Meeting Up With The Maker That Is Me

It's rather late in the day to be posting, but this day somehow got away from me, and I realized I'd better get back on task!  I've been on task, but several different ones and I'm rather excited to be getting to this new work to see what will happen.  What in the world is she talking about, you ask?

I'm talking what might happen with each of these seventy little 3" x 3" pieces of painted paper.  They had started out as thirty-five 3" x 6" pieces of paper that were going to be used for the collaboration with Johntimothy back in the late summer.  I'm quite sure they weren't meant for that life, because I think they were meant for this...not that I'm sure what "this" is quite yet, but it's in the beginning stages.  I've been mulling over these pieces for some time in their unsuccessful and unfinished state and had, after tearing each one in half, started painting over them slowly but surely, but it wasn't until this afternoon that things began to flow. I was sitting in the studio, a bit befuddled as to what was supposed to be happening, only sure of the fact that I was feeling this way because I was facing something new....the work was about to shift and change and it just hadn't quite gotten into gear yet.  I was slow to recognize the signs that a change was about to occur....now I know...when nothing quite feels right, or when I work on something and it feels as if I'm repeating myself.  That's a sign...because I've come to a point where I AM repeating myself and I must sit back and wait for the new thing to be ready. Frustrating as that is....you all know the control vs. letting go battle that goes on in the studio on a regular basis...I figured I'd just bumble along, making a lot of rejects until things clicked.  Then I looked over and saw, tucked away on the shelf on my desk between some books, a few folded pages made perhaps a decade ago...pages like this...

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It was like looking in the mirror...I'd been looking at the work of other artists so intently, being inspired and envious of the work of all the wonderful artists I continue to meet on a daily basis on my travels through cyberspace, that it was a moment of delight to meet the maker I was many years ago and to recognize the "handwriting" as my own...not so different from the maker that is me today.  These are the infant meditation drawings.  There were three or four of these little pages and before I knew it I was making marks on them...the one below has some drawing added from today.  It was sort of like hugging an old friend...I just had to touch them.  I got reacquainted with myself and went straightaway to those little 3 x 3" squares and painted them in wild abandon...and in color....lots of colors...letting it mix together on the paper.   Who knows where they go from here....I think those 70 little pieces of paper probably do know, but they aren't telling me...not just yet.

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Oh, and I learned the name of that piece with the trees....it was a page from The Absence Tales and it's now listed in my shop.  Hope you all have a good weekend!  We have been given tickets to the Sioux City Symphony for tomorrow night and we're going to have a lovely dinner out first!  A real date...very exciting!  See you Monday!