It's crazy. I feel like I've been swept out to sea...I've been spending so much time on work, products for my store and life in general, little bits of me seem to be flow ashore and back. I've needed to pick up some of the pieces and let others get washed away....and just like the sands of time, so have the days of my life passed....
Ok. Too many sandbar analogies, I know. Sorry.
Lulu 2.0 in progress, trying to bring all of the parts of my life together - so I've reached into the waves and plucked my blog out, shaking it off and giving it new life.
I start with a hoarder's confession.
Bless me Martha Stewart, for I have sinned.....I have become a craft hoarder, not an art creator.
As I look around the two rooms that make up my studio, I can see the piles of my mixed media life - the flotsam and jetsam spilling out everywhere. In my mind, I see a cartoon idea cloud, with half-formed phrases and images circling around the clutter of canvases, paints, papers, vintage tin, markers and magazines....so many ideas and a TLC-hoarders load of items to bring them to life.
Unfortunately, I still have a full time global job. Oh those pesky bills just keep showing up in the mailbox.....and I have only so much time to devote to my craft.
So I think I need to break up with my local and online craft and fabric stores. Or maybe just take a break for a while. And it's not them, it's me....although.. Really - they do have to take some blame for friending, discounting and frequent-shopper-carding me, and for stocking their shelves with tantalizing new tools. The siren call of a new ink, paint or stamp carving tool is often irresistable..
Here is one pile in one corner of one room...
In just this room alone, I have at least 30 blank canvases, 60 paper bags, 6 boxes of crayons, three bins full of paints, 300 markers, 200 paintbrushes, over 500 sheets of craft paper, multiple Whimseybox projects, 400 fat quarters, boxes and bags and bins of paper, tin and fabric ephemera....all waiting to be manipulated, crafted, artisaned, painted, scissored, torn, inked, glued, sewn, stamped, embossed, printed, enhanced, wrapped and somehow....made into art pieces.
It's exhausting.
And my art used to be fun, and relaxing and re-energizing for me. When I didn't have so much stuff to
make the art, the ideas flowed easier and I was happier with my creations. Now, it feels as if I pile on every tag, color, stamp or ink available and nothing feels finished until it has 12 elements crowded into every corner of the work. Or I put off finishing a piece until I get to the store to find the latest cool tool, then bring home the bags, look around the room and just slump in front of Pinterest with a glass of wine, to search for yet more 'inspiration.'
Other than the wine, I never accomplish anything. It's like a big sugar crafty high, that leaves me too drained to create.
So - Michael and JoAnn and A.C....if you don't see me for a while, please don't call, don't write, don't email me with 50% coupon offers or tweet new colors or Facebook me with new products. We'll get back together in the future, to reevaluate our relationship and talk about our future.
For now, I need to work with the stuff that is surrounding me, before the cameras show up at my door for an art intervention.
As they say at
Whimseybox, I need to stop pinning and start making!
