Happy Dance!

I received an email from Thelma Smith yesterday informing me that my piece featuring Dolores Huerta was accepted into the She Made Her Mark Exhibit. I am delighted by the news.

But happy dance? Not really. I had already moved on from the three pieces I submitted. Ready and eager to cash in on the creative surge I experienced while creating them. Yet, I still haven't cleaned my studio, and other than a few attempts at painting this month -- NOTHING. Not one creative idea has popped into my head.

Sharon recently spent two weeks at Callaway Gardens with Littlejohn and Beaney. During the first day Sharon reported that L&B said to spend time with your sketchbook, and not to work out of your head. Sketch your ideas, paint them, and work them out on paper before committing to fiber (or canvas I suppose). If you don't spend time in your sketchbook, and you always work out of your head, eventually you could run out of ideas.

Gasp. Could this have happened to me? Is my mind the proverbial blank slate -- images escaping my capture? That is a frightening proposition.

Luckily I work in a sketchbook, but the pages for January are filled with exercises and techniques. Practice in the arena of realism. A few forced attempts at the abstract. Perhaps I'll resurrect an old idea and put it to fiber. Perhaps that will pull me out of the drab winter doldrums.