Tuesday, November 03, 2015

These birds are not on branches

 
I'm in a space now where I feel open.
This kind of feeling often happens when a big project has concluded and I usually respond by allowing time to play with new techniques or media.
Now I seem to want to do too much.
 I'm interested in many different branches that grow from the central tree trunk that is me.
Any one of them would be an interesting choice and would probably bear fruit.
But if I only go in one direction,  I will miss something delicious on the other branches.
I use a kitchen timer to divide my time.
It allows me to switch activities during the day.
Sometimes I feel as if I am accomplishing a lot.
But today I am feeling flooded.
I made a sketch to try to sort out the branches (see below).
It helped me to see.
Today is a beautiful day and I am working in the garden.
I have to take a day off.
I'll go see Dad.  He accomplished a lot during his working life and used a kind of kitchen timer mantra:
'One piece of baloney at a time.'

All images in this post are of a new piece.  I have been working on the reverse side.

13 comments:

Karen Thiessen said...

I love that period right after completing a phase of work. It's so ripe with possibility, so open. It's an edge, a cliff from which to leap. It's magic. Savour it (and document it!).

apiecefullife said...

Nice post. Stiff back, hunger or needing a cup of tea tell me it's time to switch tasks.

Martine said...

Thanks for your birds not on branches........like them very much.........

handstories said...

I love this post & this new piece of yours, & admire your focus & discipline (I often ignore the timer).

Judy Martin said...

I can't explain why the timer set for an hour gives me such comfort. It's as if I can feel time passing tick by tick - yet at the same time I feel as if I have more time. It's magical actually.
Thanks for these comments. I had an off day today and hardly did any studio work at all - visited two old people, dug in the earth, had a nap, supported a daughter.

xo

Mo Crow said...

love your tree!

DILOU said...

C'est magnifique!!!

Penny Berens said...

Dear Judy....You are amazing. You have a way of filtering out all the noise and then you move onto the discipline of working things out on paper, be it written or sketched. I am sitting here wondering how many branches there are on my tree and perhaps chopping some off. But then you are so right...might miss something amazing!

Judy Martin said...

Penny, I think that sketching that tree and seeing how many things I expect myself to do put me into quite a funk yesterday and I ended up not doing anything on the list.
Chopping 2 - 3 branches off sounds easy.
Except I want to do everything while I still can.
xo

Mo Crow said...

Hey Judy, your tree of dreams may not all come to fruition in this lifetime but it will sustain you til the end!

jude said...

i feel like this often. I always float from this to that. it helped me a lot to start thinking they were all the same thing... growth, like your tree, branches that just grow. that fall off now and then when they get too heavy. to be the tree is all i think about now. to survive the seasons and bear fruit. seeds.

Judy Martin said...

Good advice. Thanks. xo

Caterina Giglio said...

I think there is a moment... when all my work has been wrapped and shipped and I am cleaning the studio and putting everything in order ... it is a quiet space, between the chaos of the last creation and the nebulous new ideas of the next collection.... that quiet space is always what I look forward to... a place for me where ease lives...