October 17, 2011 - Battling The Kraken

Just do it.
- Nike (technically . . . but see this.)

I'm back from an amazing Arizona art week. My preschooler is splashing in the tub five feet away. At random intervals, she screams "Mooom! Mom! MOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!!," necessitating a break in typing, a mad leap to the tub, and a speedy discovery of . . . absolutely nothing.  Sigh. Perhaps I left the kraken off its leash?

Actually . . . that seems an ideal metaphor about less-than ideal creative conditions, so let's go with it.

My daily art hour, which fell into the "way better than nothing" category, has further fallen into the "wayside" category. I stupidly converted my progeny's sleep habitat  from a crib into a "big girl bed." Now I get a 6:00 a.m. personal visit instead of an 8:30 a.m. happy chirp. (N.B. - Next time, that fourth wall is not coming down until the kid's in college.)

So mornings are out, unless I back up to 4:00 a.m., which is not a serious option at the moment. My most wise sister likewise lost her morning painting time. Then, in preparing her house for the market, she recently also lost her painting space.

Yet she manages to paint.  "I'm most creative in the mornings, but that just doesn't work around my house," she says. "So I wait until evening, when the kids have retired to their rooms and Dan is out working on the other house. Then I spread all my painting supplies out on our bed, which is the only flat space in the house, cover the bed with plastic, and . . . just do it.

"I found," she continued, "that if I kept waiting for ideal conditions, the ideal conditions would never occur. And I would never paint. So now I paint in less than ideal conditions. But I get it done."

Sister: one, kraken: zero. You go girl.

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