I've taken a few Artist Dates (see Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way) lately that I wanted to share with my friends...
My husband and I encouraged out two teenage boys on a family field trip to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem this past weekend to see Theo Jansen's Strandbeests. I've been intrigued by these wind powered machines for some time now and I suspected that my boys would also be fascinated by them.
Parker and Simon
Maybe it was a menapausal blip but when I entered the exhibit I felt an emotional lump in my throat...like I was in the presence of genius. Or, maybe that these beasts were a kin to my own "Beasts" and that the crazy making of deciding to embroider on tissue paper in the wee hours of countless nights was not a solo mission. That there are other creatives out there that do things because they are driven by the engine of having to see an idea through and then release it to the world. Or, maybe I was hungry. Who knows?
What I can say for sure is that viewing Jansen's "Streandbeests" pushed me to shove my own work further, to make it better, to try even harder.
click through above to see more images
“One reason that people have artist’s block is that they do not respect the law of dormancy in nature. Trees don’t produce fruit all year long, constantly. They have a point where they go dormant. And when you are in a dormant period creatively, if you can arrange your life to do the technical tasks that don’t take creativity, you are essentially preparing for the spring when it will blossom again.”
Earlier this week I took a trip a few hours west to Northampton, MA to get some print work done. Believe it or not, I haven't found a printer closer to me that seems to know how to work with artists to get prints and products just right. I don't mind the drive through the country, especially this time of year, and NoHo is one of my very favorite places on the planet. While the printing was being completed I decide to walk to the art store, buy some supplies and head to the Botanical Gardens at Smith College.
The hot house was completely empty for the hour I was there sketching ! Pure bliss
A day well spent...the well is full...until next time.