Finding your way takes persistence and maybe a few wayfinding devices.

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Finding your way takes persistence and maybe a few wayfinding devices. It is easy to get myopic in the studio.  We artists tend to get caught up in the details: each blade of grass offers an opportunity to linger.

And then…there are the droplets of dew!!!  Oh My!  It is all so beautiful! Awe inspiring!  I could gaze at it forever! Such GREEN! Green is a hard color to work with…what am I gonna’ do? Is it going to be a painting?  Where’s the canvas?  Or shall I stitch it?  Maybe beads?

OOPS!  I forgot what I was doing!

Yes indeed, this is a clear characteristic of many of us in the arts:  getting lost along the way toward finishing things or finding shows. The love of close looking is one of our strengths as well as a potential trip hazard. It slows us down and, and after a while, it begins to feel like we will never arrive, or even get close to arriving.

It all takes persistence.

Sure, of course.  Yeah, yeah yeah.  We’ve heard it all before. Nose to the grindstone, and all that!
I’m actually talking about something a little more subtle than the obvious Attention Deficit Disorderliness of many of us artists.

I think I am actually talking about the courage
to begin again and again and again and the tools to do so.

Just in case you didn’t know it, I am here to tell you that life throws you curve balls.  All different kinds of balls get bounced through your studio life.  Cute balls, pretty balls, hilarious balls as well as bowling balls and baseballs through the metaphorical window!  I had something between a baseball and a bowling ball metaphorically come through the window four months ago.  I sustained an injury that hurts, at times a lot, that is taking lots and lots of appointments and treatments and rest to heal.  Don’t get me wrong, it will heal.

Curve balls, or, in the immortal words of Forrest Gump, “shit happens.”

That’s on a bumper sticker somewhere, isn’t it?  Better there than on your shoe!
So, what now?

It is really hard to originate new work with this injury.  Time and energy are severely affected. Initially I fussed and fumed, angry at the world and the medical establishment that was not terribly helpful in the beginning of the mess.  (Medicare is great, except for when it isn’t.)  Well, all that fussing and fuming wasn’t getting me anywhere.  I had 3 solo shows scheduled for the coming year. I was ranging between panic and catatonia, periodically yelling “Catastrophe! Catastrophe!”

ENOUGH!

Right around the time the injury happened, I wrote a blog post about the value of bodies of work and turning them into traveling shows.

PRESCIENT, RIGHT?

I DO HAVE LARGE BODIES OF COMPLETED WORK FOR THESE SHOWS.  If I can’t make another new piece for a while, I will still be able to fulfill my obligations. I will need help moving and hanging the shows, but that’s OK.  In fact, it’s pretty normal.  I already try to schedule my larger show deliveries for days when my assistants can help me. My friends and colleagues have been super supportive!

My dog? not so much, but she is cute anyways.

Slowly but surely I am making new pieces, at maybe 1/10 the normal speed.  Standing and finishing the pieces takes careful planning, stretching out the processes over several days or weeks. Staple one day, sand another, cut wood on another, stitch as usual, but changing bobbins is slower…even drawing is affected.  Good grief!

In fact, I am still applying the years long habits and tricks I described in  Productivity in the Studio.  Things like, when all you have is 5 minutes, what can you do?  Letting go of perfection. Showing up, even if all you do is write a list or stare at the wall. And sabbath taking.

I managed to finish the series of walnut and stitching Wayfinding Devices. I had already made the stitched/stuffed centers before the injury.  But I really, really felt like I needed to find my way. So, at the end of my July vacation, I ordered in some walnut and slowly cut, sanded and finished the devices , because I needed them to help me find my way.

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So I persist and begin again and again, waving my Wayfinding Devices around like magic wands. I think it’s working!  I am much calmer.  I realized I can study with Christies again.  I can do interviews (stay tuned!  There are several coming online soon.) and, at a slower, careful pace, I can persist making the new things I imagine!  Just wait until I share them!  They are a joyful riot of color! Begin finding your way!