I am always interested how I can go to the studio with a clear idea of what I want to do and something else will turn up and it all changes. Today’s #Letter365 piece (not quite finished so it could all change when I go back to the studio!) has turned out different in size, shape, colour, technique and textures to what was in my head. It was as if this other idea was hanging around waiting for me to sit at the table and plug my head into it. Until the moment I sat down I had no intention of deviating from the idea tha had been brewing all morning! So what goes on? Am I just easily distracted? Or is there some other process going on in me beneath the conscious that is alert to opportunity and is prepared to, has the freedom to, run with the new.
This piece came together with certainty, clarity and speed and is a much gentler and calmer piece than intended: perhaps my systems were telling me to slow down.
This one took ages to dry – now there’s a hint: glue or paint or ink maybe – so I am pleased I started it early. I spent part of the day painting in the garden – black paint on a solar wax extractor – not sure that is going to dry properly now that the temperature has plummeted, but I don’t have to send it off to anyone only find it a place out of the weather.
I like the colour on this one very much. Perhaps I’ll stick with it.
The post from the village post box goes at noon on Saturday and there is no collection on Sunday. So at the weekend I feel I have more time. While the deal I have made with myself is that I will hand it over for delivery by midnight each day, where possible I am trying to get it in the post . At the weekend it’s all a bit more flexible and I’m not under the self-imposed pressure to do the piece early in the day.
So today I wasn’t happy with the first piece I created – well at least not for this project. I suppose I am ultra-critical and feel I must make sure I am delivering pieces of value as people will be buying blind. The first piece is fine I guess and it may get offered for sale (obviously I cannot use it as a #Letter365 piece as it does not meet the criteria of being substantially made on the day).
I just wonder, had I not had the luxury of the extra time would I have let it go?
Whereas yesterday was a struggle today was a breeze. I am so pleased with the piece that I wanted to save it for another day or not include it in the project! It’s one that I am happy to keep looking at and would definitely have on my wall: the sort of piece I would buy if it was by someone else! But that’s where I have to have the discipline to go through with my intention and the self-restraint to not covet my own work. Oh dear.
I suppose part of it is that I am considering destroying any unsold pieces, unseen, at the end of the project and would find it difficult to see this one “put down”!
And now I wonder about exploring the elements of that piece further. There are elements that I want to use in some larger pieces but should I now just leave them secret in #Letter365?
#Letter365 No14 can’t hang about for fish and chips
It started to rain as I walked back from the Post Office. It was almost the first posting in the rain, which is amazing after all the months of no stop wet weather we have had. The fish and chip van doesn’t come for a while, so I didn’t need to push through the crowd to get to the post box. Mind you, Ann in the shop waved through the window as I took the photo, but she knows I am mad.
An unfolding artwork created a piece each day for a year
