Today I am finding all kind of things to do besides finish the piece waiting for me in the garage. Now that I know exactly what needs to be done to finish I am suddenly bored. No matter how hard I try to convince myself that I will love playing with gold paint and coloring perfect lines of green I just don't believe it.
Sadly, it's much more exciting when I have no idea what comes next. Usually I am able to work on many pieces at one time, I just switch when I get bored. Somehow they all eventually get finished. However, this piece is a commission with a deadline and so I don't have the luxury of taking a break and starting something else.
Instead of working I have been making bread, working in the garden cleaning leaves out of pots and rearranging plants so they don't look so scraggly. Now I am listening to "An Old Fashioned Christmas" on the record player and reading blogs about other people who are busy being creative. Earlier I washed 26 Ziplock bags.
So now that I am thoroughly convicted of my terrible lack of discipline I am scurrying off to shut myself up in the garage for hours! No breaks even for tea! After all (to quote someone I love very much) "I get to do this!".
I leave you with this beautiful painting and poem on this the 5th day of Advent.
"The Annunciation' 1876-79', by Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898)
...
She didn't notice at first the air had changed.
She didn't, because she had no expectation
except the moment and what she was doing, absorbed
in it without the slightest reservation.
Things grew brighter, more distinct, themselves,
in a way beyond explaining. This was her home,
yet somehow things grew more homelike. Jars on the shelves
gleamed sharply: tomatoes, peaches, even the crumbs
on the table grew heavy with meaning and a sure repose
as if they were forever. When at last she saw
from the corner of her eye the gold fringe of his robe
she felt no fear, only a glad awe,
the Word already deep inside her as she replied
yes to that she'd chosen all her life.
Annunciation by Robert Seigel
from "a pentecost of finches"
..
She didn't notice at first the air had changed.
She didn't, because she had no expectation
except the moment and what she was doing, absorbed
in it without the slightest reservation.
Things grew brighter, more distinct, themselves,
in a way beyond explaining. This was her home,
yet somehow things grew more homelike. Jars on the shelves
gleamed sharply: tomatoes, peaches, even the crumbs
on the table grew heavy with meaning and a sure repose
as if they were forever. When at last she saw
from the corner of her eye the gold fringe of his robe
she felt no fear, only a glad awe,
the Word already deep inside her as she replied
yes to that she'd chosen all her life.
Annunciation by Robert Seigel
from "a pentecost of finches"
..
4 comments:
Hi Phaedra! I hope all is well!
You can make bread!?!? You're awesome!
Do some people call you Mara! I love that.
My bread making is not really that impressive as I cheat and use a bread machine. I make all our bread so it would just take way too long if I didn't use the machine. But I do love the way it makes the house smell:)
PhaedraJean BreadMachine
Phaedra, found you on your husband's page! We have something in common already, besides faith: we both use the term artfully!! We work in some of the same veins too. Im glad to find you!
I love finding new friends!
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