This has to be the weirdest December ever. Instead of slowing down, as usually happens with my workload this time of year, things are at a fever pitch. As of this week I am completely booked up with contracts until at least March. No room in the schedule to add anything else if I'm going to be able to meet workshop and exhibition deadlines (which are stacked up through AUGUST). Eek!
It's all good, of course. Great, even. But hmmm. I've been procrastinating a few important tasks, like paperwork and goal-setting and studio reorganization, anticipating a little contemplative time between now and the new year.
Right. Ain't gonna happen.
Sadly, an amusing and engaging blog post ain't gonna happen just now, either, but here's a quick glimpse into the mayhem I'll share in the weeks ahead:
100 Thumbnails. Pah. Stalled. Don't know why, exactly, except that the intense mental gymnastics required to get myself through December are taking more than their share of energy. Could be I spend New Year's Eve in a marathon of sketching.
Linocuts. Well. I did finally get down the block to the lumberyard yesterday. (Yes, literally. One block.) Scored a nice sheet of 15 x 20 particle board for mounting a linoleum block. Have a biggish (obviously) new print in mind, but it's going to require some feats of PLANNING that have heretofore been ignored by this particular printmaker. Foot dragging has commenced.
Exhibitions. I delivered some "new" pieces to the Maverick Potter gallery here in Salida yesterday, and will take some new things down to the Green Horse Gallery in Manitou Springs the first week in January. At the same time I'll be hanging work at the Penrose Library in Colorado Springs as part of the Pikes Peak Library District's public art program.
Workshops. I'll be teaching a half-day "Field Sketching Basics" class and a half-day bookmaking workshop at the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory's Old Stone House Education Center (Barr Lake State Park, Brighton, Colorado) on January 29 and 30th. Come for one or both days!
If you've made your way through this tedious recitation (I can't decide if seeing it all typed out makes me feel better about not finding time for a blog post or worse about how much I still have to do), here are a few other little treats to check out.
• My friend Roberta Smith recently launched a new blog, where she is at present posting a collage-a-day. Check out what A Fine Mess she's making.
• The DM and I were in Denver earlier this week and rewarded ourselves with a little break to see the IMAX film "Hubble 3D" at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. I recommend the adventure, especially since images of millions of galaxies larger than our own can go a long way towards making a long To-Do list seem pretty miniscule.
• That show I once mentioned in Romania? It's on, and I have a piece in it! There's a blog, Birchscapes, with lots of images from the exhibition, which will open in January. Cool.
• And here in the Northern Hemisphere we're counting the hours until the Winter Solstice. (Okay, I'M counting the hours.) Monday night we get the super-colossal-winter-solstice-full-moon-full-lunar-eclipse-and-oh-I-think-some-meteor-showers-too celestial event. Tuesday we get a few more seconds of daylight. Ask me which I think is the more exciting.
Until then, then....
Sherrie,
ReplyDeleteWith that schedule may you become very adept at taking mini-vacations of hour long breaks before diving back into the work flow.
Screw flagellating yourself over making 43 drawings instead of the 100. That you're drawing at all is the entire point of the exerrcise. You've got to understand that your inner border collie will chase her art tasks to exhaustion.
We saw the Hubble movie too. Inspiring and amazing. Started making new papercuts inspired by it.
I've found that having a schedule visible in my studio, and posting any treats I get myself on it help to keep me on track.
Best of luck and congratulations on having a NEW problem to understand (super busy)instead of the old problem of no work/no money.....
Inner border collie. This SO works for me, Patrick, thank you! No, really... I once worked on a cattle ranch and on really hot days we'd have to tie the dogs up at headquarters to keep them from going out to work with the guys. They would run themselves to death (literally) otherwise.
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