The muse reared her head

Well after much wasted time on the previous painting, I have decided to scrap it for the time being, once again. I will begin a new piece today. I knew once I started working my muse would come back and feed me with the long eluded inspiration that I so desperately need right now. And not a moment too soon! The previous painting has several ideas that aren't necessarily cohesive for one piece so I decided to learn from it and move on. I do this a lot, but it was good practice. Eventually this piece will work itself out, but not right now.

My Creative Muse is Playing Hide and Seek

Before I totally trash this painting, I thought I would experiment and try to salvage it. It has taken so many turns since I began it last year. I have been reading and doing some exercises from the book "Art From Intuition" by Dean Nimmer that was recommended from my ex professor's blog, Kate Kretz. I have been looking at old family photos and trying to find images that sort of fit my original thought for this painting. Perhaps a new approach with mixed media can breathe new life into this piece. Still has a long way to go, but...

It has been so long since I have spent a period of time in my studio that I feel rusty and lost. It will come, but boy it is a painful process. I have all my trigger things for my muse to come, but she is hiding. My ritual for being in my studio is to burn incense, nag champa is my favorite, turn up my Itunes, take off my shoes and go. Not working so far.

As for Itunes, the new version has a genius button which when you select a song from your library, it puts together a group of similar music as a playlist. I am loving it. I am hearing stuff I didn't even realize I had in my 30,000+ library of music.

Below is my progress, or should I say pain, so far.

In the Studio

Today I am in the studio. My plan is to go back and forth working on websites and painting. When I get to a breaking point with the website, I will paint and vice versa. Let's see how that works.

With my husband gone until Wed. I should get a lot of work done this weekend. I love it when there is no heading out of the studio at 5 pm to get dinner ready and prepare for his arrival from work. I am on my own schedule this week and will love it.

I constantly struggle with my housewife stuff and my artist stuff. The lines often cross each other and I feel guilty for neglecting either one. I am sure there must be a way to balance all this, but haven't quite managed to get the hang of it yet. When painting, I get totally immersed and time gets lost for me. It is hard to put a 9 - 5 on being creative. I forget that I am boiling eggs and have them explode, I forget to do laundry and to go to the grocery store. I also can't seem to justify leaving these tasks undone to be in the studio. I have hired a cleaning service to come in every two weeks to help out, but they don't do laundry. LOL Anyway, I will love spending all my time in the studio this week without having the pressures of running a house. Let's see what I am able to produce.

I'm Back!!!

Where has the time gone?

I was traveling again this past week and returned home Friday night absolutely exhausted. I again have a ton of stuff to do on more websites. My part time job is becoming a full time responsibility. I get caught up then another client wants more changes and it seems like everyone wants updates at the same time.

Thank goodness my husband is traveling tomorrow and will be gone until Tuesday. I will be burning the midnight oil all weekend. This will include doing some serious painting that needs to get done. I have been out of my studio so long that it is beginning to feel quite foreign to me. I have to find a way to balance my pay work for my have to do work.

I have several upcoming exhibitions that I need to prepare for. One at the ArtExpo Miami in Dec, another at a local venue here in Puerto Rico and a juried show to get ready for. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed these days. But I won't let it paralyze me and just get organized and get things done.

Things are getting Done!!!

Back in the studio and getting things finished. The websites I have been working on for months are finally finished and now headway is made so I can begin work on a new site. At some point I need to revise the EEAG site and revisit my own and update it.

Have been doing some research on a few new paintings that I hope to start upon my return from Florida. I prepped a wood panel yesterday in hopes of getting some paint put on it this week. We will see.

Have an important meeting with a potential client today and really hope all goes well. Don't want to jinx it, but it could be really good for me. Without getting into too much detail, it involves some potentially major commissions. I will know more when I get back this afternoon.

Off to prepare for meeting. Have a fabulous day!

Back in the Studio

Time is slipping away. I am so far behind on website work and my own painting. I have several things coming up and need to get back in my studio and paint. I have a few ideas brewing and just need to get busy.

This morning will be spent updating a website and preparing to create a new one. This afternoon will be spent on preparing wood panels for paintings. I may need to run to Home Depot, not looking forward to that as it is an hour away and will really eat into my day, for some wood braces for the wood panels.

I am in a 70's mood today and listening to some fabulous music that is taking me back to an earlier, but not happier, time in my life. Itunes has a great selection of different music genres and when I tire of hearing my usual standards, all 15,000 songs in my own music collection, I flip to Itunes radio.

Traveling again this week on Friday for a party in Daytona and will be gone for a week. But upon my return am prepared to spend many late nights in the studio.

Take 2

Sitting in my studio, updating stuff and answering some long overdue emails, all of a sudden I hear the all too familiar boom that causes me to fly out of my leather chair, push open the door of my studio, race through the gate and find the pigeon that just hit my picture window before my dogs get to it. As luck would have it, the pigeon fell into a planter, just out of reach of my dogs. As I chase the dogs inside and close the door before they can devour this pour bird, I step in a huge fire ant nest and now have ants chewing away at the flesh on my feet. I get inside, grap a plastic grocery bag and flee back outside to check to see if the pigeon survived its horrible crash. As I poke at it with a stick, there is no movement and after turning it over I see the blood oozing from its beak. I realize that the bird must have broken its poor neck on impact. I pick it up with the plastic bag and grab my ever handy camera to take some shots that I know I will use in future paintings.