Getting back to it

I’ve been struggling lately to write for the blog. I’ve spent most of any given week casting around for a topic to write to. So this week I did some journaling to unpack that and try and see where the resistance is. It is, unsurprisingly, about the work.

The reality of it all

This summer has been packed with good things. Travel for fun, travel to look at colleges for the youngest young adult, care taking for family having surgery, graduation, family and friends visiting, just to name a few. Since April I’ve been on six trips, which I think might be a personal record! But all of these lovely things have kept me from the studio. Ok, yes, Art Retreat Week was also packed in there but it was a lovely week that quickly passed me by in the flurry of all the other activities.

And so this is a reminder to you (and to myself) that there are some seasons of life that keep us out of the studio. And I’m thinking that I need to be really intentional about getting back to work now that the summer is over and maybe, just maybe, I’ll be home long enough to get back to work.

It’s about the work and the lack of it

Since I haven’t been making things, what I have to write about is limited. Which means when I sit down to write a blog post, I’m struggling. I was feeling frustrated with myself for not producing both work and blog posts like I want. But I hadn’t looked at the past few months in a zoomed-out way to see what’s been going on. Taking the time to do that this week was really key.

I don’t have topics to write about for this blog if I’m not making much work. I’m frankly amazed that I’ve written as much as is here over the past few months. It also explains why I made a whole sweater and wrote about that. Crochet is something I can do on the road. My art practice is not suitable for the car.

Also while journaling

I have another insight while I was journaling this week. It’s about what I do and how I do it. I was journaling on translation and I realized a few things so I made myself a poster. (Of course, I used an image from a journal that I photographed during Art Retreat Week. I now have a whole library of images to use when I need something and want to use my own art.)

Then I got sidetracked on working on my end of the year packet that I always work through over Thanksgiving. I’m reformatting it for Affinity Publisher and since I’m also learning that program as I go, it’s a bit of a slog. I’m committing to myself to work on that for thirty minutes to an hour a day so maybe I can get it done by Thanksgiving. Crossing my fingers for that!

Back to basics

So I supposed my best option is to go back to my roots and start with twenty minutes a day. I can work my own system. I can. I know it. Getting started is literally the hardest part. So tomorrow I’m going to get up and come straight to the studio while I’m still in my pajamas and set my timer for twenty minutes. Maybe if I can do it before my brain starts trying to hash it all out and make excuses for why it can’t possibly be today, I’ll already be done.

What about you? Have you been away from your studio for too long? I’d love to hear about it! Email me or start a conversation by leaving a comment on this post! If you’d like to keep up with what I’m working on, I’d love to have you as a newsletter subscriber. I include blog posts from here, cool things I find online, and pictures of my dogs. Sign up here.