Mostly behind the scenes sort of work going on now. Orion starts kindergarten next week.
I know. I can hardly believe it myself.
Everything changes.
So with a tinge of melancholy for the end of his stay-at-home years, I prepare for the changes in my own time and space by preparing space for the deluge of art I know will come soon.
I don't need to see the light at the end of a tunnel to know it's there.
And I don't have to hear the whistle to know the light is a train.
So I dust and paint, clean windows, put up new shelves and pegboard.
Everyone I've talked to in the past couple of days is in some weird sort of fugue. Not desperately unhappy, just restless and dissatisfied. As I'm not really interested in trading my friends for new ones, (and hopefully, vice versa) I suppose we'll just slog through it together.
Yesterday I had a flash of inspiration for a new piece and immediately spent some time working on it and ordering the other parts I'll need to finish. It always starts this way, (the deluge)with a flash here and there. Like labor pains, coming faster and faster, lasting longer each time, until I produce something I'm happy with. Or something I fall in love with and don't want to part with for a minute, though I know it must be released into the world...or kindergarten.
Sheesh.
How is it that artists and writers can work so urgently in the present, yet at the same time always hold hope that our best work is in our futures?
This morning Pete woke me at 3:30 so we could see the lunar eclipse. It was eerie and beautiful. One night, when I was a wee tot and the moon was full, my mother (who was talented and smart and quite lune-y) whistpered in my ear that it was following me. I tried running from it and, damn, it did follow! I ran and ran and ran until I couldn't anymore. I can't begin to tell you how much that creeped me out. I sat in the grass and cried. I hid inside. I didn't sleep well for days. Then my brother, nerd that he is (which saved my butt more than once) explained about the illusion. And a bit about our mother.
(Hmm. I think I should phone my brother soon. )
But this morning I enjoyed the site with the wonder, thrill and affection felt by millions of other humans who watched too.
If you're interested, go to Shadow and Substance, where there's a fairly cool animation of the eclipse, which (after seeing the real thing) looks remarkably realistic.
After the eclipse, I slept, but not so well. Lots of weird dreams---and I awoke sort of tired, as though I'd been running...
If you haven't looked at the moon in awhile. Do. It's good for you. If you're slogging through, chin up. Everything changes.
g'night
9 comments:
Oh wow, now that is a *cool* animation! And they link to SpaceWeather.com which is also a cool site. Especially coming into aurora season, check it out!
i'd love to see an aurora once. Or twice even ;-)
Yes, I was suffering throughout the day for my late night followed by getting up early (5 a.m. here) to see the eclipse. It was worth it though and prompted a little more moon gazing last night.
Kindergarten?!?! Already!?!? Isn't Orion like, three? ;) It goes by waaaay to fast.
On another note, I was perusing a friend's copy of Chelsey Award Winning art last night and saw a fantastic picture of a portion of Dark Caravan. Wonderful!
Restless and dissatisfied. Yes. That is a good way to put it. A very good way to put it. To be honest, I'd be happy to feel like there was a train of inspiration rushing down my tunnel at me. Right now I just feel like I'm feeling my way along in the dark, and there are things down here with me, teasing me, touching my face when I least expect it, and getting ready to do something nasty.
Ravyn: I went back to the site and dug a little deeper. It gets better and better. This one goes in my permanent links.
Carl v: As I'm fond of saying, "It's like time travel."
wait...it IS time travel.
I truly hope to have a page devoted to the Dark Caravan one. It contains many of the most complex and fantastical works I've created and is probably the least seen of all my work. I hold hope this will be remedied in the near future. The collection is being adopted by a museum in the Baltimore area. I'm told the process will take about two years.
In the meantime, I'm working on a post about the making of the fortune teller, and will put up photos of the other pieces with it.
Thanks!
RRNN: I know that tunnel all too well. I'm pretty sure it's the same one I'm in, just without the oncoming train. Give it time. It seems a natural part of the process you're going through.
Soon we'll be hard at work together again on poppety things.
Write it out. Write the pain too. Poppets are not afraid of pain.
During a rough patch many years ago, Neil Gaiman gave me advice that has stuck: "Work and keep working. It all comes out in the work." He was so right then, and now.
Ravyn - there is little equal to walking under a star bright sky with the aurora flowing overhead. I have stopped staring up at the night sky since moving back to the lower 48.
Here is a link to real-time imagery: http://gedds.pfrr.alaska.edu/allsky/default.htm
I'm not sure how good it is, as I just found it and the IT guy broke the video playing functions of my work computer, but it's part of the Poker Flats Research Station (owned by UAF).
If you want to see them with your own eyes, I would recommend visiting Fairbanks, Alaska in March. Due to the latitude, it's quite common to see the lights (and because you can catch the ice art championships as well). of course, the best time to see the aurora is when it's coldest (November and February).
oh, and there are poppets up there
Xander heads off to first grade next week. I'm conflicted about it, but hopeful as always.
I didn't know about the eclipse in advance. I'd been admiring the bright moon on my drive to work and then, walking from my car, noticed that it had begun to disappear. I figured it was either an eclipse or Armaggedon.
I am adding a link to your website on my blog as one of my 5 for Blog Day 2007
Wonderful news about the museum! That will be just one more reason (as if I need any more) to come to Balticon one of these days!
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