Life
Traveling for work, preparing for a move, planning a wedding, all while trying to keep up art motivation has been trying. That said, I’m still buzzing with ideas, but creating when I’m more in the mood for relaxing leads to half hearted photos that don’t match the vision in my head.
Instead I’ve been reading fiction and memoirs, rather than reading for research, watching movies, spending time with family and truly basking in the life I have around me. Allowing myself the space to breathe, and not stress about not living up to social media posting standards and my own harsh criticism of my artistic practice, has given me time to find fulfillment in other things, and to form new artistic ideas.
The problem, for me, with leaving artistic ideas to sit, without acting on them, makes them go stale. I’m no longer as passionate about the ideas as I was when I came up with them. And passion makes me work harder, longer, more successfully on a project. Long story short, while not creating has led to me letting go of certain ideas, it has brought about new ones that I’m quite excited about.
This is largely just a life update, but use this practice in your own life – allow yourself time to relax and spend time in the world. You’ll feel better and create better if you do.
In the entertainment I’ve consumed I’ve also stumbled on some unexpected miniatures, which is always a pleasant surprise.
Little Fires Everywhere
The cover of Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng is a photo of a miniature model by Amy Bennett. She does lovely work – click her name in the prior sentence to see her website. While I’m not quite finished with the book, its quite intriguing so far, with so many inspiring photography tidbits. Also, my sister sent me her copy to read, so I know I’m going to enjoy it through the end.
Isn’t it Romantic
I finally watched this movie this past Sunday night, and I was not disappointed. Among the cute, rom com in a rom com satire, there were also architectural models everywhere (the main character being an architect)! We’d pause the movie to get shots of the screen when a good view of one came up. Click through the images above to spot them yourself.
Two Kates
Two Kates on Amazon Prime is a story of discovering oneself, but this story is told through an awkward woman and her clone. The episodes are about 8 minutes long, and while it wasn’t my favorite show ever, it was interesting enough, and there’s an ikea miniature bedroom set on the book shelf!
Chamblin’s Bookmine
There’s a local used bookstore here in Jacksonville, FL that I love. My friend and I went and wandered the maze of the store recently, and I was very happy to find The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death! I’ll be sure to blog about it separately once I have a chance to thoroughly peruse it.
We also got more books from a library book sale, but no miniature-based ones to mention.
Robbie’s Hobbies
My most recent work trip was to Columbus, OH. I try to find cute local things to do while away, that are open around my work schedule. I was pleasantly surprised that Columbus has quite the assortment of art and hobby stores. My favorite hobby store was Robbie’s Hobbies and in the front they had an O scale/Playmobile model set up. I ended up buying some HO scale telephone poles and an O scale man smoking a cigar, of which the end actually lights up.
I found another cute used book store in Columbus and bought a book on Alfred Stieglitz. That will come into play in a future blog post as well.
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What have you been up to lately and how do you maintain your art sanity?
Hi tourmaline !
I am completely with you in releasing social media pulls in order to live life. And think you have (and continue to) find your life balance
Because we are not robots and I think we really do have various seasons – and we can’t flower and bloom all the time – well some can more than others – but some times we need to “condition the soil” and just let life breathe…
Your trip to Ohio seems to have brought some extra fun – the little lit cigar/ Hahha
And best wishes on your move and wedding planning (etc)
And for me – one of my blogging goals in the next year is to write flash fiction weekly – feel it is time for the strategy to keep that output flowing (compared to other times when an open schedule fits)
😊☀️
I really love your reference to various seasons and only being in bloom a part of the time. It’s a beautiful way to think of the whole thing. And thank you so much for your well wishes. While I haven’t been reading a ton of blogs lately, I’m going to try to keep up with your weekly flash fiction! Good luck!!
well thanks for the nice reply – and actually taking a break from fiction for a couple weeks – lol – guess we have to find our flow during seasons too – eh?
and hope the wedding planning is coming along well