LOSING FOCUS

by design.  January has become the month to let go and allow my interests to wander...all over the place.  That has been easy to do this month after a year of the Paducah Portfolio.  I go into the studio every day with no preconceived plan of activity because I am, for now, a liberated man, no longer consumed by a major project.  At least that is how I prefer to see things.

But what really happens is this.  I allow my head to wander a bit and it soon settles on pastels, and the next thing I know I’m focusing on creating a new series of pastel paintings.  But my mind is still wandering, and before I know it I have completed 4 drawings of Nashville architecture, all waiting for watercolor.  As I continue to mentally wander – after all, it is January and I am committed to this – I have discovered a renewed interest in my blog, and writing in general.  So every morning I try to spend at least one hour writing, determined to improve my craft.  Naturally this has led to more reading, because it is necessary to read good writers to learn about good writing.  So, as I wander from study to kitchen to studio and back again I carry my laptop as well as 2 or 3 of the books I’m currently reading.

Now this may seem like a lot of work I am not focusing on, but for a tiger like me it’s nothing.  In fact there is more.  Having discovered 2 Facebook groups devoted to remembering Wilmington Delaware as it was back in “the good ole days” I have begun sharing my old Wilmington artwork with them.  Because of the interest it has generated I am now working on assembling a new Wilmington book.

I love relaxing in January.   But on the remote chance…….