Saturday, August 18, 2012

A Redesign for Exploring Women's Bodies

I decided after 3 years of doing my blog, it's time to re-design it a little bit.  I might keep tweaking it over the next few weeks, so if it looks different each time you're here, no worries!  It's the same place!

My son, Dylan, has left for China for a year.  It'll be for his Junior Year Abroad.  While there, he's going to be writing a blog.  I was so taken with the design he came up with for it, it inspired me to refresh mine a bit.  Here's the url to his blog in case you're curious to see how this 20-year-old is experiencing his year:  http://secondteahouseontheleft.blogspot.com/.

It's been interesting doing this blog.  I've gone through periods where I've written something every day, sometimes twice a day, and others, like now, where I sometimes don't even write each week.  While I was doing Beyond Barbie, it was an excellent discipline to help me recount, to remember, what I'd accomplished during that day.  It was also a great way to let the public know what was coming up in terms of the show and/or performances.  Now that I'm not planning any huge show, I don't have as much to write about.  I'm in a quiet period.  I'm working in the studio a lot - playing, really - but am not doing much work which I want to share.  It's mostly private musing and experiments. 

There's something very freeing about doing work just for myself.  I'm reading about artists and studying their work and sometimes copying it.  I'm working in different media.  I'm preparing for the cruise I'll be going on in December as Artist in Residence.  And I'm teaching.  This Fall I have 11 classes scheduled at Crossroads Art Center and the Visual Arts Center.  Plus I'm doing private Creativity Coaching and Art Lessons.  I love the interactions with my students.  It's a fairly good balance, though I hope I'll find a bit more discipline about getting into the studio.

My daughter, Laura, introduced me to the TV show Friday Night Lights, and I hate to admit that I've been watching it when I would do better to be in the studio playing. It's a very good show!

Hopefully as Fall comes and my psyche understands it's time for school to start again, I'll kick back into work mode.  It's very odd not producing a lot of work each day, but rather just learning new things and experimenting.  I'm thankful I don't have any shows looming since that would put pressure on and stop me from this valuable learning time.

Have you ever gone through a learning time for yourself?  What did you do during it?  What were the positive results as you moved out of it?

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