Friday, October 12, 2007

Need to work, don't want to.



I should be doing work but I'm not.

Instead I am looking up various people's blogs and browsing Etsy. It's truly amazing how time flies when you are on the Internet...

So I should be working on my paintings but I really just don't feel like it. I would much rather be drinking an nice soy chai and people watching. I am right at the beginning stages of my most recent works. I just need to put one more layer of gesso on and wait for it to dry. I have several ideas going on in my head, it's really just a matter of applying those to just the right panels.

I am trying to think up new images and ideas but inspiration is sparse here. I can't just take a bus trip, or a bike trip downtown or to the Hawthorne district. I think that instead I am going to have to find that within this apartment and myself. It's just a matter of trying to express that with a pencil...

I have also been revisiting one of my favorite artists Sabrina Ward Harrison. I came upon her book "Spilling Open" a few years ago and since then she has published two more,"Brave on the Rocks" and "Messy, Thrilling Life." They are beautiful books that read like journals. They are very personal and intimate.

When I first began making art I relied on them to push me into making personal pieces. Over the last 3 or 4 years I have kind of gotten away from that. It's very hard emotionally and mentally putting personal and intimate things into your work. I felt that I was constantly worrying about how far I should go. Did I go to far? Not far enough? Do I really want people to know all this stuff about me? It's a constant push and pull. But it felt so good sometimes to get things out there, to let people know that this is where I am coming from. This is who I am.

So I think I might revisit that. Maybe that is what I need right now. More writing in my work. More of my personal experience.

On a side note Michael and I get to go visit our puppy for the first time tomorrow. We get to pick her out. We are so excited.

1 comment:

Linda O'Neill said...

Can't wait to see your new puppy, Michele! I know what you mean about the angst of putting your inner life out there on canvas. Maybe because of your move...it would be a good thing to do right now. It might help make sense of some things.

And I'm doing the same dang thing this morning...drinking chai and cruising the blogs! Procrastinator extraordinaire!