Going Into A Scruffy Artistic Mindset

This means I am concentrating on doing the paintings. To really do that means I resent and am phased by everything else. I dream of uninterrupted time, really, without boundaries, in the studio. I dream of early morning in here, and afternoons and late evenings and nights. What commonly makes me leave the studio, under normal circumstances, is the cooking the washing, talking to and interacting with the kids. Shopping (always for more food. Going for a foraging exercise in Tesco), normal household family things.

The slide into the Scruffy Artistic Mindset looks like this. I am distracted in my normal dealings with the kids and friends. I don't like coming out of the studio for anything other than my own needs. I can't think straight so I find preparing a meal impossible. Here is the really interesting bit - I don't want to have to bother with physical things at all so I don't want to undress at night or dress in the morning. I don't want to bathe, to wash, to do anything that means taking my mind off the studio. So I look like Mary Hickey from the Marshes, I sleep in my clothes and wake up in my clothes and go through that day, the next and so on until I have had enough and the painting is finished and I have a long bath and a new book as a reward.

I do however still get the kids up and ready for school. I do welcome and love them, but a bit distractedly. After a while, for them, it is like being looked after by Wurzle Gummage.

This morning I broke the pattern and had a shower and put on clean tee shirt. Then I put on the old studio jeans and cardi and thought, gosh, I look a million dollars. However, I am back in the studio now. I will plug away at this secret commission and make it work. I will have tomorrow and Thursday uninterrupted in here, but on Friday it is half term and so I will be required in the world outside, washed polished and in control. Bah Humbug.