Is discombobulated even a word?

My art making has felt discombobulated the last few weeks. I’ll have short bouts of inspiration and productivity but the duration is lacking –now that I write those words, they sound like a commercial for older adult males… After 30 plus years of art making it’s frustrating to feel the need to change up the way I’m used to working. I’d love for my productivity to be at it’s peak when opportunities for earning potential are also at their peak. I’ve never been able to switch the art making on and off or turn the art making dial to HIGH output. To try and find my groove usually means I need to get back to basics –in my case that includes drawing and sketching. I even pulled out some of my

favorite "artist self help” books like “Creative Time and Space,” “Creative Awakenings” and “Kaleidoscope –ideas and projects to spark your creativity.” Mainly, I like these books for the pictures and reading about other artists and their processes. These books tend to get me out of my “creating safely” zone. I’m feeling the need to be dangerous with my art making –doesn’t that sound fun? Not sure how I will get there though. I did unpack my new sewing machine and finally got the new bobbins wound and the machine threaded. That would go under the category of being productive NOT being dangerous. The piece I decided to give my new Janome a test drive on was unfortunately a very SAFE piece –I had a much more dangerous fiber art piece in my mind but was surprised how average the sunflower mini-quilt came out. On the upside, my stitches are soooo much easier to make and I didn’t need to adjust the tension

once or untangle one thread snarl ball! WOW, what a difference the new machine made. I even used the TAP (Transfer Artist Paper) with much more success when transferring to fabric instead of metal. I created some sunflower centers in Photoshop and printed them onto the TAP sub straight using the ink the HP printer.

We went to the downtown Anchorage 4^th of July parade this weekend. Normally, we are at the Girdwood Forest Fair but with the Farmer’s Market on Saturday we decided to stay off of the highway and hang out in town. What a treat both the weather and parade were! We are lucky to be able to walk downtown from our house and Daddy-O even packed snacks, 4^th of July flags and our camp chairs in his new Technica ski backpack!