Plan A: Still Proceeding In An Orderly Fashion, Thank You Very Much !!

Okay, let's define "orderly fashion" here. 

To me, an orderly fashion includes setting some priorities. 

Although my personal priorities may not conform with what society at large may agree with, they are MY priorities. 

For example, in my own little world, the one I live in here in my Tumble Down Cottage on Main Street of Small Town USA, books and artwork are a priority.  According to most people I ought not to be sitting and reading a book when I've got plumbing and wiring to do.  According to ME, that's exactly what I ought to be doing.  The plumbing and wiring will get done, have no fear, and it will be done exceptionally well - in my own good time.  So will everything else. 

At the moment I'm multi-tasking. 

In between paragraphs, I'm painting a picture (not the recalcitrant child one; this is a different one I'm working on while that one's in Time Out to contemplate its evil ways until it agrees that I'm the boss here - it might be a long time out), putting things into place in my kitchen, sweeping the floor, telling Duke that no he can't go outside because it's the middle of the night, reading a book about Maine just before the Revolution, and working on a sculpture for one of my daughters. 

I'm also congratulating myself for the fact that there are NO boxes of stuff in 1) the dining room, 2) the kitchen (WHOO-HOO!), or 3) the bathroom.  And no it's NOT because there are boxes of stuff that go in those rooms sitting in OTHER rooms.  It's because everything is put AWAY.  Thank the Good Lord that I build sturdy shelving units! 

As I empty out the boxes I toss them (the empty boxes) into the morning room, which is getting mighty full.  Pretty soon I'm going to have to flatten out all those boxes, bind them up with baling twine, and haul them out to the dump.  I've got at least two loads of filled boxes (clothes and other burnable stuff) to haul out, so I hope the boxes flatten out well. 

In a little bit I'll head for a bath in my 100 year old clawfoot bathtub, which is in incredible shape for its age, I have to say. 

Considering it IS the middle of the night, I've been busy. 

I tell ya - I'm gonna get through this Dakota Winter in FINE shape this year!

Good thing I work the 3-11 shifts at work!

Artwork Commissioned - Design Work In Progress

The thoughts of an artist roam at will.

Boundaries set by the customer are minor considerations, as the commission is specific only in size and general coloring. 

I'm thinking that it wants to have texture and form, a life of its own within its given framework, with maybe a swirl and a swoop of movement. 

Anything more specific than that is probably a waste of time and effort on my part as I have a feeling this one is going to be one of those 'recalcitrant child' works - you know, the ones who flat refuse to pay any attention whatsoever to anyone (like me) who thinks they can have anything to say about planning, development, design, or implementation. 

I can THINK anything I WANT.  I can PLAN whatever I CHOOSE.  And those are interesting and fun things to contemplate, I kid you not. 

HOWEVER, when it comes right down to it, the only things I really have any say-so about are the mediums with which this work will take form.  That much I CAN do. 

I merely provide the framework, the space, the materials and the tools (including my own hands, which the work will feel free to use at will).  After that, the biggest part of me just backs off and watches the piece bring its own self into being, on canvas this time. 

I tell ya, it's an amazing process. 

There have been times that I've tried to impose some kind of modicum of decorum to a piece and it absolutely will NOT tolerate my interference.  The few times that I've insisted ... well, the least said about THOSE results, the better. 

I may be slow but I do catch on. 

And so I realize right up front that the design I have in my mind for this piece may well be nothing more than a fruitless exercise.  The greens, yellows, pinks, the touch of blue, all washing into one another and overlaid with burgundy with little highlights of color here and there may well end up being so much hogwash. 

I can, and do, dream my dreams of what this work will end up looking like, but the bottom line is that it will create itself as it goes along.  I can either rant and rave and cuss a blue streak because it isn't doing it MY WAY, or settle myself and watch in perplexed fascination as it unfolds itself in whatever way IT chooses. 

Guess which way works better. 

One side note:  This is going to be a fairly big piece but as I don't want it standing alone I do plan to, once it's done, do several companion pieces to go with it.  If the customer doesn't want them, I'll keep them myself or give them to someone else.