There are times when so many possibilities for art projects come my way that I get stuck, and my head wants to explode. It’s exciting when this happens. It’s also nearly paralyzing. It’s like a kid that walked into a toy store and can’t decide which way to go first.
When this happens, it’s very rare for me to jump right in and try to create one of the possibilities. They take time to settle in and gel. I can see in my head how cool they would look but often I have to work out exactly how to do what the piece needs.
And yes, I have recently had one of those mind exploding, brain paralyzing experiences. My sister, awesome sister that she is, offered to go to an instrument swap meet and take some pictures for me for reference photos. She got some things I can work with and a few that I’m super excited over. And yes, I’ll need to let them gel in my brain before I get started on them. And I’m excited. The ideas and possibilities had me so stuck that I was having trouble getting out of the house to go run some errands. And no. I’m not going to share the pictures; you’ll have to wait for the art.
For some people, when they create their art, they decide what they are going to work on and exactly how it’s going to go. That is not the case for me. Not even close. I get to say, I think this would be a great piece or subject and start it, but the piece always seems to dictate the way things are going to be. I don’t know if this has always been the case. If it was, I wasn’t aware of it. These days though, I’ve learned that anytime I force something and get bull headed about making a piece be just so, or try to force a finish on the piece, or rush it, things don’t go well. Something will go wrong at the last part, or I’ll just not be happy with it. So, I’ve learned to let the piece dictate how things are going to go and at what pace.
I recently had a friend who is also an artist ask about how I decide what to work on or do, and even my mom asked about something similar. I think I said to both of them something to the effect of ‘you think I have a say in this?’ I don’t really. I think I even said to my mom ‘I just do the work.’ Each piece dictates what it wants, how it wants to be worked on, which part gets worked on next. One morning I thought I was going to work on one part of the current piece, the turtle, and though I spent several hours working on it that day and didn’t get to the area I thought I was going to work on.
Fortunately, because I know that if I don’t have something to work on when I finish a piece, I have a hard time getting started on the next piece, I am able to get several pieces, or ideas, lined up, sketched out, and ready to be worked on. I don’t, however, get a say in who gets completed first. Or who gets the bulk of the attention. I just do the work. Whichever work is presented to me that day to work on. Most of the time the piece I start insists on being completed or nearly so before I can start on another piece. The Turtle and Telecaster headstock are an interesting exception. I started the Turtle and was working on the sketch for the Telecaster. Once I finished the sketch for the Telecaster it would not leave me alone. It nagged at me, so I moved the turtle and started on the telecaster. I got the telecaster to the point of being nearly complete, it just needed some resting time, and returned to working on the turtle.
Now, the telecaster needs just a bit more work to be finished and I would like to work on it, however, the turtle is not at all interested in that prospect. So, I continue to work on the turtle. I’m sure I’ll get it to a point soon that I will be able to swap them again and finish up the telecaster. I’m a bit excited for that day. I really thought it would be about 5 days or maybe a week of resting time and then I’d be able to finish up the telecaster and that’s just not how it has been.
It probably seems like a strange way to work for people who are used to choosing what they do and muscling their way through, or having some sort of hierarchy or even pipeline that dictates how they work. I can say that when I have obligations, the art tends to be cooperative, and I can work on the things that have to be done. However, when I don’t have deadlines though, things are a bit different. I try to go with the flow.
And of course, now that I’ve been working on dots for several weeks, and black ones most of the month I’m getting the itch for something a little different and in color. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to manage it, but I may need to start one of the watercolor pieces that I’ve got lined up. My head may explode.
Cheers!