Diligence

I have been working diligently at my art, some days without ever having to leave the house to go anywhere or do anything. Which I totally love. I've begun to covet my working time. I remember myself at this time last year, how frazzled and unfocused I was, and am grateful that I am where I am now.

As soon as I awake in the morning, I am at it in the studio, stamping samples, trying out stencils, hand stitching shibori samples, looking at different pieces in the works and imagining possible next steps for each. I've also been looking at a lot of inspiring materials, formulating thoughts for ideas to bring to fruition, planning series of pieces.

I have a stretch goal for myself of 20 finished art cloth pieces by the end of this year. I already have seven pieces in various stages of development. There are so many weaving ideas I have that I'm trying to spend at least a couple of hours at the loom each day. Of course, this doesn't always happen. But I want to keep moving, keep producing.

Through one of the Yahoo Groups I belong to I got turned on to Clarissa Pinkola Estes' CD program called The Creative Fire, and I've been listening to it these past few days. It's a wonderful exploration of the ebb and flow of the creative life, how the dark places we all experience are vital parts of the process of rebirth and renewal. Highly recommended.

What I'm finding so intriguing is that there is the making-art part of being an artist, and then there is the psychic/emotional/inner dynamic part of living a creative life. Both aspects need attending to regularly. There are moments when I feel like I have this all in hand, but those clarifying jolts are fleeting. It's definitely a life process, being on these two tracks at once which are really just different manifestations of one journey. Very interesting.