Studio Visit: Overwhelmed? Do it anyway.
Some mornings I get to the studio and I’m so overwhelmed that I'm basically useless.
Today it was like this and from experience I know to immediately make a list and get out all the things circling around my brain.
Once all the things in my jumbled head and fearful heart are down on paper, I know that I have to get myself without further ado to jump right into something that involves touching clay. Even if I have something else on my schedule, I'll just move to the clay work first.
For me, this is a proven cure for those moments of anxiety and one of the reasons ceramics has been such a firm fixture of my creative life. It works because of the tactile nature of clay and because in order to do anything effective with it, I have to give it my full attention. Once the clay has focused me, I’m good to go.
It seriously took me no more than 5 minutes to be transformed from a chicken with my head cut off kind of feeling to a focused capable artist! The power of focus is truly incredible….it changes everything.
And here is what I made. I cut a plant for a mosaic mural I'm working on:
The drawing of this plant that I worked from:
I first drew the shapes on to the clay and cut out each leaf:
I carved out grooves to define the crepe-like look of the leaf and smoothed each groove with moist fingers.
More to come and thank you for stepping into my creative process with me!
Of course focus leads to creativity. Nothing is ever achieved without first focusing on achieving it. Nice artistry masterpiece
@eurogee of @euronation community
Thanks @eurogee and in this case, creativity lead me to focus!!
😂✌️
It's wonderful that you know what method is capable of giving your brain a reboot. For me, it's always a walk in the woods or coloring pictures in a special book. And by the way, you got a great result with your clay.
A walk is always a GREAT idea too @anna-mi, t works like magic doesn't it?! Yesterday I had so many things to do so actually doing on of those things made me feel best, but I also I use walking especially when I have decisions that are overwhelming or I don't know what to do with. Thank you for your support!
It is right sometimes it is easier to get an order when you put your ideas and thought on paper, then you can think about the order and organize yourself, also it is easy to plan what to first and then. It is although difficult when such thoughts come while you are in bed and start to think about your day for tomorrow and you can't get asleep because of all adrenaline that keeps you awake and sometimes I get also agree about me, why I started to think about that. The same situation I have had on weekend when I thought about my posting for this week, when I decided to do it as a sailing ship story developing every day with my acrylic painting that I was planning to do daily for my story too. But once I had them organized I am glad how it came out.
Your leaves are looking really good, I see those toothed edges that you did for overlapping parts of other leaves you might have three dimensional vision for that too. As always really great work.
Your description of lying in bed wide awake with adenaline flowing while thinking about the things to do and what you want to do made me smile - i know it all too well! And it's harder to get out of bed and use something like drawing or clay or a walk to help ourselves with that.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts here and your support!
OOoo! That watercolor style glazing will look great on those leaves.
:)
hoping so, thanks @doctorcrypto :-).....did you see this one in the studio yesterday? I think I had just finished it before you arrived.
Yes, It was sitting out on the table. I still can't get over how huge this whole project is. It is going look great when you are finished!
thanks, I hope so!! it's a bit daunting I admit ;-)
Nice to hear your thoughts. I'm a potter myself and find it hard sometimes to get myself in the studio as there are so many things to do and focus on. A list and some drawings of the forms that I'm going to make seems to help me a lot. Keep up the good work @natureofbeing :)
Good to hear what works for you! I can imagine sketching working for me as well, good reminder to add that one to my toolbox :-)
So true, creating something beautiful can be so calming. I saw this today:
Great quote, thanks so much for sharing it @stephie.spicer!
Interesting way to fight it :)
It's unusual how many are having this problem lately (including me)
I wonder if there is a bigger cause for the block affecting so many artists :O
I didn't know that so many others were experiencing overwhelm too....maybe it's the increased speed and demands of life in the digital age? How do you help yourself when this happens to you?
It depends, sometimes I listen to music, or look for good reference for what I want to make. Other times a small break works. Recently nothing helped, so I did some cleaning for a change. It seems it worked out :) Funnily I wrote a post as well and read 3 other posts. That's why I said maybe a bigger issue and I agree, demand for speed might be the main cause :O
Demand for speed - that's a good insight, I'll bet your on to something there!
Yes omg cleaning is so effective, I forgot about that ;-)
Glad to hear you have a strategy for getting yourself out of overwhelm @natureofbeing. That's so essential when you have a lot of things on the go at once!
Wishing you a beautifully productive day! 😍
thank you so much @gillianpearce!
I love that getting your hands all messy helps you to focus. (I realize there is a LITTLE more to it than that). Amazing how that works to take it all down 3 notches and re-set the old noggin. I'm similar in writing. A friend told me I am probably right brained, which I think rings true. And the tactility of typing away on my odd, vertical keyboard seems to increase creativity and such. (As far as the settling in and relaxing, that's more of a no-brain thing. I need a nap). But it is amazing how these things work. Or don't. We are definitely fascinating beings. And never boring, that's for sure.
Great that writing takes you "there"! You are most definitely right brained, I can tell just by your humor alone ;-))
You use a vertical keyboard? never seen one...
I think it's either right brain, or no-brain...probably the first. Glad you think it is humor, sometimes I think it's a bit askance for some folks. Oh well.
I type on a Comfort Keyboard. It has really changed my life. I have a bad wrist, and typing was very very painful. I discovered this in an article in Smithsonian, and now I have little to no wrist pain. I used to give ergonomic talks at work on computer keyboarding and all the rest. It's one of my passions. People are destroying their bodies and it is all VERY simple to alleviate. OK, here I go, better end this now. You can tell it's a 'thing' with me.
There is a picture or two of the Comfort Keyboard in the bottom of this post Keyboard Photos
It's not actually fully vertical when I use it, it just matches the natural pitch of my wrist. As does my mousepad. There I go again...well, have a nice night.
I'm glad checking your post out after your kind comment on mine. Never met a clay artist in my life but I still recall my 'ambition' trying to pickup the clay skills to sculpt something really cool. Bought a set of sculpting tools and 2 pile of beginner clay, and I procrastinated aaaand the passion cooled down. Still got the clay sealed and stored perfectly in my drawer. Myabe I can use your creation for some inspiration.
I've had this same experience with many things - I have skeins of yarn and needles from the planned but so far unknitted sweaters I was going to make! But it's always there for us if our creativity takes us there. On the subject of inspiration, yours definitely give me ideas for expanding the ways I draw and although I may not dive into it tomorrow, some day I will!