Sorry, Mr. Spock

This past week felt kind of crazy. There was the open house, the trip to the Big Gallery, the piece for the Recycled ARTicles show ("Whirl"; it spins! see photo), and movie night (Evelyn Glennie, "Touch the Sound"). It all got done, for better or for worse. Now I get to go out of town for 10 days. You KNOW it's been nuts when I'm looking forward to getting in a car with my husband and two kids for a long trip!

What I'll still be thinking about, though, is Evelyn Glennie (www.evelyn.co.uk/ ) and how far she is taking her passion for music, not in spite of her deafness, but almost BECAUSE of it. There's a quote from her, on her site: "Approach things from strength, not need." What would we do, if we were not limiting ourselves within the paradigms of what we see as a "career" in art? What would we be doing, if we weren't thinking so much about making money with our creative abilities? Of course, I want to make an income. But whenever I am thinking directly of art as a means to an end (income), the whole thing gets difficult and confusing.

What would happen if we focused on the aspects of making art (and careers) that we truly love doing (our strengths) while at the same time, focusing on prosperity and abundance. But not necessarily tying them together... Maybe what I'm trying to say is to stop thinking about this logically. I like the sound of that. Sorry, Mr. Spock.

Quantum Physics and Chocolate

urgh.
an emotionally exhausting few days...

I had the Open House for my new studio, with my outstanding friend, Scary Kristen, and several other wonderful people there to celebrate. But I find myself stuck in disappointment that the Throngs I expected never showed. Ego stuff; doesn't feel good... Still, my new space makes me very happy. And I'm thankful for that.



Today, I brought some of my work to a local gallery where I thought it might fit. The owner said it was too "whimsical and funky" and her shop was a step above that. She might consider some of the new clocks I'm working on, and gave me suggestions for the bowls, so that was helpful. Still, the disappointment lingers...
Why? I know I don't want to walk around in those negative vibes...and really, it was positive in that I got good feedback from a successful gallery owner. AND, she might take some work in the future. AND, this is a gallery I've been aspiring to for months.

Anyway, in the bigger picture, what do I really want? (just watched "The Secret" again...) I want to be financially independent, and healthy, etc etc. But does the financial independence have to come from selling my artwork? Or can I leave the "how" up to the Universe and Quantum physics?

I guess I feel better now. The chocolate I ate didn't hurt, either.

Coming Soon: Interesting Blog Content!

If you're reading this, you're one of the few, if not the only one. Since I'm just starting out, and apparently not tech-savvy enough to figure out the Technorati tags thing, I feel like I'm writing for myself. But I know that I must make a habit of writing if this is going to happen. So I'm just going to keep writing until the focus of this blog becomes clear. I'm looking to this blog to help me think harder about who I am, as an artist and a community member. Find that elusive "voice".

At present, the topics are about inhabiting a new art space, and really, inhabiting myself. About being "seen", and about bringing my ideas for my community into reality. About naked rat moles (not really, but they've come up in conversation not one, but two times today.)

(By the way, if you ARE reading this, and have realized that it's not ABOUT anything, try www.myhumancomputer.blogspot.com, for something visceral.)

And Stay Tuned! for interesting Blog Content! I promise the next entry will be about something.

I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille

My contact lens wouldn't stay in, my nose was sunburned and the photographer was coming....
This involves a Secret Project, so only code names will be used, but let's just say B2 showed up with L., and they proceeded to take pictures of my studio. And me.

Interesting to see the new space, and my work, through the eyes of a professional photographer. I have a new appreciation for the way the light comes into a particular corner, and how it changes during the afternooon.... Just to have a couple of good people in there was cool. Injection of good vibes...

New project will go live soon, and details will be revealed. In the meantime, I got to feel like a celeb for a few moments. (photos to come...)

Getting Organized

The flat file is truly a miracle of modern engineering. I'm moving piles of cardboard, and boxes of papers, and more rolls of paper... and they're all fitting into this one amazing piece of furniture that I bought used from a photographer who lives nearby.

As I'm moving materials, supplies and furniture from the old space to the new one, I'm discovering things I forgot I had....One box of papers held brightly colored sheets of tissue paper that I'd printed on, in equally bright colors. I had forgotten all about them. I fell in love with them all over again, and now that I've rediscovered them, I can start using them. It's been like that with alot of things that were hidden in drawers or boxes and forgotten. I really need to SEE my raw materials in order to be excited about using them.

