Studio Time

I am making a real effort to spend time back in my studio.

Working.

The time is right to put energy into my creative practice with gusto.

Now that Kaz is over a year old, takes two regular naps, has an early bed time, and enjoys some time at the local daycare a couple hours a day, a day or two a week, there is no reason I can not get at least 6 -12 hours of studio time in every week. I know this doesn't sound like a lot but it is something. Something which is very special to me.

First I spent time reorganizing and cleaning up my studio space after using it as a home office for the past year. Now that the space is in studio mode I am back to work. Paints can stay out and works in progress are easily accessible. This is great as I sometimes need to get to work fast when I only have a bit of time to spare. A half an hour here an couple hours there soon add up to sketches being made, watercolors being experimented with and dreams taking shape.

During studio time I am taking care of Where Earth Meets Sky business. I want to use some of my creative time to get ready for craft fairs and holiday sales that happen in the fall through Christmas time. I would also like to get my cards and prints into some more retail businesses. I want to update my facebook business page and learn how to connect it better with my blog. I'm thinking about setting up my Etsy shop again since it has been dormant for the past year.

I just finished a commission I had been working on for a friend for long time. I want to share all the commissioned projects that have come to fruition in the past year and a half. I created a wedding invitation, a tattoo design and a business logo with matching business cards. I still need to finish a poster/flyer template for a musician friend. Posts to come will show the work in their completion. I will also have an organized page here on my blog which focuses on the commissioned projects that I've been hired to create for others.

Giving myself a kick in the pants to get out of my head, take action and get to work has felt really good. Creative work brings a greater sense of purpose and meaning to my life. My other roles in life are satisfying but when I put energy towards my creative practice I feel more whole and complete. The danger for me is procrastination and fear of failure. Somehow when I take action these two negative aspects become weaker and quietly hang in the background instead of blazing in the foreground. I do not feel good when I procrastinate or am unnecessarily fearful.

I have found a website that I find particularly inspiring and helpful as I make headway organizing moments of free time to create art work in the studio. It is a space for mothers who are artists called Studio Mothers. There are some good articles there for those of us looking to use any bits of free time we have pursuing creative endeavors. Really the inspiration here can be useful and translate to how one may pursue any life passion. Sometimes we just need some positive affirmation to help us along the way. This is a place I can find that.

meme taken from studiomothers.com

Awake In My Dream, Krakow

I am here, Krakow. I've been anticipating you and dreaming about you. Wondering what, how, why, when? A relationship has begun and my thoughts and feelings well up in this place.  My heart has that feeling when one falls in love, interest builds, anticipation for the moments I'll share in your presence and the sensation I am becoming involved with this place and dusty parts of myself that want attention and stimulation. I am curious and want to explore through my senses this place that I will call home for a number of weeks this summer.

Do you like this contemporary sculpture, of a big and heavy female visage who appears to be in a dream as it rests in the center of the action in the town square (Rynek Gl/o'wny) which was designed in the 13th century? It's placement reminds me of how Krakow strikes me as a spiral or an onion. There are layers and layers to discover of the town itself along with myself in this town. 

For me the sculpture represents something that has become apparent relatively quickly during my first week here. Time mingles, layers and spirals in and out, around in this place. Evidence of habitation in the Paleolithic Era rest within Wawel Hill. The hill houses churches and palaces where within beautiful representations of Medieval, Gothic, Romanesque, Baroque and art nouveaux architecture, religious art and decoration reside.

My Art History class, which is called "Polish Art Past and Present" has been walking around this town looking at these places and how they came to be.  On Tuesday we walked to the top of Wawel Cathedral and looked out over the town beneath us.

A bell lives at the top there. It is called the Dream Bell...you touch it and your dreams will come true. I wonder if it's really that easy, like in a fairytale, however it never hurts to reinforce one's dreams with a positive thought, wish or prayer.

I look forward to sharing more layers of Krakow with you as well as layers of myself that are revealed as I experience time in this place. Dzie,kuje,!