6/21 days – Current challenge

Uhoh – this could end up as a very long blog post! Tara’s prompt reads like this: Something that’s currently testing you, causing you trouble, or otherwise bugging you about your work.

My biggest challenges I think are

my physical ailments which render studio time inconsistent and
wanting to do all the things, having so many ideas that a specified list would be in meters, not pages.

The two are working directly against each other, but I can’t just choose a large chunk to remove – in fact I already have and what’s left are things I really want to keep. Spinning, dyeing and weaving on one side, acrylic painting and photography on the other. (Except they are not really separate to me, they are all about working with colour and vision.) I’ve dropped not only collage, calligraphy, watercolor, book binding and other related temptations, but also horseriding, dogs and proper gardening.

And then I get sidetracked anyway by papermaking, paint pour methods, or archery!

What I try to do is work in themes, crop rotation if you will. So it’s ok to not touch my spinning wheel for a year while I weave trouser fabric. It’s ok to not go on photo excursions in winter and paint instead. I would like to paint more and all the time, really, but I just can’t give up on the others just now. And well, lacking infinite space I do need something to do while it’s drying. And then sometimes my body collapses and I have to be idle, which makes my brain go NUTS. Yes, I keep getting ideas poured into it even with a migraine!

Working in fits and starts like that also makes it a challenge to maintain flow and focus, I often come back from a break not remembering what I was doing and thinking, so I begin something new since there is always an idea ready for grabs. This is a luxury btw and not a problem! I never understood why people need music, chit chat and tv to fill some sort of emptiness or silence.

Inhibition and overthinking are huge challenges in painting as well, but I feel like I keep chipping away at those and one day they will indeed be gone.