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Friday, July 02, 2004 |
I'm gradually making space - both in my inner being and in my outer work areas. It seems to go back and forth. I make a little more space in my mind/being, and then I see how to make a little more space in my studio. That extra space in my studio opens up my inner being more, so then I can make even more space in my studio. And so it's going.
It's really helping to get all the extra ideas out of the studio. They're going to the storage room. They were scattered everywhere in notebooks and file folders, so that as I did my work I'd keep running across ideas from years back. I'd feel a bit guilty and ashamed - uh oh, another great idea that I haven't yet done. Finally it dawned on me that having all these notes and sketches wasn't helping me! They'll be there if I ever need them. Meanwhile, I can just make what I really want to make right NOW.
8:06:59 PM 
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My new routine is working. The evening before, I get my clothes and breakfast ready, with coffee ready at the touch of a button. My breakfast is portable - oats, raisins, cinnamon, flaxseed meal and sliced almonds - with a container of unsweetened applesauce ready to mix in before I eat it. When I get up, I push the coffee button, get dressed, pick up my box and head for the studio, coffee in hand.
All I do when I get to the studio is do an Effortless Mastery meditation. I push the button on the CD player, Kenny Werner's comforting voice begins, and I enter a new psychic space. After I do the meditation, I make a second cup of coffee, eat my breakfast, start my daily report, and start making my new sculptures.
It's the Effortless Mastery meditation that makes this work. That, and going to the studio first off, before any distractions or requests appear. When I first wake up, I realize that all I need to do is go down and do the meditation. After that, the day will take care of itself.
This is a big difference from waking up and thinking about "what I need to do today." That was too big, often confusing, often scary. I can walk to the studio and do the meditation, thanks to the CD. So I wake up with things I know I can do.
After I do the meditation, I also know I can do my artwork. I can't recommend Effortless Mastery more highly. If you only buy one book this year to free your creative process, this is the one to get.
4:56:09 PM
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Friday, June 25, 2004 |
For years I've thought it was just respectful of my ideas to keep all of them. There are notebooks and notebooks of them, plus loads of file folders full. Then there are notebooks of reference material on various media and techniques. Today it suddenly dawned on me that all these notes are a burden. Furthermore, they're a burden I could shed.
I've known that the bowls don't like really to be in the same room as my books. By "the bowls" I mean my vessel sculptures - iron, paper, mixed media. None of them seem to care much for books.
So it has worked out fine to have my books in the cabin where I live, instead of in the studio. If I need a book for reference, I can always take it to the studio. But I kept a lot of notebooks in the studio, thinking I needed them.
Today I moved them out. Haven't exactly found a good place for them yet, but I can make space in the cabin by moving books about. Now there's more room in the studio for work in progress. This is space I've desperately needed. What a relief!
Now I don't have ten years or more of bowl ideas weighing me down. That's a lot of ideas! I'm good at generating ideas. But all these old ideas are bogging me down. I just didn't see it till today.
I'm not tossing them - not yet anyway. But I can look at notebooks of ideas just as well in the cabin as in the studio. This frees the studio for - oh - for actually making new work! And it frees my mind for working spontaneously again. That's the way I used to make every bowl - completely spontaneously, starting wtih whatever "seed" was at hand. I've imagined myself working that way again, but it hasn't been happening. Now, with a clear studio space - just materials and tools - it looks much more possible.
10:26:14 PM
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Thursday, June 24, 2004 |
So much of the pleasure and success with any art or craft work depends on choosing the best batch size. The size depends on the item, the artist, and sometimes other factors like available space. If the batch is too small, the setup and cleanup time is disproportionate to the results. It hardly seems worth the work. And the artist may never really get warmed up, so the artwork itself may not reach the artist's potential at the time.
If the batch is too big, the artist "peaks out" before finishing and some of the resulting work isn't so good. Also the artist is tired of the work well before it's over. The result is not really wanting to do any more next time.
A good book for writers called A Writer's Time advised picking the length of a writing session carefully. If it's too short, you don't accomplish enough and just feel frustrated. If it's too long, you get tired and end up feeling depressed. Frustration or depression: take your choice! A session the best length for you, the individual writer, leaves you feeling satisfied and wanting to go again soon.
Similarly, for artists, a good batch size leaves you feeling satisfied and wanting to do more soon.
For me, eight acrylic paintings on 8x10" canvases is a perfect batch. By the time I've done something on the eighth one, the first ones are dry enough so I can add more to them. Out of eight, at least some will look good to me. And I have the space to dry them and later to varnish them.
