Well, I did it! Two days in a row, even!  

Yep, I got up before 8 am on less than eight hours of sleep AND started my day with something other than coffee!

Admittedly today, I was hesitant.  I got up and peed, and I went back to bed, and I laid there, and I didn’t fall back asleep in five minutes, so I got up, and got going.

The amount of time it takes to boil my tea, is just the right amount of time to do some high intensity body weight exercises.  It gets the blood pumping and that is nice.  If I can keep this up, I am definitely going to make some incremental changes in my routine, which I must admit, would be very healthy.  For now tea and exercise is a move in the right direction.

I have a small art commission I am needing to get on top of.  It should really only take a few hours, but I need to apply myself and focus. On one hand, I do some of my best creative work when I am running the wire; on the other hand, it’s always nice to get commission projects done and out of the way.

Stylistically, when I paint, I rarely plan, or know what will come out of it.  It’s experimental, it’s intuitive and really non judgmental for me to create.  I just love color, and form.  With commissions, it’s different.  A person, ( often times a stranger) wants something specific, right?  And they see samples of your work, your personal artistic style, and they think “I like this, I want them to do ….”.   As an artist, you can always say “no” if it doesn’t fit you in some way.  But most artists like to make money, and a commissions can pay well.

Anywho, I always wonder what people think when they commission me for work, because I don’t know how my work actually fulfills or translates their vision, (if they have one) or if perhaps they are like me, and they walk in with out expectation.

I haven’t ever had a complaint… so I guess that is good.  I mean, if someone didn’t like something, I kind of hope they would tell me but if they did, I might be inclined to think they were just out to take their internal complaints about something else going on in their life, on some stranger; whom they just paid to worked hard on creating a one of a kind piece of personal vision.

But that’s just me getting all psychoanalytic about it.

This brings me back to changes in the schedule.  I want my creative mojo back.  Writing is great, and I love it.  But I don’t plan that either.  I have no vision of what I will write when I write. Mostly I get one line, and when I sit down to write it, everything just flows from there.  No complaints, but, I am sporadic, and I fluctuate between art mediums like leaves change in season.  This creative constipation, has me boiling for the right inspiration to let free the flood gates.  Because I know, that these long term spells of no creativity, means I was in some other hyper-aware state, picking up on different things.

Eventually I will channel all that into a series of creative projects, much like this series of blogs.  It all sort of explodes and then unfurls in my own personal cycles.

Even my exercise life goes in cycles of activity and no activity.  Healthy, and not as healthy.  I feel very mutable to people and environments because I spend most of my time watching what is happening around me, and it’s strange stuff.  I’m constantly picking up unspoken information around me.  It’s always been that way.

Creative constipation is like, filling your body full of observation to the point you can’t handle any more information.  So one day you pick up a brush, or a pen, or an instrument and something just explodes out of you.  With maybe one line or note or color preference, usually with some mania attached; all that stuff you had been processing for months or years, just spills out in a frenzy.

It’s like trying to chase the wind.

Usually after that initial explosion, (for me) that is when the unfurling begins.  I then start several projects all at once, and work on them simultaneously. I work in layers and it tends to be about the drying game.

So, I don’t know.  There is a time to plan and structure, and there is solid credence in honor of going with the flow.  Again, I repeat, EVERYTHING IS TEMPORARY!  We might as well make the most out of those shifts and changes in mood and participation.

Do you go through cycles of creativity, or mood?   Do they coincide with seasons, or maybe the anniversary of a loved one dying?  Maybe you don’t like your birthday, maybe you love Christmas.  How do you deal with those times when your normal activities don’t interest you?  How do you contain your excitement when you bust out of that, or have something to look forward to?

I would love to hear about it in the comments!  If you like this post, click a like and pass it on!  Click the link below to read yesterdays post, and for links to previous posts in this series.

Cheers!

Dry July- Day 12~ Handle ThySelf