The good, the bad, and the ugly*.
The internet still seems to have overwhelm tendencies that it’s only for sharing the good. Born in the 80s, growing up in the 90s, so much of the internet** feels like the annual Christmas letter, where there’s a shining perfection, a glorious story to be told about each family member and their successes during the year.
And that’s how I feel about exploring creativity sometimes. It’s only the joy that you’re permitted to share.
Recently I got caught up on a bunch of writing and scheduling and imaging of posts. It had been hanging over me for most of this year so far. While it was nice to not having it starting at me from me to do list, it is not the same thing as creative satisfaction.
I started @totallynormaldollhouse but then got stuck. I didn’t like the amount of work I had to get to the mental image of what I had for the project. I bought second dollhouse. I put it on my painting table to give it some coats of paint, to hide the stickered-on wall images. The coats of paint took ages. The poster paint, bought for volume, was thin. It rained for a week; nothing dried.
Throughout this I was trying to practice some learning with layers, a canvas painting project that I spoke about here. But the dollhouse is large, and my painting area is small. Shuffling things back and forth and walking sideways to squeeze between tables and fixed kitchen benches is not conductive to creativity.
At the same time, what do you do? Nothing until you have a perfect art space? That may never happen. I have a drop leaf/gateleg table that sits in a small corner of the small part of my house that isn’t carpeted.
Work with what you have. Wonderment may or may not come. But not doing sure as hell won’t include wonderment.
*I had never looked up where this came from before; apparently a movie that was later novelised.
**Ok, maybe just Facebook and Instagram