Getting Unstuck

I was terribly busy for a while. My "day job," which will be coming to an end by about Labor Day, is at its busiest right now, so I'm working more hours than usual. I've also been trying to up my game as an eBay PowerSeller so that when I'm no longer working a job with a wage, there will be no significant loss of income. And I've been giving my all--all that's left, that is--to volunteer work with my favorite nonprofit.

I looked back over my calendar for the past couple of weeks and saw that, although I'd written in blocks of studio time, I rarely made art. Consequently, life was beginning to feel as mundane and meaningless as it did before I threw myself back into being an artist about a year ago.

So one day last week, I had a couple of cups of strong coffee in the late afternoon and then gave my mosaic studio a good cleaning. I got all of the projects that are in progress on one work bench and cleared the other for new work. I had "parked" materials for new projects all over the studio, so I spent an hour sorting materials by type and color.

A day or two later, I added some things I noticed that I needed while cleaning up--some better task lighting over my main bench and a bigger, heavy duty garbage can. I also prepped my next project, a lamp, by covering the lampshade with a beautiful botanical fabric that will serve as inspiration for the mosaic on the lamp itself.

The pay off came last night. My family was all out doing other things and I had the evening alone at home. I hit the ground running in my studio! I was able to easily gather up materials for the new lamp project--broken pottery, glass marbles, brown beach glass, and red stones--and begin work.

It really helped that I'd spent those several hours this past week preparing the space for creative work. Once I finally got started again, the creative juices were really flowing. What I had intended to be a solid diagonal green line somehow morphed into a stem that blossomed in pink at both ends, setting the tone for a much more organic piece than I had originally envisioned. Ahhh...back in business.