Yesterday was the last day for regularly scheduled hours in the shop until March 1. I still come to work every day, but there is a change in the routine. I am on an internal, diurnal, noctural, natural, subdural, under the weather schedule. I am not looking out the window, I am looking in. I don’t plan much. I put my watch in the drawer. I eat potato chips whenever I feel like it. My mind wanders, and my hands are itching to make this, try that, hold whatever up to the light.
I have design projects needing some resolution by spring. All of them are in my mind; I like to let things cook before I put a pencil to paper. That cooking can take a long time; the long low heat makes for a tender stew with great flavor. Things surface in no particular order-fine. My reaction to the gardening season 2010 being in the distant future? Spring can wait. In December I am still working furiously; this spills over into early January. Long about January 5, I shift gears. No more daily lists. I sleep soundly and long. Were I a bear, I would Dylan Thomas my way resolutely into that good night. The seasonal life suits me perfectly. I like very very on, and very, very off; I am not a big fan of a daily drip.
My life changes during my late year streaming. Do you not admire this lingo coming from an old girl? It so amuses me. My concept of streaming is more stream of consciousness. You never know what might float by. January is time to give time to what surfaces, and see where it takes you. It is about taking direction from something that hasn’t crossed my mind yet. A new year is firstly about second chances, and more importantly, about the future. The future is our most precious treasure. As much as the present infuses my life with color, serious discourse, and energy, the future pushes me. My January is all about that future. Rob is shopping for Detroit Garden Works holiday and spring 2010 as I write. I have had 130 or so emails from him, loaded with photographs, in the past two days. January is a perfect time to take some ideas, and turn them into a collection for the shop. We talk plenty, seeds get sown , a plan gets buried in some good dirt-something good grows out of this. The winter lays me low; I am a growing girl, no question. I do the best I can to live good naturedly over the winter. Making topiary sculpture from natural materials, painting, designing new pots for Branch to build, repainting and rearranging the shop, reading, my spring design projects-I am terribly busy in an aimlessly good way. I need for nothing to be all put together right now.
At the intersection of Routine Street and Invention Boulevard, there is never any question which route I will take. Routine Street is at least 8 paved lanes wide, and goes on with nary a twist nor turn for what seems like a lifetime. This is not to say I am not influenced by the work of others-far from it. There are so many talented people out there whose work I truly respect and value. But January life is about turning what influences me inside out and upside down and running it down the block. If I am able to explain how, and with what materials, and why I have done what I have done, I will. I know I will be moving on to something else today. What I did yesterday does not completely define me. I would want to be a what will come next girl. I also believe that if a person can teach, they should. Transmit what they can. If people listen and try to reproduce my experiments, I am happy for this. As I think my eye and my sensibility is unique to me, no one could take that from me. I do meet people in various design fields who never seem to veer off what someone else has dreamed up-this is mostly about a lack of confidence, not a lack of imagination. Rarely there will be someone who deliberately claims the work of others as their own; I feel sorry for them. They have eliminated any possibility of satisfaction from their lives. How miserable a deed, and consequently, how miserable this must feel.
Invention Blvd is an uncharted and unmarked two track known for its hairpin turns, narrow bridges, wildlife in the road and predictably foggy weather. Does this not sound like the best fun? I have written this post in fits and starts over the past two days. That’s how things work for me, in January.
Great post from someone who obviously values the gift of a creative nature enough to ponder it, figure out what it needs to thrive, and trust it implicitly. Having the shop as a base of operations seems such a good idea — I’m trying to talk an artist in the family into something similar, as a bulwark through thick and thin. As usual, interesting stuff, Deborah. And it does indeed sound like “the best fun.”
Dear Denise, I so value your comments-they are always so thoughtful, and really well written. Many thanks, Deborah