Thursday, October 22, 2009

Of Possibilities and Plans...

Have you ever gotten ready for a trip, putting all your energies towards preparing for a great new adventure and then once you've left- you think about home? Traveling anywhere away from home always stirs the "reflecting on my life at home" thought thread for me. It's one of the things I look forward to most. I love traveling but one of the primary benefits for me is that it allows me to gain some perspective on my everyday life.

The book experience feels to me like a trip I've been on for a long time and now that I'm past the half way mark ( I'll be done completely in January) I'm realizing how much of my time and energy has been unavailable to me. A qualification to be a mixed media artist should be a low attention level. We flit from one thing to another, to another. And although that worked completely in my favor designing the various book projects, I've been unable to really luxuriate in that "whither I will" feeling for a while. I was in the land of "set project" and it's been hard on me at times. I feel the tug to go off in different directions but have to be a grown up and tell myself "not til AFTER I get my work done." Of course that didn't always work and I have followed a few meandering side paths but the majority of my creative energy has been flowing into this book.

But now the little whisper is saying "not now- but soon..." and I'm like a kid in a candy shop. I can't even start to choose in what direction I'd like to move next. Do I want to invest my time in art jewelry classes? What about going back to the pastel drawings? What about this writing bug I've had? I could take classes locally. The art journalling I see artists like Zinnia and other women exploring is really exciting and I think I'd like to try more of that as well. Just choosing between 2-D and 3-D was impossible. So I'd decided to stumble on and let myself meander a bit. Don't worry about a direction and just play, play, play.

Then today I opened a package that seemed to focus me again. It was a little tiny package and inside were business cards. My first ever and there right on the front I saw them. My etsy address, and this blog address. Seeing those written right on there reminded me that I have goals with regards to both my etsy site and this blog that I haven't reached yet. Goals to make them amazing and informative and enjoyable for others. I have ambitions for these two sites that I can not wait to begin to work towards again. Lots and lots of plans that I want to see fulfilled and so I've decided. When this is done I'm going to refocus on these two things and see just how far I can take them. This isn't incompatible with the whole fun thing either. I can play constructively.

Just not yet.

Oh, and the business cards- Shelley of Singlestonestudios.com did a fabulous job designing them for me- Thanks Shelley, I love them!!!

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