Puttering

I'm in that wonderful stage between projects. All decisions and work is done and I'm contemplating what to dive into next. In the meantime, I'm puttering: sorting and filing and putting away all that has been strewn about the studio while the last project was in progress; catching up on everyday life chores, like laundry, vacuuming, clearing off tables. The stacks really accumulate and can get quite scary! No end to the little things that get set aside but eventually need attending to. This downtime from creating is actually a very creative time. I find with the pressure off, the intensity of focus on completing a project gone, my subconscious is percolating with new ideas and letting them bubble to the surface. Like I need new ideas, but there they are and I'm not going to set them aside this time.

I'm also catching up on my reading, another endless source of inspiration for me. The picture above comes from a Smithsonian Magazine article about Singapore. When I turned the page, I wasn't sure what I was looking at, but the image knocked my socks off. Those shapes and colors! They didn't look like they could possibly be of anything real. But on closer inspection, I could see that this is a nighttime shot of loading docks. Now, I don't intend to reproduce this picture, but it is giving me ideas about color combinations if nothing else.

Also grabbing my attention: Art.com has added me to their mailing list and I received my first catalog in the mail yesterday. Oh, my - there is an awful lot of decent art out there, and poring over the catalog is a mini lesson in color and design theory. I find it much easier to study the pieces in catalog form than on the web. I'll keep this one for future reference.