The machine

I continued benefiting from our new schedule this week, and I am close to being done with the last Cluster pieces.

I even figured out this one that I was really struggling with last week.

It is very satisfying when these finally click. It reminds me of a machine. There’s this feeling as if visually the gears finally line up and the wheels turn.

To help me loosen up, at the start of most days I am working on some new pieces on that larger paper I got. I’ve started eight so far, and I’ve decided that will be it for this size.

Here are a few in their early stages:

And then I got to use my flexible rule! But I ran out of nails about halfway through so I had a wonderful excuse to go to my favorite, the hardware store.

With all of this, I think I’ve accidentally discovered one more trick for avoiding the dips in energy I have always had after “completing” things. Besides doing my best to focus on being in the moment, doing the visual equivalent of listening, etc., I can also make sure I’m never really done.

I’ll just keep pushing the rock up the hill…

But seriously, what I mean is that by keeping multiple series going at the same time, when I finish one (like Cluster, which will probably be done next Monday), I will have others still going, and that is a pretty easy way to reinforce staying on an even keel.

It’s not like this is a new tactic – I’ve always kept many oil paintings going at once, for example – it’s the scale to which I’m doing it that is new. So where before I might have had ten paintings going, I now have 36 pieces in the hopper.

Energetically, doing this reminds me of how the Cluster pieces feel when they click: it feels like the gears are turning steadily. So it is something I plan to consciously maintain in future.

This week here’s to finding one more piece to the puzzle of what makes it all click! It’s always a work in progress.