The brain’s a funny thing. It’s not always the same. It doesn’t require consistency but, rather, has phases when it needs something different. Sometimes it puts stuff out. Sometimes it needs ideas put in. In the long run, it probably balances, but there are definitely marked periods of one or the other.
For me, anyway.
Recently, it’s been a fairly intense period of getting ideas out. There are several exhibitions for which I’m both creating work and nutting out the logistics of getting the paintings done, stretched and framed, and transported within the required timeframes. It’s going well, I think, which is comforting.
Yesterday, though, I suddenly felt I had reached the bottom of the well – only temporarily, but I was definitely looking into an empty bucket for the afternoon. I decided it would be a good chance to replenish some of the putting out with a few moments of bringing in.
I put on a podcast – one of my favourites which gets far less listening than I’d like – and lay on the couch to soak up the new thoughts. Within about four minutes I was asleep and stayed that way until the final few seconds of the episode.
Obviously this is not one of those periods meant for taking in, for receiving, for refilling. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. I went back to the studio this morning, less empty because of a night’s sleep, but with no monumental new learning to apply to my work. Perhaps today? Ha! Perhaps not.
Until later,
Kirsten