I've
had three proposals to write the last two weeks. Last week was
basically lost to the rain and the river at flood stage. This week
I've been finding all sorts of other ways to procrastinate, mostly
involving birds, and a last ditch effort in which I vacuumed the
whole house. And I hate housework.
The
first two proposals were easy enough and I banged them out the
beginning of the week. The third one though is for a large window in
a master bath. The designer is interested in a rather decorative
traditional floral with a victorianish border. She referenced an
image of a job we did years ago.
I
don't know why I'm being so resistant. I like working with this
designer and it will be a good job if she can sell it which she
generally does and I've done many sketches like it over the years.
It
would be so much easier if I could find the initial sketch for the
job she referenced but, of course, amid all the tons of paper in
drawings large and small that I have kept over the years, that one is
not to be found.
I'm
wondering if my lack of interest is due to the fact that I am, for
the most part, burnt out on doing the detailed and intricate carvings
or if it's just this design in general but whichever the excitement,
she is gone. I want to copy and paste from my old drawings, not
design a new one. Better yet, I would just like to sell a design I
have already done. But that, apparently, is not the way I roll.
So
I have dug out the full size drawings from that job and pinned them
to the wall, looking at them as I try to reproduce them in a
different size and shape.
As
you can see, I did get started but it doesn't seem to be finishing on
it's own.
Drat.
Isn't it awful when your mind wants to leave the old behind, but it's stuck drawing intricate designs, hopefully for the last time.
ReplyDeleteA gallery is opening in town, striving for a couple weeks before the Boston Mills Art Fest, generally a time of great sales in town. The owner has made me a decent offer to represent my stuff and is terrified I'll sell out on Saturday. As if! And if I do, so what. I really want to start making a short, swingy little dress and charge enough for it to be comfortable with the commission. She can't conceive of it. But if it's all the customers see only she will know what they didn't see.
hate that you've lost your mojo. my little drawings i do giveaways on have escaped me, too. have not drawn for several months, but mine's just for fun and not for $. :)
ReplyDeleteWhere are those darn insomniac pixies when you need them?
ReplyDeleteWell, you and I both know that the only way to get something done is to start it. And then do it.
ReplyDeleteWhich is very, very difficult when you're just not in the mood.
It's hard to do a project requiring creativity that you're just not excited about. You're working on it, though, so that's something. Step by step, right?
ReplyDeleteSometimes hard to get in the swing of things. I don't have many deadlines, so have lost track of always staying on task.I am headed home today from 2 weeks of camping.
ReplyDeleteI guess if art was an automated process we would not need artists.
ReplyDeleteBeen there, done that, burned the t-shirt? You're closing out bread-and-butter series, having trouble getting into intricate Victoriana that you used to dive right into, seeing the making of multiples as a chore... You've also had some pretty significant family changes, a big sift in business with the recession, left the city, moved into a great big new studio space, met up with a flood, too.
ReplyDeleteI dunno, I would think it's awfully tough to go backward when your mind is moving forward. Your new work is stunning; I think I'd have a pretty hard time trying to unlock a cramped old cubbyhole for my brain, too.
I find it hard to be creative on a deadline. Add in everything else you've got going on, and I say cut yourself some slack. In times like that I remind myself that it will get done, it always does.
ReplyDelete