Week 4 checkin a bit late

I keep doing the morning pages. And I've done my daily lumps everyday since I started them. That feels amazing. I'm proud of myself for showing up and doing them. It really feels like I am nourishing myself. I'm not putting all this pressure on myself for it to be anything else - but at times I think they are like a little sketch that I might want to work on into a larger drawing. As a writer in addition to a clay artist I see how the morning pages sometimes bring something that I want to write more in depth about and polish it up to share. My little clay lumps have a spunky rawness to them that I just love. I don't have to overwork them and if something isn't quite right I have to freedom to say - ah.....it's a daily lump don't worry about it. Yet there is the feeling of possibility- when I take more time to create in clay I will have these lumps as inspirational building blocks. And I can't tell you the satisfaction I get from just showing up and doing it. Procrastinating is by far worse than facing the unformed lump so I keep showing up.

Last Sunday for my week 4 artist date I went to the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe. If you ever find yourself in Santa Fe I highly recommend a visit to this museum. They have a wing called The Girard Wing. Alexander and Susan Girard donated 106,000 objects to the museum. If you are a collector of anything then this part of the museum would intrigue you. Objects from all parts of the world are on display. You have to almost walk through it in four different directions and be sure to look up and down. There is one section that displays a picnic or table top setting. Only you realize that the objects that make up most of the food and stuff on the table are in another reality what we would label as squeaky dog toys. Every time I go see this exhibit something new catches my attention. I stood there for the longest time sketching different things that caught my fancy. Some of those sketches and inspirations went into my daily lumps for a few days following the visit. It was a very good artist date because it made me realize that artist food is everywhere - from Huichol Yarn paintings to dog toys to Australian Bark Paintings. Also I really don't like to draw - but I found myself really enjoying sketching at the museum. It took the pressure off to be really good at drawing and instead I focused on capturing the memory of the object so I could have the visual reference later. Makes me want to try drawing from that perspective outside of the museums in my daily life. Sketching did make me slow down and really look and pay attention and in the end I felt overstuffed with imagery but also more open and in a relaxed space.

As for the tasks - well -my eight year old told me to go swimming so that is a planned future artist date. Ready for week 5 and possibility.....