This past Monday I finally got the last of the furniture I was selling out of my studio.
The last items were two arm chairs that had been blocking that big doorway there in my painting area for over three weeks. Once they were gone, I was surprised to find that I missed them. I am happy to have my space back! But it was a reminder that we get used to our burdens and difficulties, and they become part of our home just like all the rest. Ah, habit.
Another minor but important burden has also been that my work table is covered in all the new silhouettes and I had run out of space on my trays (which are mostly just cardboard anyway). I really can’t work with them that way, so I spent some time hunting for what to put them on and discovered these old silkscreens in my supply closet.
Perfect! So now I have been sorting and stacking.
I’ve also been continuing to get them onto the larger Cultivate backgrounds. I had a rule before that they would all stay off of the negative (white) space, and I’m now breaking that a little.
I want the people to integrate and look like an organic part of the background.
Then I messed around with the paper mounted on birch panel and kept drawing and drawing and drawing and…
That looks kind of angry, doesn’t it? It actually wasn’t at all. I just stopped trying to be so precious about it, took it apart, and then drew on the panel a bit and that was interesting, so I took a fresh panel and tested it.
It needs some refining, as I’m getting some bleeding of the paint and ink, but I’m excited about continuing to experiment with these, prepping the surface and/or cutting bits of the patterned paper to collage on there.
Finally, I spent this morning working up more of these Wood & Water patterns, mostly adding to existing ones.
As I was working on these, I was looking at that open space where the comfy chairs used to be blocking everything, and I was thinking how the chairs are also symbolic of distraction. I’ve been extra vigilant about my schedule this week, especially not letting anything disrupt my first three hours of work time in the day. It’s been really helpful, and I was reminded of it again when I was reading on the F and ran across these quotes from Epictetus:
“Getting distracted by trifles is the easiest thing in the world. Focus on your main duty…You become what you give your attention to.”
And watch out for those comfy chairs!