Carpe Diem; Now is the time, do those projects you have been waiting on

Carpe dium, now is the time to start that project you never had the time for.

I stood in my art storage, surrounded by all of my completed pieces.  I have no show scheduled in the near future and last year I was up to my neck in venues.  I have inventory but no place to take it.  When you push to create for shows and you have had all of them canceled, what do you do?  I tend to create under stress.  If I have a deadline for a show, I work and paint, frame and mount until there is enough for the shows. Looking around at all of this work, I am losing my drive.  I feel drained of all my artistic energy.  What do I do? If I don’t paint, I won’t grow but why would I want to add to inventory with no place to go?

The ultimate dilemma of the Covid situation.  We are lonely and depressed with no way to build momentum artistically. Where do I go from here?  To my material files!  Everyone who is a professional has those ideas, those creative mountains we want to climb but we haven’t had the time.  These masterpieces would have taken valuable time away from creating quick selling inventory.  We get lost in these monsters and loose track of all our ducks.  Right now, WE HAVE NO DUCKS!  We have no cats to herd.  Now is the time to head for those Mountains and climb them.

I had this one picture that called to me.  I would go through my material and would literally trip over this one.  It stopped me every single time.  There are actually two but this one, This image is the one that is my mountain right now.  I have already put 6 hours into it.  Now I can tell you, as an impressionist, I don’t generally put that much time in an 11x14.  I’m not even close to done on this one, and I don’t care!  I think about it all the time, work out my colors and values in my mind while I am away from it.  Roll it over in my head and consider where I want to go with it from here.  I’m excited to get back into the studio again, even if I’m not getting that far when I work on it.  It is creating that artistic momentum I was lacking.  I am in-love with the craft again and the excitement makes it hard for me to stay out of the studio.

That is my advice, what the hell; we aren’t doing anything else right now: Paint your masterpiece.  If it doesn’t work out, so what.  It is the journey that is important.  Stretch your wings, leap from the cliff, rope the wind, throw your heart over the fence and push yourself.  Find your love of your medium through new challenges.  You won’t regret the time you spend on it right now. Think of it as working on your relationship with your medium, this is date night.  Find the reason you loved your medium with new challenges.  Your relationship with your art will only be stronger for it.