce work regularly and consistently..oh, I can, but it just doesn't have the "stuff" that makes it feel good and right and true to me. It's almost like there is a process of engagement that has to happen, where I work and work and make and make and redo and revisit and resolve until I've run out of options, ideas, tricks, and knowledge and am completely empty, and THEN something substantial comes out. Like I have to get everything else out of my way, or like emptying out a big trash container so it can be refilled.

This is on my mind as I've been back in my clay studio. I reckon there's no shortcuts, I can't start empty and do good stuff right off the bat. I don't lack for ideas, but there's too much noise in my head to move forward with quiet clarity. I think that for a lot of artists, no matter what the media is, making is a kind of a search anyway. So i'm in that flounder-about stage, starting to get impatient, which can be a little frustrating. But I know my working processes to be organic, and to take time, so I have to ride it out. I am this same way with almost everything I do- I learn and progress by hands-on immersion, study, engagement with material, practices, processes...when I'm away from or out of it for a time, I almost have to relearn or at least re-feel -remember- every time I start a new cycle. I wonder and suspect if many other working artists have that same challenge? I believe it to be a question of consistency: exposure to the materials and working processes, how one thinks and views their work, pace, environment...all these are often interrupted by the demands of a daily routine necessary to support and maintain ones self.

So here's to the celebration of Artist Time...the cracks, seams, corners and cubbies secret closets and attics in Regular Time where magic hides, waiting to be found. If you create anything (and I mean anything, its all valid and ever-more important) then I wish us all bigger chunks of Artist Time to be found (and USED!).

Have a great day! Make stuff, be happy, make one stranger smile today. Give your dog a cookie, and your cat some lap time. Help make the world a better place by being nice to people, despite all the reasons to be a grump.

Off to walk in the morning mist...