Sunday Ramblings

Even after a *play day*, lazing on the couch and a good night's sleep, I still feel physically exhausted and non focused artistically. I tell you, finishing a large commission is like losing a job. Suddenly there is all this time on your hands and you don't know what to do.
So I chose a long nap yesterday afternoon and the beginning of a scarf kit I had ordered and been itching to knit.
Well.
After two shots at enlarging the Fair Isle grid to blind-old-fart size, I got about two inches knit last evening and since it is supposed to be around 76" long, I'm thinking I will be wearing it next year. I also am not crazy about one or two sections of color combinations, so I might switch things around, to further complicate the matter. Hey, if I run out of yarn, I'll buy another skein of something else. No big deal. But I did have moments when I wondered what screw in the head had finally popped completely loose to start that pattern.......
This morning I sit in the beautiful quiet of the country with only the sound of an occasional car on the road or the furnace kicking on, a cup of good coffee and my soul completely at rest. I'll be catching church service on the web later and have no pressure today. It is a nice but odd feeling. I am still decompressing from the banners, and as I have talked with other artists, they go through the same struggles I did with these. It is not that we hate our work, and we certainly don't hate being paid! Oh no!
But the striking individualism that makes us what we are makes it hard to lasso all that focus into one *something* when our brains are going elsewhere and the inner child is throwing a fit to go play. Sad but true...eh?  ;-)   I am, for the most part, fairly disciplined when I start work but that doesn't mean I don't want to say to heck with it and do something else. In fact, when I am not in serious crunch time, I usually have something going in the wet studio to be able to sneak down for a few minutes and then come back to the job at hand. I've found that works well.....when I have the time. I did not  with this last project, and I think that is why I am so discombobulated about what to do now. (I knit all winter, so that doesn't count......)
Yes, I worked on the felted sweater parts yesterday, and yes I enjoyed that but it requires a lot of heavy hand guidance so it is a project that will get attention as the body agrees to it.
I still want to paint or collage, but am at a loss.
Maybe tomorrow, when the banners are hanging in the church, when the photos are taken of them and I have put them up on here and feel completely done---completely---maybe then the path will open up. I have learned patience with the process, though I am most impatient to DO art.
Now.
Right now.
But I think I will wait, and refresh the coffee instead, and enjoy just sitting.....doing nothing....in the quiet.

Pax.