April 24, 2012
April 25, 2012
April 26, 2012
April 27, 2012
I made a new friend some weeks ago and now I'm not quite sure how I first found her, except that I was struck by the fact that she was also posting a new piece each day in her shop. I was dumbfounded that she was making a beautiful art quilt that was a bit free-form around the edges with the expressive qualities of drawing and painting....one each day. We began an online correspondence and found we share many similarities in our thinking and the kind of obstacles we were facing when we began our little daily practices early in the year. In the course of some conversation, as we'd been "talking" about the daily pieces as opposed to our "real work" she said something that made me pause...."maybe they are the real work". Oh. Oh. Oh. That notion is still echoing in my head as my life shifts with the currents. Once I began really to see this daily practice and the drawings that result, not as something separate, but as an integral part of the "real work"....well, I can't quite describe what has happened. At the end of the week, when I show you some newly finished pieces of what I was calling the "real work", you'll see that it is all the real work...the marks, the images, the ideas conveyed....it all comes from the same place. I'd toyed with the idea of giving up the daily practice when I began working at the library, but I quickly abandoned it....this is just as much the real work as anything else I do. And yet, that notion still echoes....it's a VERY big idea if you let it sit next to you in the chair....pretty soon, you feel crowded out....what IS the real work? What am I called to do by my innermost being, the one with the almost audible voice? When you are doing that thing.....I think that you are truly inhabiting yourself in the fullest sense of the word. So many people never find their real work....I hope you are finding yours. Oh, my new friend's name is Karen Anne Glick and you'll meet her on Monday...she's the feature for the Inspirations post. Have a great weekend!
Hello Patti. DON'T stop doing you daily drawings - there are many of us who delight in the whimsical nature. I also have recently blogged on the dAd practice I began in 1998 (drawing a day) and tried to keep up without any constant success. Some years I would do six months of drawings, some years 3months and one year, only one daily drawing. I must say I find my 'real' work finds its roots in my daily drawings more often that not. They are your visual library and impetus often. Keep them up! x
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Susan....not to worry, the dailies will continue! I have found that they are not a separate practice from everything else, but have become a visual library and resource for my own work....how very handy! Wow, your drawing a day practice goes way back....good for you for maintaining it and allowing it to be what it is! Cheers!
DeleteInteresting post.... and I'm smiling about the "real work" and the work that leads up to it since what I've been doing this week is what i consider to be "warming up work"..... and yet it is my "real work" :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Robyn....I knew the "real work" was probably not the right term, but it was the one in my head....it is most definitely all the real work, isn't it! Hope your work is flowing nicely!
DeletePerhaps "work" is not quite the right word for it all. When it comes to creativity sometimes its that you simply can't NOT do it. I realise some time back that the one constant in my life, from a small child to now is the need to make 'something'. There have been times when I thought I'd stop it, sell the stash, but I never have, I always get called back, sometimes there's been a gap. For me its the same as writing a diary - I don't write it every single day, and sometimes its half a page and sometimes 10 pages. I've been writing this last effort since 1992 - its another can't NOT do it. I think sometimes these activities become our "drug of choice" the compulsion for the next fix is overwhelming (hope not to offend). Keep doing what you're doing, I love to see what emerges.
ReplyDeleteHi Beverley....yes, I nearly put an addendum on that last post, as there was another whole train of thought related to calling all this "work" in the first place. Somehow that work carry unpleasant connotations, as if it is all drudgery and something to get through....but, as you say, we can't NOT do it and it's a pleasurable (despite the struggles) thing, this making process, that is part of our core being as artists. Thanks for your comment and encouragement!
DeleteWhat an interesting turn of events Patti! I love how folk can say something that hits us in our solar plexus, and that we realise as a truth - altho we don't quite know what to do with it yet. Hmmm - the real work. I don't think any work is wasted, and I'm not so sure about there begin only one sort of real work - I have too many things going on to be able to live with that notion! But, if we speak of important work, and work that matters and needs to be seen - then that is more meaningful for me, and your dailies are definitely important work. Love April 26 this week!
ReplyDeleteHi Fiona....the more I've heard from folks, the more I know that my term, "the real work" for what I'm talking about is quite misleading....as you say, it is al the real work, as it is all the important work....perhaps I had been thinking of the more serious work, but even that is not different....everything one does is just another facet of the gem....and part of the polishing! Thanks also for your compliments on the dailies posted....I liked that group too....it was a good week! Cheers!
DeleteI really like this bunch of dailies!! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Dorien!! I have to say, I felt good about this bunch of dailies as well! So glad you are checking in on them and happy to have your comments! Best wishes!
DeleteP-love your dailies - as DR said this batch are right up there - simple and expressive and technically so balanced. "Real work?" - for me I'm not sure there is such a thing - I can't avoid all the different fragments of my life; and together they make up the mosaic of my life and me - so they are all real. I enjoy some more than others but for me that does not make them more real - some can have a little more value attributed to them (by me) in that I think they add a little more joy or peace to my life or the lives of others. For me that does not mean that they are more real or more valuable to others - rather they just feel right for me- for my being - guess I will stop raving now. Go well in all you do. B
ReplyDeleteHi Barry.....I thank you for the kind words on the posted dailies...I felt good about that group as well. And if you've seen the other comments...all so helpful to clarify my thinking...I realize my term "real work" is not what I wanted to describe, as you are right it's all the real work. It's the slow, layered, probably more serious work I was talking about, my as time goes on....well even those distinctions have melted away and I realize it's all one thing, coming from once source....perhaps seen at slightly different angles. Thanks so much for your wise words and encouragement! Cheers!
DeleteI love these works you have made each day.
ReplyDeleteThey caught my eye as they are so unusual but absolutely beautiful to behold:)
xx
Thank you so much Sue! Delighted to hear they have captured you! Thanks for taking the time to comment here! Best wishes to you!
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