Blitherings – Page 185 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Turquoise

This morning I was going through a number of the blogs I enjoy reading. One is Cole Wardell’s. When I got there, since my last visit, she had a fun display of her art supplies. Pencils encased in wood! Watercolors! A knife!

On my desk, I have a container of Prismacolor medium pencils for drawing, still unsharpened. Now all have points. They will come with me to work, and this will be my creative project focal point for today. In between whatever I do, I will get something done with these pencils, if only to remember what it is like to have one in my hand for something other than writing out notes.

Scheduled

When you work, it is hard to find time to do things you really want to do. At least it is for me. I’m a morning person. I go to work in the morning, and when I get home, I tend to be really tired. I am not a night owl! I get a lot done in the mornings – when I have them. Consequently, as a result of my re-thinking my life the other day, I have simply decided I will schedule something – anything – creative for after work. It may not be a lot. It may be a lot. That will depend on my energy, and my interest. Today I’m feeling rather burnt out, but I did make a commitment to myself. And I kept it, even though the desire is to just go floppo.

I’ve been thinking of what to do that is creative all day. In a way, it is really stimulating because there is an element of the unknown until the point of beginning arrives. Getting home, I thought about what I was feeling. I thought about how that feeling might be expressed. The feeling I focused on was “blue” – which, in general, means depressed or melancholy. Melancholy, today, is more accurate for today’s round of the blues.

Today is cold and wet and damp. Work was long and intense. I have an underlying dread about work lately – probably budget-related – but this dread is very abstract because I cannot pinpoint anything specific – maybe just the unknowns that are waiting to happen. This abstract fear and feeling blue put two things together. How can an abstract fear be expressed visually? How can melancholic blues be expressed?

Well, I don’t know if either really can be, but the mental trip was quite fun. What in the spectrum constitutes “blue”? Blue-green? Blue-violet? Bluish reds? Green blue? So what could I find that was abstract, something I could photograph (I chose that route because I am feeling lazy, and more think-y than do-ing) that is not identifiable. Here it is below:

Abstract, a kind of blue. Nothing clearly discernable. An ill-defined horizon. A lonely object. Blurry, fuzzy things without definition. Is this art? Dunno. The process of getting here was interesting, as is the writing up and thinking about the process itself. Conscious exploration of an abstraction opens the doors of creativity.

Push

For the last several weeks I’ve been feeling constrained by things and people around me. Union meetings. Cuts in education. Students. All of these create a suffocating cloud of stress and worry.

It is easy to drown in such circumstances, give in to depression or despair, to feel and become a victim. Some people do get overwhelmed by such things, but each and everyone of us needs to look at it. What are we contributing to the mess? What is external and simply is, no matter what we do? What can we change? What can we not change?

Well, I cannot change the financial mess that is the state of California. I cannot change its impact on education. I know my students will move on. I don’t have any idea what the union has in store for us, if they even understand what it is that my small coterie of educators do. That I might be able to impact. But if the final rule is that my hours are cut, well, such is life, pick up, move on.

This realization hit me as I was driving in to work the other morning. What can I do if there are more free hours in the week? Can we make it on less money? Should I look for an additional job? Do I want to? (No!) If I do look for another job, what would I look for? Shall I work in another area? I am beginning to take action by considering options.

The proverbial “window of opportunity” is here.

Open it.

Look out.

Fresh air.

Mmmmmm!

Too Much!

Some people learn things as they go along, living life on a daily basis and incorporating the new stuff without the disruption of everything else. Not me. When I am curious about something, I jump headlong with both feet. This has its good points and bad points, the worst being it can become obsession – luckily, it never does. The thing is, I am a collector. I collect information. I collect things. And I don’t usually get rid of stuff, either in my mind (though I will as senility approaches), in my closet, under my bed, or in the garage. Granted, when I return to that interest, costs are very insignificant!

Lately, in case you have not noticed, I have been doing a lot of photography, to the point I decided to set up a blog separate from Ink, Yarn & Beer. Here, I really want to get back into more personal things, such as the painting and knitting design, as well as just discussions or whatever I fancy. At that other blog I can focus on photography and what I am doing there, create my little encyclopedia of links, blither on about what I am doing. I’ve gotten a few hits there, mostly spam, but that blog, like this one, is for my own pleasure. And to create balance.

My artistic side finds photography rather frustrating, but I am beginning to see how it is tweaking me at the same time. Thinking about how something is made – effects, colors, process – begin to move into other areas. Looking at the petals of a rose make me wonder how I can capture them with a brush using ink or watercolor. Looking at the light shadows in an image make me consider contrast and detail in a painting and why something in a painting works, or does not. Realism does not need to be done, but the impact created by color, shadow, tone, shape gives an illusion of reality or its impression.

The fact is, any form of art is limited only by the person doing it. This can because of a lack of tools or innovation, or because one is still in the process of becoming or doing. I am limited by my interests in a lot of things – painting, knitting, reading, writing, photography, gardening, hiking, traveling – and it keeps me from doing anything well. On Outlook I have different activities scheduled weekly – creative activities – and that doesn’t help either! Regardless, the plan is to try to do a bit more of all of it, and be focused on it when I can.