Friday Matinee

Home from work early after a late last night and an impending early morning return. Fire built, coffee made, and sitting in the late afternoon sunlight that streams thru the window on a low slant. Another 45 minutes and it will drop behind the ridge. Sitting here to blog a bit is a little luxury.

Winter is here. Or at least a late fall wintery snap. Unusual, about 2 wks ahead. I wonder what it bodes for the next few months?

Our auction event was a wild success, we made over $11,000 last night. The donated work was great, and people were very generous. It makes the effort worthwhile. If I had been on my game I would've taken some photos of the work, but as you can see I wasn't and didn't.

Interesting thing, this over-busy work time. It can lead to surprising revelations. I don't know whether its the pace, or the tiredness that leads to some sort of subconscious clarity, but out of the chaos can arise a crystal clear vision. One such vision has unexpectedly fallen into my lap, and it's good stuff, and couldn't be more timely.

I'm getting ready to fire a kiln, and have had my hands on this years work a good bit in preparation. And everyone that reads this blog knows I fiddle with several different media besides clay. One of my challenges is trying to figure out how it all fits together, which I really haven't but don't worry over too much. So I'm looking at the new work, stumbling around the old work, thinking of a bunch of other stuff simultaneously, and tired on top of all that. The other night I collapsed into bed, and slept hard. And dreamed. Vividly. I popped awake, and knew right away that I had dreamed the full scope of what I've been doing and why, and how it all fits together. I mean I saw the WHOLE thing...installed, lit, sound, temperature of the space, the pedestals, the wall attachment details- it couldn't have been more clear. And best of all, doable. I know what to work towards. It was and is very exciting. Of course I lept up, half asleep, and began scribbling notes furiously. From these will arise a plan.

Now, I have to admit its not just a matter of assembling components. I see the end result, but now have to back into it. Like I have to learn how to DO some of the stuff I dreamed. But no matter, now there's a point. It's just a matter of physical realization.

I love to examine how this kind of thought process occurs. In this instance, I think I know. My biggest challenge as an artist is finding the time to work- I tend to be slow and organic in my processes no matter what the media. So I'm always struggling (and frustrated with that). For encouragement I study Christo and Jeanne-Claude; their work takes place over a matter of YEARS and I have so much respect for that passion, vision and absolute tenacity. So I had been re-visiting part of their biography lately. Then, there was a piece on NPR about Jem Cohen, a documentary filmmaker, who works on projects that span years, mainly because of HOW he works. And somewhere along the line he was asked and responded that he doesn't worry so much about the amount of time it takes him to complete a project. So I find this very encouraging, have it rattling around in my head, and sleep on it at a time I'm pretty immersed in my own projects. So it ferments, I dream, and WA-LA! magic.

How cool is that? Now all I have to do is get back to work!

The moral of the story is do your thing, and make friends with time.

So now the sun is behind the ridge, Lucy is sitting at my feet patiently, and supper will need to be started soon (I'm making K pepper steak from the last of the peppers picked a couple of days ago before the cold wind/hard freeze.) A stick of wood on the fire, wrap around a scarf and put on a snuggly vest, and I'm off to walk.

Hope everyone has a great evening. Maybe I'll put some notes about my envisioned installation project up soon and get some feedback. But don't try to talk me out of it: I have a dream!