The hotel closed in March. Then it re-opened in July, but has yet to reinstate my department, so I'm kinda in limbo. The only schedule I have is to wake up and drink coffee and do my tumblr post. On Tuesday I do laundry and shop for groceries. Other than that, I don't get out of the house much. I haven't had a haircut since the first week of March. I'm in that awkward stage where my hair is both too long and too short to be manageable. I forget to shave because I have nowhere to go and no one to see, and then my face gets itchy and reminds me that I really don't want to grow a beard. I have days where I'm highly motivated and accomplish a lot, and days where I have trouble convincing myself to do anything.
I love it. It's not sustainable, but I do. After nearly seventeen years of being nocturnal, and the scheduling pressures associated with that, these unstructured days are delightful. Plus I've managed to get some of those around the house projects done that I would never have had time for otherwise.
My best friend is in the same position. He worked with me overnights, as did his wife. She's gone back to work. He's at home. He's bored. He's already finished painting the house, and he's been reading and writing. But there are a lot of pictures of him in his bathrobe on Facebook. He's also been sending naked selfies to to me and the man-spouse for his own amusement. He suggested that I should paint one of them. I said, "Oh like I have time.... Oh, wait! I do."
He said, "Yeah, but it will still take you ten years to get it done." I took that as a challenge, but I still haven't finished the portrait of him I started two decades ago.
As for me, I have
- replaced the floor in the shed, which I needed to do because I stupidly decided to use chipboard for the floor when we built the thing seven years ago.
- built a box (treasure chest) for the man-spouse, inspired by the one my dad built for me back in 1969. It turned out really nice, but I'm already thinking about what I would have done differently.
- replaced all the shelving in the utility room. I thought this was going to be a big job, but it only took three hours. I should have done it ages ago.
- washed, waxed, and detailed my car.
- finished the bathroom lavatory cabinet that's been half done since 2008. It looks nice. I'm proud of it.
- built a fire pit to replace the crumbling chimenea. I've been using it to get rid of the old shed floor.
- changed the arrangement of the studio. Nine years ago the man-spouse and I changed the studio from having the framing table run along the north wall to being massive table in the middle of the room. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but I hated it immediately because it created a lot of space limitations. Now it's back up against the wall, and the drafting table is on an island in the middle, and I couldn't be happier.
- started an Etsy store at the encouragement of my friend Charla, who's been having a lot of fun with her camera lately.
- built a Googie styled coffee mug shelf to put in said Etsy store.
- rebuilt the cabinets in the studio, which had been sagging (a work in progress)
- painted the studio a pretty yellow (also a work in progress.)
- listened to several audio books on Overdrive. I expected to get more reading done, but I've only read three actual physical books. I also thought I'd write a lot more, but I've only finished one blog post (not counting this one.)
The last time I was at the hotel, I ran into my friend Melody, who instructed me to get a lot of artwork done while we are on hiatus. I got some done (like "A Straight Line," below.) I expected to do more.
The plan is to finish all the paintings and drawings that have already been started before I start something new. (One down, nine to go.) The reality is that I couldn't resist, and I have four new canvases sketched out. But now I'm back to one of my old frustrations.
I accidentally came across the blog of a painter by the name of Aaron Lifferth. According to the title of his blog, he had the ambitious goal of doing a painting a day. He didn't accomplish that goal, but he did finish an awful lot of paintings, mostly miniatures, in a short amount of time. They're wonderful. I'm inspired. I can't do a painting a day, but I have a stack of paper perfect for 4x6 pen & ink drawings (136 of them!), as well as a few 5x5 and 5x7 mini canvases for paintings, which individually wouldn't take long to do. I want to do this. The problem?
I have nine unfinished projects. Plus the four new ones. Most of them large, all of them time consuming, and all of them likely to occupy my thoughts and energy until I've forgotten about my current inspiration.
I know how this works. It happens every time I go to an art show and see artworks that spark my imagination. I'm full of inspiration until I come home to the same unfinished projects that were there before, and it just dies.
But my life and my environment has changed a lot lately. At the moment I have all the time in the world, and all the space I need to work. Maybe, just maybe, that's the fertile ground I need for my inspiration to grow. We'll see.
