I was thinking that I didn't have any art news to share, but then I realized that I've been making things pretty consistently for the last month or so. Mainly I've been working on my coloring book pages in between other projects. Other projects like:
1. My mom's Mother's Day present (a titmouse, a yellow finch, and a chickadee sitting on an oval branch in gray scale marker, minus the yellow for the finch)
2. The "In The Beginning" collage (so much picture prep, so many ways to create a composition!)
3. The 10x10x10 works ("Glass" and "Mountain/Orange." Making something 10x10 was really fun! I thought about making it a regular size to work with whenever I collage. Only problem is that frames aren't available in 10x10 unless they're shadow boxes, or at least that's the case at Hobby Lobby.)
4. My new digital works (I'd been wanting to make an abstract digital version of The Annunciation for months. Once I got the ball rolling with that, I decided to do two more to flex my creative muscles and have a little fun. Plus, I had found a cool image of gold and I wanted to use it more than once.)
Then, The Funk hit.
I just had this heavy feeling of gloom and doom descend upon me. I didn't feel positive about anything I needed to make: my father's day present, my mom's birthday card, my G page. None of it excited me, everything I did was bad, and my insides rebelled at the thought of working on my G page, which I think was the catalyst for the whole thing. My F page was tough to top. I left it propped up as inspiration for me to soldier on through the alphabet, but the subjects I had picked out for my G page just paled in comparison to two foxes eating fast food and French fries under a fan, with oodles of fish surrounding them. The subject of my G page was a gardening guinea pig and guinea fowl surrounded by gifts and geese. I drew the geese and gift boxes first and abandoned the project. I thought the geese looked bad, I thought the gift boxes looked bad. I decided I'd come back to it later. I needed to work on my father's day present anyway.
5. My father's day present (Two wood ducks, a male and a female, sitting on a log. Done with Sharpies and my gray scale markers, everything looked great from beginning to end. And it didn't take me long to complete. Maybe that had something to do with The Funk too. I didn't think I had long enough to finish my father's day present AND my mom's birthday card AND the G page.
6. My mom's birthday card (My mom and I in her car holding big drinks with Bella in the backseat. We all have huge smiles on our faces. It's really cute. The card turned out so well, I was finally ready to get back to that G page and get that guinea pig to garden.
7. My G page (Geese, gifts, guineas-pig and fowl, greens, garden, gloves, grass, gondola, gecko. And to make things more difficult for anyone trying to guess all the G words on the page: ground, too. I had several starts and stops. I started the gondola three times. I drew a giraffe twice, a goldfish thrice, and a gecko twice. I finally settled on the gecko. Once I started outlining to create the finished piece, I started to feel better about it. The guinea pig turned out well, as did the garden greens, and the guinea fowl look pretty perfect. My attitude really made a turnabout after I had outlined the main action. I finally felt ready to tackle the top frame with the gondola and the bottom frame with the giraffe/goldfish/gecko. Once I saw everything all together as a finished piece, I felt The Funk melt away. I propped the page up beside the F page and decided that it was actually worthy of the series and I was ready to tackle even more pages.
Lesson learned about The Funk: just power through! I had read this advice in the book I've been reading, "Creative Block: Advice and Projects from 50 Successful Artists" by Danielle Krysa, The Jealous Curator (www.thejealouscurator.com/blog/), but I just thought, wow I'm not one of those who can just work through a block like that. I had just said last week that if I wasn't feeling it, I wasn't making anything because I thought my work suffered if I tried to force myself to create. As it turns out, it's not the work that suffers, it's my inner artist who suffers from the battle with my inner critic. If I give power to my inner artist over my inner critic, then The Funk has no hold on me.
I also read about Wayne White and the documentary based on his life, "Beauty is Embarrassing" in "Creative Block" and I'm very grateful. What an inspiring artist with a life artfully led. In the book the author asks everyone which artist's life they're jealous of, and after seeing the documentary, I would have to say Wayne White. He constantly creates anything and everything that interests him, from puppets to his word paintings on landscapes. Everything is so cool and visually unique and well-crafted. He's Southern by birth and upbringing, with supportive parents, a cool artist wife, and artist kids. Most of all, his mission is to bring humor to fine art, and thank goodness. It was getting a little too serious out there. I hope that because of Wayne White's artwork and philosophy, the art world as a whole will get a little more fun and a little more open minded.
Now, it's time to reconnect with my family and self at the beach. Roadtrips are always good for renewing the spirit. Adios to The Funk!
