Sometimes I get a crafting "blah". I believe this happens from having too many projects on the plate at any one time, and sometimes a full crafty plate in addition to a full emotional/every day plate. This is the reason for my blah at the moment. I have SO much in my little apartment, SO much in my head, and a lot on my heart it causes me to graze aimlessly from project to project and get frustrated at the minimal production I end up with. So I take a "brain-break" by going for a walk to the art store, the park, just around the block even to clear my head. Usually that does the trick and I can dive, refreshed, back into what I was doing. Right now I feel flat, like soda that has lost it's bubbles and is without that initial zing. I feel listless, like those stick summer nights before the cool breeze comes where all you can do is sit before the fan and moan softly to yourself. That's it! I'm in the mental doldrums. Oh dear.
Julia Cameron would have a solution to this problem. She's snarky like that, as well as being a sort of therapist for artists. (She wrote The Artist's Way, btw) She would probably tell me to go on an artist's date and stop dreading this last week with my job. That's the other thing that's getting to me. I have one more week left with my current job and nothing else has (YET!) fallen into place. Something will, because I'm looking, it's just the waiting until then that gets to a person. The nail biting and floor treading that occurs just before the utter relief of knowing you'll be okay for a while longer.
It's not as if I haven't anything else to go on. If I don't (and it's highly unlikely) get anything I can make things and sell them until school starts. This is the very bohemian answer to my current problem, it's not necessarily practical, but it's optimistic, and one way to beat doldrums is optimism! Or at least that's what I'm shooting for. So now it's off to a cup of tea, and something crafty to comfort me until I have to face my final work week.
1 comment:
Man, you and I are so much alike. It's almost scary. I too become impatient with waiting periods in life, even though there's plenty of good, productive creativity to be done. And like you, I often snap out of it by doing something in the vein of an artist's date - anything from a walk to taking pictures, or sketching. I just keep "wiggling", reminding myself that I'm doing good things and making progress even as change approaches. I love reading your blog, and have subscribed it to my aggregate, Google Reader. :)
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