In the last few days i've been on a few fieldtrips to bloglandia, commenting, oggling, searching and communing. Here are snapshots from one of my avorite getaways...the amazing
D Sharpe's most excellent blog I am honored,truly.
Next a long schpeel about the setbacks and remedies for art blocks on Pikaland's coming VOICE IT OUT column. Here's what bubbled out of my head:
This is a GREAT addition to the wonderful world of
Pikaland!Q: What is your biggest stumbling block to creativity (or expressing yourself artistically), and what works for you in overcoming these setback(s)?
A: Well, now, where do i start?!
One of my main blocks is time management. i have alot of beings that depend on me from the second i wake up til the moment i lay my head down to sleep. I remember feeling like I had to choose an art life over a family life. I'm not naturally a super organized person but more of a dreaming fly by the seat of my pants type who does her best art in this mode however, as a big grown up with big grown up things to attend to, i feel like my day is swallowed by "duties" which requires tremendous energy and focus often leaving no time for selfless (or rather super selfish!) absorption into my "real work" which is always calling me. Now that my babies aren't cooing in the backround but rather needing rides across the state to go to sports events , i feel i never have the TIME to produce quality artwork. I doodle a bit here and there and hope for more time.
What to do? I am learning, as my family and their needs grow, that it imperative that i carve time for myself everyday to do something artistic. As i get closer to a show i naturally take the time i need because of the impending deadline but the family rythmn does suffer...everyone puts up with it and is glad when it is OVER..esp in the meal dept.
My blog is a way to committ to a snippet of artistic indulgence on a daily basis. I may not post an entry everyday but i do go there and check out my ever growing list of Esty loves and sites.Go on a little field trip to Pikaland :) Here's another time management issue...i can't stop!!! Following one link to another, excited by the visual sense of familiarity and adventure...is what keeps me going. Hence the COMMUNITY of artists all over the planet gives me the incentive to keep trying everyday to squeeze in my art.
In the grand scheme of things, I am simply taking a sabbatical, my children need me and i signed up for them, pledged my time the day they arrived. Once a wise lady told me..."your art will always be there, your children will be young for just a short time. You decide."
So, I suck at juggling all the bills and hopelessly unartistic and boring duties but make really awesome birthday cakes and host insane birthday parties, i volunteer in the school and bring in boxes of junk and get the kids to sculpt high wire acts out of corks and wire and tell them about Calder's Circus, point out the ever amazing shapes and shadows of the clouds and mountains, light and birds, patterns of hay and the way snow crystallizes on every tiny bare branch in the dead of winter.
So, as i transition into a more organized person who can guiltlessly report to her studio (her husband made for her) and be a "real" artist, I will keep flying by the seat of my pants and in the grand scheme of things, add YOGA to my routine, calm down, do the bills quickly so i can get back to LIVING, exploring, evolving and know that i am always doing my art even if it doesn't end up on canvas.
xoxoMilady
Stephanie Morgan Rogers
miladyproductions.etsy.com
miladyproducitons.com
miladyproductions.blogspot.com
