I was chuckling with a friend the other night that I am probably testing the limits of how much whining about creative roadblocks an artist can do on her blog. LOL I certainly do a lot of it. Creative roadblocks or interruptions are part and parcel of my artist/wife/mother life. The struggle to find a livable balance is an element of my expression. I tend to express that struggle more here than in my work.
Squeezing the occasional hour of studio time in between all the family end of the school year hubbub is the current challenge. I admire all the Type A artists who can do a zillion things at the same time but I’m not built that way. The results of my very limited studio moments these days have been a combination of aborted starts and creative crashes. I’m not too frustrated as long as I can keep my creative pilot light burning.
Overall I feel particularly disjointed lately. I am having a hard time expressing myself clearly here and in my jewelry pieces. It’s like I know what I want to say, but the words and the designs aren’t flowing very smoothly. Things are murky. Hopefully it’s just a temporary thing and it will resolve after E’s graduation and all the other end of school year chaos settles down. Meanwhile bear with me if I sound distracted and photos are a bit sparse.
The force field or block which tends to keep me out of the studio has spread to the blog. I am not writing as often, and I feel like the quality of my writing has declined. Also, I don’t find myself thinking about writing as much as I had been. Writing is not what I would consider to be my primary mode of creative expression, but this slow down in my writing has brought home the “use it or lose it” quality of creativity more than anything.
I have been thinking about the need to practice creative skills lately. Before I made the pair of rings out of sterling sheet metal, I tried to make a “quick” PMC ring. Ha! That was a comeuppance. I haven’t done very much work in metal clay and most of it was several years ago. Somehow I had the ridiculous idea that I could jump back in with ease. Like any technical skill, working with metal clay is tricky and I desperately need a refresher course (or two!).
At least writing isn’t quite as fragile a skill, but I had better resolve to practice more.
by Libby on April 29, 2008
A bad pun… I feel like I have been creatively sidelined. Getting completely away from the studio and computer for a family vacation was lovely, but it has really put me off my creative game. (to continue the lame metaphor) Add to the mix the peculiar phenomenon that is Spring school/sports activities for a family and the result is more than a week of blog silence and limited studio time. The weather was pretty gorgeous last week so that made it extra hard to head down into the basement.
I did squeeze in a bit of time at my bench though. I’ve been working on the parts for a funky floral pendant for ages. I finally finished the metal framework, but now I am stalled. A bit paralyzed in the polymer clay end of things, I spent all my meager studio time playing with metal. I forged some chunky circles out of 10 guage wire. And I made my first two rings.
I am pretty happy with them for my very first attempt at ring making. The dot one even fits me! LOL
by Libby on March 23, 2008
Don’t mind me. I am having a bit of fun playing around with my theme etc. I expect I’ll be tweaking it more later. Meanwhile, I added a translation option in the sidebar. I’m still testing the contact page I added. More later…
by Libby on March 19, 2008
I love looking at photos of other artists’ studios. With our brief stint of moving back and forth from Connecticut a couple of years ago, I’ve set up three different studios.
Studying photos, articles and books about artists’ studios really helped me design a space I love, and which works really well for me. The photos of my studio on my website get a lot of views, so I am guessing other people like to get ideas from studio photos too.
I’d like to start a feature on my blog I’ll call “Studio Snapshot”. I’m thinking it will be in an interview format with photos of the artist’s space. Any artist in any medium is welcome. Any artist with any size work space is welcome. Small studios or studio alcoves would be as interesting as larger spaces, plus any kind of space in between. Each space has its own advantages and challenges.
You don’t have to clean up! Who better understands a chaotic mess than other artists?
Of course I’ll include links to your website and blog too.
So let’s see YOUR creative space, and read your description of it. What’s your favorite part? What would you change if you could? Any organizational tips? It’s fun to see behind the curtain in that Wizard of Oz sort of way. And it’s a great way to get ideas on how to improve or organize your own creative space.
So, what do you think about the idea? Would you be willing to participate? To give other artists a peek inside your studio? If you’d like to be featured, email me at LibzoidATgmailDOTcom (replacing the AT and DOT with the appropriate symbols of course) and I will send you my list of questions. Thanks!
