It is always reassuring to see other bloggers write they aren't getting as much done as they'd like too - a bit easy sometimes to compare yourself to people who seem to casually knock together a quilt or a purse every couple of days and despair!
Anyway.....I tried to get unstuck this weekend and got the watercolours out - there are so many beautiful colours in the fallen leaves round about. It's pretty rough but it makes me happy to be doing stuff again.
Annekata posted this fantastic lecture from John Cleese about creativity - the brief gist of it is that you need Space, Time, Confidence and Humour to be creative. If I can make space and time, try not to see imperfection as failure, and keep a sense of humour about my rather pitiful rate of production in comparison with other people, then maybe I'll have something worth posting soon.
In the meantime I'm really grateful to other bloggers for keeping it real!
I am sure many of us can understand what you are saying - I can't believe how productive some bloggers are and even some non-bloggers I know who can churn out a quilt in less time than it takes me to think about it! I have been trying to discover what I am doing that prevents me from getting on with something creative but as yet apart from blogging I can't see where I can trim any extra time from. Let me know if you come up with the answer!
ReplyDeleteOh, I am in the same place right now... Good thing we can be guilt-free since we're certified slow bloggers;) I love your painted leaf (I actually thought it was a photo first...)
ReplyDeleteCatherine, that is just bl**dy beautiful. End of.
ReplyDeleteI get stuck all the time, and feel so awful over it. I am constantly wondering how others do it all...especially those that do large bed size quilts. Even when I feel like I am on a roll, I still feel that I work slower then others. Maybe we all just need to honor our own particular rhythms?
ReplyDelete(And your leaf painting is very pretty!)
That leaf is amazing! I thought it was a photo!
ReplyDeletewell usually deadlines do help me to make time - and of course I have used sewing as a kind of avoidance strategy the last month - you can't clean the kitchen more than two times a week and not seem like a complete nuttcase (in a student dorm) .. so I looked for other things that "needed to be done" - and there were a lot of WIPs lying around.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great leave - and you know some of them sew so much because it's their big great hobby, you already admitted to having another one: painting .. so you have to divide your time. And maybe you jsut need more time to be "doing nothing" than some others .. who knows we aren't all the same, and I guess you don't mean to use your blog as a way to earn some money/products by writing reviews or have it just as a marketing platform for your etsy shop.
So don't beat yourself up just because November sort of fogged over your creative energy - you could try the old trick of not doing something until you feel the need to do it again. You know liek you sometimes get a graving for oranges in July because you ahevn't had any since January, or like you have to read a book again, or go to the cinemas just becuase oyu haven't done it in a long while.
Ok that became a long one again - I seem to eb unable to write short comments (I will work on that next year, or the year after that..)
I think we all can relate to that. I admire other bloggers that are able to creat so many beautiful things in a short period of time.
ReplyDeleteYour painting is amazing, so realistic.
I hear you Catherine! Did you paint that leaf? It's amazingly beautiful. Wow.
ReplyDeleteYou know its not about how much you churn out, its the pleasure we get from producing something we are proud of and enjoying the process along the way :0 So don't worry about not doing anything for a while, it gives you time to really think about what you want to do next and also spend time with other important things, such as family :)
ReplyDeleteI know exactly how you feel, but I don't think you should be beating yourself up about it. Sometimes creativity gets squeezed out but that doesn't mean that it has gone as your beautiful painting shows.
ReplyDelete