As we enter the fall season I am reminded that art making too has its seasons. Sometimes we are tilling the soil or planting seeds. This is a time of preparation, when we are percolating ideas, having new experiences (like I am this week on a drawing retreat in the Columbia River Gorge), or trying something out (as I have been in the past months with casein painting…see the previous two blog posts). Then there is the period of growth and progress, when we are having positive outcomes in our art making and seeing results that please us. Of course there are the seeds that don’t sprout and the plants that don’t flourish and so some of our art just doesn’t fall together. But we continue to weed our garden and water our plants, and when the first fruits appear we see all that hard work pay off.
Me drawing in the Columbia River Gorge by Horsethief Butte in Washington.
So as I move forward in my art making I am more and more aware that there will be days of frustration and days of elation, days of rest and days of great progress, days of percolation and days of production. I am learning to be happy with it all. And in the meantime I think I will eat a peach.
