EVERY TEN YEARS

Packing for the move is slowly progressing, art making is in slo-mo. 
  
I had good intentions. Yesterday, I planned to allot some time either to painting, drawing, or doodling. Didn't get around to it but I will today. (A little voice that lives on my shoulder just muttered "yeah right!!!" into my ear.) I
have paintings in process and many ideas are stewing on the back burner. All I need is time (and energy wouldn't hurt either).
Strange isn't it? A busy schedule feeds creativity.  Ideas flow like raging rivers but unless I write concepts down, they are forgotten.

When time is no longer a luxury, paralysis sets in. The blank canvas turns into a rigid impenetrable wall.  Linear thinking rules and my mind becomes waylaid by irrelevant and useless distractions. Part of the problem is that like many artists, I want to create magnificence, a string of endless masterpieces. T'ain't gonna happen.

I read a provocative book entitled Creating Minds by Howard E. Gardner in which he discusses how 7 individuals known for their creative genius (Picasso, Freud, Einstein, Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham, and Ghandi), seem to come up with innovative breakthroughs every ten years or so.

Assuming that this theory is true, one need only keep plugging away to achieve a cutting-edge piece each decade.  If I am lucky, and live to be a healthy 80 plus, I might hatch a total of 6 outstanding works in my lifetime.  

There!  That should take some of the pressure off!