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detail, The Big Purple. Yolanda Sharpe, 2011.
26 x 80 inches, watercolor on paper |
I have been feeling quite unlike myself in my work--wayward, disorganized, unsure of what's next--due to an excess of meets and tournaments, ferryings, volunteering, and extended periods of being a single mother while my husband travels. Sometimes life becomes labyrinthine in complexity and just a little too packed with labor that is tiring, no matter how good it is to do. I expect this sort of over-crammed sensation is especially true of women who pursue the arts, and most especially true of those of us who have children because children are, as Bacon wrote, "hostages to fortune" and must come first.
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Ashley Norwood Cooper, "Deer in the Headlights"
casein on board, 2012 |
And so on Thursday, two friends and I started a project of setting goals, roughly following the
International Arts Movement's
Working Artist Initiative. I'll be meeting weekly with painters
Ashley Norwood Cooper and
Yolanda Sharpe. Ashley is, like me, the mother of three children, so we have similar problems with organizing time, though her children are younger than mine. Yolanda has a different set of issues as a full-time academic who is both painter and singer. But the three of us know one another well and won't have to become acquainted with one another's work because we know and like it already.
It's good. I can feel our little project working on me already--the need to organize, the expectation of sharing our progress at the upcoming meeting, and the simple but beautiful idea of that somebody else cares whether I make something of worth this week is energizing and helpful.
This is lovely! That's all I've got. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ms. Julie! Glad you think so... You live in a place that's a bit more supportive for writing, I suspect--a lot more events going on.
ReplyDeleteYou're the most goal-oriented and organized person I know. It's no wonder that your energy flags sometimes. Maybe you need a bit of a rest?
ReplyDeleteYes, please tell somebody in the 1% to send me to a spa (where I can write!)
ReplyDeleteYou may disagree, but I think what you're describing is a somewhat universal "ailment" for 21st century human beings. We all get overwhelmed and disoriented. And we all need "support groups" of sorts at times along the way. In any case, my motto may help: one day at a time. Yesterday is over, tomorrow cannot be anticipated, and we have only the moment. Too simple? Perhaps.
ReplyDeleteNo, I think it is true. The world spins very quickly for us, these days!
ReplyDeleteWe are asked to do so much. And if you live in a little village, you may be asked to do ambitious things that you didn't expect because you quickly become known as somebody who does things...
So I hope to once again put a little more order into my life and, yes, one day at a time.
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ReplyDeleteAh yes, I know what you mean! Good that you have supportive friends in the arts!
ReplyDeleteEven though my children are grown and gone now, I have slowed down and get distracted by health checkup appointments, driver's license renewals as well as the usual home stuff. I so miss my artists group and studio for it took me away from those distractions for a while.
Hi Marja-Leena,
ReplyDeleteI've never had much in the way of a supportive group, though I once joined John Montague's fiction workshop because I was new in town and wanted to meet people, back when I moved to Albany. And I still see one of those people, someone who now has several books. Mostly I've just known writers and artists, seen them at events, etc.
But I do feel the need for some company along the way at the moment.