My Muse Is Back

I've recently started working on new pieces and doing so made me aware -- My creative muse has been missing in action for a very long time. Yes, we need rests, we can't be creative all the time but sometimes we extend those breaks longer than necessary and I'm guilty. I don't know if my daily walks and Art Journal practice have helped get my muse back but it certainly hasn't hurt.

Today's Walk, Harbor Island's walkway has been cleared.

I came into the studio earlier in the week intending to do something in that art journal but remembered that I needed to take more work to a gallery in Grand Rapids at the end of the week. For the first time in quite a spell I was inspired to do something new.  I have a lot of older work so it wasn't as if I didn't have anything to take but I really wanted to paint. And in the process of starting I realized a truth -- action is better than inaction. As I worked I was enjoying the process of adding texture, marks and collage materials. And I began to think about one of my Art Journal spreads. 

I don't think it's a good idea to force things.  Working on a piece when one doesn't feel inspired is going to result in a piece that just doesn't make it.  But playing in a sketchbook, making collage papers, messing about with some paint just to see what happens -- maybe that will shift ones thinking.

Another confession.  Sometimes I have so much fun making collage papers or playing with paints that I want to keep doing that instead of actually working on a painting.  Maybe best for me to stick to working in the Art Journal for awhile.  Even when I just make a mess like this bunch of experiments on a spread.

I can always cover it up with collage or gesso