Warning: Excessively Long Post, Musing on Art Making

Focus, Bobbi, focus.  My front yard is full of crows and I'm feeling very distracted right now.  I did put out some raw hamburger to try to entice them to the porch where I can get a better look.  The front door is open to a good view.

I've painted my clothes with gesso, my hands are covered with blue and red paint, and I like it.  If you've been reading this blog awhile, you will know that this is a major milestone for me, the one who can't stand dirty hands.

I've been thinking about art making, specifically my art making and what I want to do this year.  Last year was all about crocheting.  I really did absolutely nothing significant in the way of painting or drawing.  I was happy crocheting, really I was; I learned so much and I'll be doing a lot more crocheting this year, but I really do miss drawing.  I just want to kick myself when I look through my paints and find all the jars of dried up medium and the hard tubes of dried paint. 

I want to find my artistic focus for the year.  A lot of it will be about learning, and re-learning. A lot will be about just playing around and allowing myself to do that without feeling bad.  I used to art journal a lot.  At some point I just started letting that slip away.  Over the last couple years I've been admiring the art journals I see on folks' blogs, and I always think, "oh! I want to start doing that again!" and I don't.  Today I did.  This is very much about just playing with color, texture, shapes, and thoughts and not feeling pressured to make **ART**.

I've also been thinking about how I fit this art making and playing into my days.  I was listening to this CraftyPod interview with Lisa Congdon.  She was talking about the day-to-day work of being an artist, and said that she schedules her making time for first thing in the mornings, otherwise the more administrative tasks of an art business can seep into your art making time.  That is so, so true.  I usually do Etsy store related tasks first thing in the morning, just to get them out of the way so I can move on to the making.  So often though, some computer issue will come up or I'll get bogged down in photographing and listing products, and pretty soon, my making time has passed and it's time to start making dinner!

So today, I decided to turn my day on it's head and I started out in my studio.  It was wonderful!  I really didn't want to come out of there.  I'm just going to sneak back in as soon as I'm done here.  My problem is, I feel like I haven't done anything today.  You know what I mean?  I'm not giving my art exploration the value and respect that it deserves.  I have to work on that one.  Any suggestions?

Part of my art exploration is about pushing myself, being true to my own artistic voice, and following that voice.  I was thinking today that all I ever draw are birds, and wondering how I could get myself to focus on some other subject matter.  Then I picked up an old book and started cutting out pictures of birds.  Some things you just have to accept as part of who you are:)  Did I not start this post off by talking about birds?

Back to the learning and re-learning.  Getting back in the habit of drawing will be re-learning.  Another thing I want to re-learn is silverwork.  A few years ago, I took a class in small metals.  I fell in love with silverwork; I went out and bought lots of equipment, tools, and silver.  These are some jewelry pieces I was working on back then.  They need some serious polishing!  When my daughter and grandbaby came to live with us, I put the silver stuff away, because I didn't want the little sweetheart breathing toxic fumes.  That was over three years ago; it's time for me to get it all back out.  I'm kind of afraid of the acetylene torch to be honest.  Not when I'm using it, but it's been sitting there untouched for a long time.  I hope it doesn't blow up when I try to light it!  Probably it won't.  I'm just looking for excuses, aren't I?