Alot of these things will be going back into drawers and boxes; how will I remember where and what they are? Maybe I need to periodically just start randomly pulling things out, and throwing them onto my work table; see what comes of it. Maybe getting better organized (this is a good opportunity) and just labeling boxes and drawers more clearly would help.

It's sort of like the way my 6 year old operates: whatever is in front of him at the moment is the item that occupies his attention.What do I want in front of me at this moment?

A Room of One's Own

My new space is done! I've given myself the next two weeks to move in and get comfortable. After that, it will be time to get back to work. I have a feeling that the work will be different, in this different space. It's warm & sunny, slightly bigger, and PRIVATE. Energetically, it's a whole new ball game. How will this translate to the work? I can't wait to find out.

Progress!

I may have paint up my nose and in my hair, but my new studio space is almost finished, Mercury has gone direct, and soon, all will be right with the world!

Here's a couple of photos of the new studio in progress....

Focus, Focus, Focus

One of the reasons I started back to blogging is Alyson B. Stanfield's blog (www.artbizcoach.com, www.artbizblog.com ). In yesterday's blog, she talked about focusing the writing. I've been thinking about that anyway.

This past month, my focus completely changed. At the meeting of our very first art group (more on that soon), I set my goal for the coming month to finish 10 new pieces. I got about halfway done with 7 or 8 of them, and hit a wall. Kind of an ice wall: my studio is on the north side of the house, and when the snow slides off the roof, it becomes a dark and freezing cold ice cave....not conducive to creativity. At the same time, my husband suggested that he could finish the new studio he's renovating for me. Soon. I guess I'd kind of given up on that getting done anytime before spring (well, it's almost spring, isn't it?). But I'd been so focused on getting this work done, that I didn't realize I could shift my focus, and instead, get my new, sunny, slightly-more-spacious-yet-infinitely-more-private studio finished! What a revelation! Hooray!

So that's my focus at the moment. The completion of the new studio. More thoughts about an artist's space. And then? A studio-warming party!

Myths and Money

I have some big ideas about how I'd like to make art, build community, and make some money doing it. I also have a very cynical husband, who believes, as most people do, that "artists don't make money". Meaning, art is not valued in our culture. We pay plumbers huge sums of money (as I did when I had a natural gas line put in to my new studio). Of course, we need to have heat. We don't need art. Or do we?

I'm sure alot of people have written about this, far more eloquently than I'm about to. But it's been on my mind alot. The myth (or commonly held belief) that artists don't make money....alot of us artists buy into it too. My mom was an artist, and my father keeps repeating the myth back to me (he supported my mom so she could paint). I suppose he doesn't want me to be dissappointed. And my husband is equally skeptical: artists don't make money, because people have to pay their bills, dammit.

I believe that people DO need art. Historically, art defined a culture. Folk art has many functions in a society. Maybe not ours, at the moment. But I'm thinking back to college, to Dave B.'s dorm room. Nothing on the walls, no color; depressing as a prison cell (ok, so he was a hockey player who'd had several concussions, but still...) Now that I'm older, I can say the same about people's homes. Folks that don't value art, don't have much imagination, or just don't care about decoration create spaces that have no energy. Maybe it even sucks the energy out of you just to be in there. Zzzzzzzzzzz...

And then there's my friend Joyce's house. You go in, there's handmade items, rocks she's picked up, and you can just tell that the plants are happy (if she didn't have a big Rottweiler, you'd want to hang out). Part of the difference is due to that expression of herself; in her case, it's not the art that's hanging on the walls, although there is some of that. Her home is an expression of her creative self. We use art, or decoration, or design to do that, to create energy. Do we need that? I believe we do. Now we just have to convince everyone else. And let go of that persistant myth.

On the Moon

There's a million other things I could be doing at this moment. But somehow getting this blog set up seems to be the one thing I want to do most. (I'd started a blog before, but wasn't happy with goDaddy's program. This one is much more fun.)

"Shifting Gears" was my last entry on that blog. And here I am, shifting again.(does that make me shifty?) My vague plan is to use this blog to keep others updated on my art and any terribly exciting events connected to it. A secondary part of this Plan is to give myself an arena in which to write, which is something I like to do. And thirdly, and not least in the "vague" department, is to extend my presence on the web, which seems to be required, at this point.

So here I am. On the moon. Where do I go from here? Stay tuned.