These past 8 weeks or so have been very, very busy. I have been taking an art class online which is very demanding and equally fulfilling. A sewing class, too, which is also demanding and fulfilling. At times I have had to make choices between the two, and the art class won out, as it always does.
I don’t know about you, but for me focusing on one thing for a long period of time becomes overwhelming and I feel trapped. It’s not like I spend an hour or two doing something, but sometimes a whole day just doing one thing. When this happens, it is really hard to get back to a normal perspective of life. That is when everything has to simply stop and a determined moving toward other activities has to be done.
One way I do this is to get out and move. Going for a walk, watching a movie, gardening, cooking, socializing. Getting out of the house, away from the studio or fabric, pulls me out of the singular focus of the moment. Being singularly focused gets a lot done, but the feeling of being trapped is not a good feeling. It is suffocating and in many ways crippling. Anything beyond the focal point becomes unimportant.
Obviously, that doesn’t work too well!
The other day, I decided to take a camera I had loaded up with film out and take a long, long walk. Up hills and down, near creeks and on rather scary heights. I went alone. I took my phone for safety, and I let my husband know where I was. I just needed solitude and movement and being out in a world welcoming spring. And then I played with the post processing, sometimes with color, sometimes with silly extremes, and sometimes just to enhance a pretty place.
The world feels a bit more normal now! And given the current craziness, it is something to be cherished and appreciated. Nature gives us something far beyond our comprehension.
Ink, Yarn & Beer 
Sounds like the course was as if you were back on work’s wearisome treadmill.
I love the drawings!
It’s great to have you back posting! Whatever normal is now, it’s good to feel its comfort.
It was work, but work I enjoyed. It just takes time to do drawings in a way I do not think of at all! In the end, I think it will pay off. Two more class afterward – color theory and brushwork. I need something to change my game and perspective on doing things. Being stuck is not fun!
Thanks, Fraggy!
Normal, Anne????!!!!! It’s a weird world these days, but I can honestly say I hope my life continues without the horrors elsewhere. I can weather the financials, as most of us have done, but living in a war? I would like to bypass that. And, glad you like my return! I do, too!