Summer Week 1: Bulbs and Lethargy

abstract bulbs in progress

Last week was the first week of the summer break and my home studio work time. I found it really really difficult to get started. The week in the studio felt lethargic and I felt apathetic. I am hopeful that the malaise of this first week and my difficulty getting excited about working is a combination of our odd schedule the first week off and the change in momentum after finals week. My spring was extra busy at work and mentally exhausting to boot. Maybe when I've regained some motivation and energy I'll write about it.

my studio helper doesn't know that this bag is not a toy  

Realistically, at least a part of my lethargy is probably due to my mind going in several different directions about how I should be spending my summer work time. My goals for this summer are a bit different than usual. In a typical summer, I try to focus on work in my home studio in preparation for shows during the year. This summer I do have one show coming up, for which I need to make work and fairly quickly, but I also intend to spend some of my summer making some fairly significant changes to my YVC classes.

one of the politics bulbs in progress

The upcoming show is at the Columbia Center for the Arts in Hood River, Oregon, where I have been showing a lot in the last couple of years. The show, which opens in August, is called Art a Day and the idea is that the exhibiting artists making one piece each day for a month. My initial plan was to make 30 abstract bulbs. I got excited, in about March, about doing 30 political bulbs, like the work I had installed most recently at the Columbia Center for the Arts and Boxx Gallery in Tieton.

one of the abstract bulbs in progress

And then I got thinking about making 30 political mugs that would hang on the wall and have contrasting political views decorating the opposing sides, so that the piece could be installed with one perspective, flipped to announce the opposing view, or intermixed to show some of each. Needless to say, I've overcomplicated my plans for the show and given myself an exhausting project (3 projects) to try to complete in the allotted time.

a politics bulb piece in progress

The abstract bulbs are pretty fast and easy to make compared to the political bulbs and the mugs, and the abstract forms take a lot less mental energy to make, but the political pieces are more exciting and more meaningful and the mugs are intriguing because they are a new idea.

a politics bulb piece in progress

This week's work time was, actually, fairly productive even though it didn't feel that way. I threw, trimmed, and attached handles on maybe 8-10 mugs (I'm too lazy today to go check) and molded about 13 bulbs, 8 of which I finished building. The reason I'm reluctantly calling this productive is that my work time was very interrupted during the week. My daughter attended two different camps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon and I needed to drop her off at 9, pick her up at 12, drop her off at 1 and pick her up at 4, which meant driving across town three times every day and taking a lunch break that was a bit longer than an hour. Granted, driving across town in Yakima doesn't take that long, but still. Lunch with her every day was actually nice, but didn't contribute to my studio motivation.

a politics bulb piece in progress

I also had an all morning meeting on Monday, she had an appointment Wednesday morning, and the first camp had an hour and a half long event Friday morning, all of which cut into my work time. Tuesday I did an all day project outside of the studio. Coming back to the studio after each of these breaks took just a little bit of energy to get back in the swing of the work.

a politics bulb piece in progress

I started the week with the mugs and press molding the bulbs for the political pieces. I finished the mugs on Wednesday, then focused on the political bulbs. By Thursday I was feeling uninspired (and just exhausted) on the political front, so I started on the abstract bulbs. As I said, the abstract bulbs require much less mental energy and proceed a lot faster.

my studio helper, she really enjoyed sticking her head in the slip, throwing water, and clay recycling buckets

Next week I have only one appointment and no meetings and my daughter will be at camp from 9am-3pm including lunch. My daily work time technically won't be longer, but it will be much less interrupted. Hopefully I will be able to sustain my inspiration through a week's work of work (or three week's, based on what I actually want to do.

a piece for one of the politics bulbs in progress

I am supposed to be making one piece a week, this week I made four of each type of bulb in 5 days and took the weekend off entirely (except for some clay recycling that was time sensitive). Theoretically I will have had almost a month and a half to get the work done, but the work also needs to be glazed and fired before the drop off day in late July.

pieces for the politics bulbs in progress

I think the best advice for making studio work is to just work, even if one isn't feeling inspired. So I applied that suggestion as best I could last week and I am applying the same idea here with the blog. I don't feel like talking about the work, but I can talk about not wanting to talk about the work. Hopefully next post I'll want to talk about it.