ADRIFT

A floating feeling, loss of focus happens every once in a while and I'm not sure what brings it on.  There is extreme societal pressure in the new year to start anew, to come up with fresh ideas, concepts, projects, but I'm pooped, still recuperating from a very busy 2015!

Detail of a work in progress - pen, ink and watercolour

I have a slew of "started" drawings and paintings. My aim for 2016 WAS to get up-to-date on this backlog, but what did I do?  I completed a small painting from scratch and I added to the "started pile" by 

1. applying a colourful background on a relatively large canvas, 
2. pursuing a very complex pen and ink drawing, and 
3. blocking out a couple of digital works.  

While last year I might finish a digital piece within three days, I now sketch initial shapes or characters and wait weeks before I attack them again.  This is most likely happening because I have a theme that I want to work on.  Whenever I do something seemingly unrelated, it feels as though I am procrastinating.

Love in the Grotto

Frustrating, because I know from experience that the important thing is to keep working no matter what.  Every new piece or sketch feeds another. Non-artists think that making art is a purely pleasurable activity but it also involves continuous problem solving.  It's work!  I obviously do what I love but it isn't always easy.

I must spawn some "outrageous" drawings or paintings to vacuum out the cobwebs in my psyche...in other words, make work that I'll most likely never show.  (Outrageous tends to offend).

Then again, perhaps more stalling is needed.  I keep having dreams that I am in a huge warehouse studio with way too much room.  Something is simmering.  Once I get going, I'll turn into a freight train. 

In the spirit of incubation, I'm off to make a batch of cookies, then again, I may take a nap. 


UPDATE May 17, 2016

I only showed a detail of the image in progress at the beginning of this post.  Here is the finished work.  I call it "The Ecosystem".