Monday, August 16, 2010

siren song


wax in progress*


After nearly two years and several aborted forays into the model making studio I am finally fully engaged. This past week I have spent the lion's share of my time working on models. Yesterday when I put down my work about 7 PM my mind continued to reside in that place in my head, in time and space, that I go when deeply involved in making. My body was on the couch, a book was in my lap but mostly I was staring into the infinite, my mind still in the studio working on the moonflower box, cataloguing what is accomplished so far and thinking about the next pieces to work on. Disengaging from that state of mind, returning from the 'land of art' as Marc calls it, is much like rising up out of a deep and dream filled sleep. Right now I am trying hard to keep the connection, to keep a part of my mind devoted to that place while I tend to other mundane things.

When fully engaged, I drift through life like a ghost, all my connections to the real world put aside, my chores go undone. I'm starting to understand how the city house got to the state it's in, my intention to be a better housekeeper in the country house becoming another paving stone on the road to hell. The housework I meant to do last week is still undone, the dishes, a continual though ever changing pile on the counter, never completely finished. Outside, I manage to keep the birdbath filled and the few pots of plants watered, the long hot dry dog days of August excuse enough for not getting the rest of those chores done.

The siren is calling and I must go thither.


*The top to the moonflower box was actually made for another piece but I didn't like them together.


15 comments:

  1. I'm that kind of housekeeper without any kind of real reason - so I say go for it! Make beauty. The dishes will keep.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is exactly the state of mind that is healthy- bugger dishes and housework where genius resides - they will either get done or not but are not worthy of disrupting artistic expression. Love the moon flower box thing. Brilliant, lovely and WORTHY!!!
    Housekeeping died with the 50's I think...

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love that escape into the creation process. I have found it in drafting, engineering and pottery. When I can get into this mode, all the rest of the world drops away for a while. It does become possessive, not much else matters. When I have had a good session of throwing, I will feel like I am still there at the wheel. With engineering, it follows me into my dreams and I will find solutions there. Unfortunately, for me, it can't be forced. It happens when it happens.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your Moonflower box is breathtaking. Just wonderful.
    I have said all along that housework is first a four letter word and second it will make you ugly if you do it too much....and I'm taking no chances.
    Ain't artist genius the only place to be? Course I wouldn't know anymore....I take care of kids, until Wednesday and then I'm free, I tell you free.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think the siren call is impossible to ignore. I feel like you describe when I am working on a piece of writing. Even in my dreams the characters or action take on a life of their own and I find it wonderful to disappear from what you call 'the mundane' every day life.

    Where else would you go if not into creativity?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love the moonflower box--I think that's working up to be one of your best...

    ReplyDelete
  7. "When fully engaged, I drift through life like a ghost, all my connections to the real world put aside, my chores go undone".

    That is me, in full tilt boogie writing mode.

    Gorgeous piece.

    Rene

    ReplyDelete
  8. I so want to come and see all of your work. You are incredibly talented [do I say that enough - but 'tis true]

    Really pretty Ellen. It is worth the chores undone.

    Skippymom

    ReplyDelete
  9. Create, create!!! The dishes will wait.

    ReplyDelete
  10. ellen i know the place you're writing about and yet this is the very first time i have read someone's sense of it in the very way i sense it. i have read the thoughts and coments of many artists and musicians but it's the space you're describing - staring into the infinite - that i am connecting to. thanks so much for this! oh and ignore the mess of the mundane and make a mess in the infinite. steven

    ReplyDelete
  11. The box is beautiful.
    It's wonderful to know that others experience this kind of drifting away into dreamland and you've expressed it so well.

    ReplyDelete
  12. It's so beautiful. The land of art, eh? Yes, you definitely know the path in and out of that place.

    Do you talk to your work the way you talk to the plants and animals, do you "tuck in" your pieces at the end of the day the way you tuck in your garden?

    Great post.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I'm pretty sure artists' houses aren't supposed to be neat and clean.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Beautiful moon flower. Psychologists call it "flow". People who find it and find their talent are blessed. I would like to get there more often.

    ReplyDelete
  15. art requires attention

    housework will always be there
    you wash a dish today, there's another one tomorrow ;)

    ReplyDelete

I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.