Remember and Inspire.

Every year, the women in my church invite their friends and neighbors to our “Ladies’ Christmas Social.” Each gal hosting a table decorates in her own unique way. It’s so fun to see 24+ women create such diverse and beautifully festive tables. I love hosting. It gives me the chance to get to know people, share my faith, and create. I’ve been toying with the idea for an ice skating pond for months. What you see here is this year’s centerpiece, before the poinsettias, red berries and fairy-lights. The base is a pizza pan, the ice and snow are made from resin, and the figures are made of shrink plastic. It took me much longer to make than I anticipated and it got me wondering why I do this to myself.

It’s really very simple. I’m hopelessly obsessed with the whole DIY thing. The picture here contains four handmade objects, though I didn’t plan it that way. I have three possible explanations for what drives this maker-mania.

Possibility #1  I get these crazy pictures in my head of something I want and I just can’t find it already made, so I make it myself.

Possibility #2  I refuse to accept that something is beyond my budget if I can just figure out how to make it myself.

Possibility #3  Because I am the youngest of eleven children in a family full of brilliant people, I’m on a never-ending quest to prove I was not adopted.

Possibility #4  All of the above.

Honestly, I just don’t know why I feel so driven to create stuff. Is it a gift? Is it a sickness? Is it a little of both? What I do know is how good it feels when I know it gave someone else enjoyment. I’m already planning next year’s centerpiece. It will be themed around winter birds. Guess I’ll be taking a pottery class, eh?

Merry Christmas!

As I was working on this (still far from finished) commissioned piece today, my thoughts landed on why people paint realism. It’s a topic that surfaces in various art blogs from time to time. Sometimes people can be quite dogmatic in their assertion that people paint realism because they have no imagination. I was going to rant about it here. I even had it all written out. But then I realized that my angst was not worth the negative energy and decided to just let it go. Not everyone loves every genre. Oh well. Moving on.

"Gnani's Veranda" mural ten years later and still cherished!

What do they always tell you when you fall off a horse? “Get back on just as soon as you can,” right? It shows the horse that you are not easily intimidated and it helps you strengthen your resolve. The longer you wait to get back on, the less likely you are to ride that or any other horse ever again. It’s good advice no matter what worthy endeavor you’ve fallen off of.

I wrote in an October newsletter about the tendency for artists to give in to emotions rather than operate by reason, to avoid uncomfortable situations out of fear and uncertainty. When we do that we reduce the likelihood of ever conquering that type of situation and we miss out on so many opportunities because of it.

Therefore, now that the sugar, starch and turkey coma from Thanksgiving has subsided, my to-do list this morning looks kind of like this:

• Get back on Keto (low-carb diet, not a horse’s name).
• Write and send this blog post.
• Get back in the studio to
  • Finish painting “Her Grandmother’s Sewing Machine,” or at least make serious progress.
  • Re-resin Alyna’s coasters.
  • Start twelve resin skaters for the table display at a Ladies’ Christmas Social happening THIS FRIDAY!
  • Schedule classes for two people who asked about that over the holiday.
  • Sketch six thumbnails for bird-themed Valentine cards
  • Fill out the paperwork for two upcoming art shows.
  • Write a thank you card to our Black Friday dinner hosts, who also happen to be mural clients from a decade ago and are now dear friends.

Making this list helps me get right back on my horse, “Art.” You see, on the heels of a Thanksgiving weekend full of joyful reminiscing with family and friends, sharing traditions and enjoying comfort foods, I am tempted to put on my microfiber snuggly socks, hole up, and fall asleep to “Gone With The Wind.” But Scarlet O’Hara will not pay my light bill or deliver a commissioned painting for me, and we all know how Rhett Butler feels. So as wonderful as my Thanksgiving weekend was, I know what will happen if I kick back and take my ease even one more day. One day will turn into a week. A week will turn into a month, and on it goes. It gets harder and harder to get back in the studio. That’s an MO I left behind me years ago and I have no wish to ever go back there. Even as I write this list my creative juices are cutting right through that tryptophan haze and I am energized to go make something wonderful. So here we go!

What about you? Artist or not, have you ever struggled to get back in sync after a holiday? How did you overcome it?

Please share your comments.