10 Comments
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Sara Jordan's avatar

You never cease to impress me! I love your abstract work and admire you for your unbound energy and enthusiasm for expression in so many forms!

Margaret Abramshe's avatar

You might be cleaning out supplies, but you are keeping a very solid understanding of composition. I love the abstract work.

Lesley Riley's avatar

High praise coming from an art teacher and accomplished artist. Thank you.

rcharvet@aol.com's avatar

I never had a place to set up and leave stuff. A lot of times I would go to my classroom when grading papers, take a break and "create." I was in the FLOW realm of my artistic expression. But, still, I had to clean up to be ready for Monday morning. It takes a lot of work to "paint." From ideas formulation to putting paint to canvas, lots of work, but there's nothing like the FLOW. It was so wonderful when I got to got to the Art institute in Chicago as part of TICA (Teachers Institute of Contemporary Art). I mean I got to be a student again and just focus on living in a nice apartment and paint. Then paint some more. I got to stay up late in the art studio and leave my stuff in my art space. Sooooooooo much fun. No distractions because I wasn't at home! As far as your "mistake" papers, I had trimmings from my paintings in order to frame them for a show. I took the leftovers and made notecards. I loved when I cropped down my "leftovers" and found some phenomenal compositions. I have a little space outside on my patio but it is also my workbench, fix it station, and whatnot. It is a pretty cool space though. Peace by piece makes the world a better place.

Lynne Oakes's avatar

I have these issues as well! I recently came up with a way to go about getting something clearly done otherwise my 'list' just seems endless. I have a timer on my desk. I make a list of about 6 items I think I can do that day. Then I push the timer button and when it goes off, I do one of those things. It has been working well. A little more order and intention to it!

Lesley Riley's avatar

Great plan. Using a timer as a friend!

CeCe Sullivan's avatar

I love your paintings Lesley. New Mexico is a favorite place of mine and you capture its life-giving spirit beautifully.

I need to develop more self discipline myself. Too many ideas at one time.

Lesley Riley's avatar

Yes, those wonderful ideas that keep popping up....

I've resigned myself to the fact that I will never get to most of them, but I do write them all down, just in case.

Kat Campau's avatar

If I can begin to work I can accomplish so much in one session. But if I trip over those "I'll just"s, it's like a rock in the stream. So to avoid it I prepare my next step in the project and put it on the worktable so it's in the way, and I have to handle it before doing any "I'll just". Once my hands are on it, I work.

Lesley Riley's avatar

Great idea. I always left my work at a place in the process to easily come back to, so it was easy to pick it up and continue the next day.