\nThere was also a need to have a pseudo – albeit one way conversation – with some of the many people I have known over my life – I am simply not great at keeping up….<\/p>\n
I have learnt a heap about myself in the past year…or perhaps I should say that I have acknowledged and tried to embrace or modify the traits that I have not previously valued.
\nI have been much more open and honest about who I am and what I am able to do.<\/p>\n
What I now know about myself #1;<\/strong> What I now know about myself #2;<\/strong> What I now know about myself #3;<\/strong> What I now know about myself #4;<\/strong> What I now know about myself #5;<\/strong> What I now know about myself #6;<\/strong> There you go. It has taken a year to get to that. back to THIS WEEK<\/em>…. I am back to the paint chip feathers and am solidifying my aims for a few exhibition entries due in the next few months, twentyONE+<\/a> and petite<\/a> interest me most at the moment –\u00a0 though I haven’t yet trawled through the list of forthcoming exhibitions yet and the works I want to get back to or start are varied.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\nEarly last year I was able to keep engaged with my artwork when I could quickly re-engage in repetitive tasks – feathers to draw on Laminex, stitching on Paint chips, making digital print ‘feathers’.
\nI know I like working this way – making small components that collectively create a whole.
\nThis is why I loved quiltmaking – making blocks to make a quilt.
\nThe whole is the sum of its engaging parts.<\/p>\n
\nOccasionally I do<\/em> like starting with a whole rather than a group of small components but it is much more scary. It is more of a gamble and I hate gambling.
\nI generally work this way when reworking photos with stitch – and I love doing that.
\nI’d love to get back to this asap.
\nBeing scared is good.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nSitting quilting the red & white hexagon quilt is thinking time.
\nSitting at the sewing machine is thinking time.
\nRepetitive drawing actions such as the Laminex feathers was thinking time.
\nMy hands are busy but once the task becomes assimilated into my body – and my hands can do the dance without thinking, THEN my brain starts whirring. This is danger time.<\/em>
\nI now know that for repetitive tasks I need to have my phone, iPad and sketchbook handy – simply to stop me walking away from the task at hand.
\nI now empty my brain, record quickly and move back into stitch\/task mode interrupting my task for merely a minute.
\nI’ll find time to follow up leads and write up thoughts later<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\nI loved the repetitive\/ addictive drawing of feathers on Laminex and I want to re-enter that headspace. I want to have a drawing project set up and after a year of fiddling I think I finally have a working plan. Time to slot it in the calendar is another thing!<\/p>\n
\nTo make these things happen I still need to, as always, EXIT things in my life that hold me back. Stuff from the studio and the shelves. Stuff in my mind.
\nLearning to let go of physical<\/em> anchors and mental<\/em> stumbling blocks.
\nIt IS happening.<\/p>\n
\nI know that I will be always be absorbed in family and home and living well, always making my ‘real’ life as creative and fulfilling as possible. I am not the isolated artist in the garret!\u00a0 My expectations of what I can do are<\/em> becoming more realistic….<\/p>\n
\nIt has taken a pile of sorting and clearing, mentally and physically and there is still more to do.
\nI didn’t expect to be still prattling on about direction and organisation a year on – instead I would have hoped that I could list all the wonderful works I have made and how the majority had been exhibited.
\nsmall steps…<\/em><\/p>\n
\nThe starting week of year two has been a good week.
\nMy plans to start straight back into downstairs mode have been born fruit.
\nI have moved into repetitive stitch mode and completed the set tasks for each day – even pushing further than I anticipated.
\nThe really interesting thing, which does not surprise me at all, is that the tap-tap tasks upstairs have been pushed back a little though I have done most of what I set out to do…..it is a reversal of priorities in mind and deed.
\nTemporary I am sure but still a good start.<\/p>\n![\"paint](\"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/week1-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>To try to immediately get a handle on my commitments for the year I resorted to printing out my calendar with only my solid commitments blocked in.
\nOf the fifty-two weeks available I have already, to a certain extent, lost\/spent ten of them.
\nYIKES.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n