I can forge two dozen iron hooks in a nice batch, but six cooking forks is about right. Two iron vessel sculptures is much better than one, three is ok, and four is about the limit. Two is pretty much ideal for iron bowls. There are times when I need to let the hot iron air cool. While it cools I can work on the other. I can do three, but it can start to cramp my spaces. Five is definitely too many. I only tried that once. I got way bogged down.
I used to paint Strathmore cards with gouache paints. The blank cards were packaged in sets of 20. That was a perfect batch. I often finished one batch and then did another right after.
When you start a new kind of artwork, there's no way to know the best size batch for you. You have to feel as you go. The work can bog down at either extreme. If the batch is too small, each piece is just too, too important and it's hard to take risks. If it's too large, you can get distracted and bogged down. Each step in the process can take too long because you have to do it with too many different works.
But this is a crucial factor. Just watching, paying attention is a big help. Be aware that you can change the batch size midstream. Start some new pieces. Or if the batch is too big, set some of the pieces aside to finish later.
And of course, it's an individual thing. Someone else may prefer to paint twenty 8x10" paintings at a time. Another artist may prefer to work on three at a time. Only you can know when you're really, really enjoying the work.
9:48:10 PM
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Wednesday, June 02, 2004 |
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Wednesday, May 26, 2004 |
I'm working to add more paper vessels to the website. Here's a preview link to one of the Chi Energy (TM) bags from the heart chakra series:
http://www.cjmorgan.com/paper-vessels/life-is-beautiful.htm
 This one is called "Life is Beautiful." Remember the wonderful Italian film of that title?
3:38:23 PM
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Thursday, May 20, 2004 |
Today I took pleasure in adding 19 paper Chi Energy (TM) medicine bags to the website. They're all throat chakra artwork for awakening and healing the throat chakra. Of course, many of the pieces are associates with other chakras as well.
 This one is called "Speak the Truth in Love." It's the turquoise color that associates it with the throat chakra. The four folds and the black lining make it a root chakra vessel as well. I like the balance between stability and expressiveness. This is one of my favorites.
Still have lots more pages of Chi Energy (TM) paper vessels to add to the site. I have to say it was thrilling to make the pages today. I relaxed and enjoyed looking at them.
A few days ago I added the shopping cart to the site, so now all the available artwork has an "add to shopping cart" button. Payment is by PayPal or check. I'm ready! Come on everyone!
5:21:27 PM
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Thursday, February 12, 2004 |
For quite a few years I've been saying I need more space. It's true. But for all this time I haven't gotten any more space. I've just been stuck.
Once I rented a studio in town but backed out when I discovered that the flaking paint on the windowsill was full of lead. I even got a building permit to add a portable storage building next to the studio. Then I wasn't sure what size....
Two or three days ago, I thought "OK, there's something else going on here underneath. By acting as if I can't get the space I need, I'm acting out some feeling. If I can acknowledge the feeling, I can get unstuck." I explored it a bit in my journal but didn't seem to get anywhere. Maybe...just the feeling that I don't deserve more space?
Yet...I got unstuck. I opened the Yellow Pages to find out how much an 8x12 building would cost, delivered and set up. (Answer, in case you're interested: $1466 including tax, plus building permit and electrical inspection for about $50 more - plus an electrician to make sure my panel is up to code, and whatever it would take to do that.
Saw in the Yellow Pages, a big ad for a new climate controlled storage building. Climate controlled storage is even better for artwork, slides, paper, etc. Temperature stays around 60 degrees F., and humidity in an ideal storage range. I can do this in a portable storage building but it would take a lot of work and expense: insulation, extra wiring, air conditioner and electricity. It's a long term solution when I need a solution NOW.
Rates are reasonable, security excellent. It took two days for my insurance agent to work out the way to get my contents covered at a rental location, but it got solved. Today I'll rent some climate controlled storage space.
Now, for the first time in many years, I can make new bowls without dealing with "where on earth can I put this when it's done?" What a relief!
And...if I can get unstuck about SPACE...I can get unstuck about anything. I grew up never controlling a square inch. I had a bedroom, but it had to be arranged and decorated to suit my mother. She had very good taste but...sometimes it's good to be able to make one's own mistakes.
Making sculpture is, of course, all about space. Ironic, isn't it? Probably no coincidence at all.
9:57:46 AM
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© Copyright 2004 Catherine Jo Morgan.
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