When I am busy with my daily life, I often have trouble maintaining my creative focus. When I am allotted time to work in studio or at home I will often feel bitter that I must work right then, that I don’t get a day to just be off from work, free to do what I want. I begin to constrain my creative ideas by overanalyzing daily situations, absorbing outside pressures, and ultimately trying too hard to make as much of my time as possible. When entrenched in one of these ruts it is difficult to remember that I am most successful when I allow my mind to wander.
The other night I was sitting in my easy chair looking out the window. I began to draw a street light in a sketchbook and three days later have done over ten drawings of these street lights. Mind you, were I not working full time over the summer, I would probably have more of these drawings done, but that’s okay. The idea is down. I will be more prolific in the fall when I start teaching again. For now the idea is down, I have something to noodle with, and I am not gritting my teeth trying to work too much out of myself.
