Art A.D.D.

It's no secret that I love to be artsy.  When I can find a free moment for myself you will often find me reading, painting, drawing, writing, playing music or crafting with my kids.  Whatever I feel at the moment is usually what I do.  I often have periods of time where I will become focused on one artistic outlet and will go with it for as long as I'm inspired.  Unfortunately though, with each of these talents, I have a huge snag.  I have to be in the mindset and mood with great inspirations in order for me to produce something. I also have to do what I want or vision and have great troubles doing something that someone specifically requests or instructs me to do. A simple request like asking for robots or princesses is fine but giving me a color scheme specific details just doesn't work. There are periods of time such as lately, where I will read and write.  At other times I can go for days painting one thing after another.  Then there are times where all I wish to do is sit down at my piano or behind my drum kit and hammer out some tunes. I'm not quite sure why this happens. It's almost like there's a little set of switches inside of my brain and as one is turned off another is turned on, thus changing my artistic capabilities at that time and making me feel as if I have a slight case of ADD.

Usually these changes don't bother me and I can just roll with the flow of things.  But lately this has not been the case.  Since about November 2010 I've been in the mindset to read and write.  I've been reading on average about a book a week and writing this blog has been my artistic outlet.  No problems there.  The problem that I've been having is that while my brain is in this mode I've had a few requests from friends for paintings as well as a desire to paint for them but my brain just won't let that happen.  Whenever I sit and try to come up with that perfect picture to paint my brain shuts down and it's almost as if I run into a brick wall.  The creative juices just aren't flowing in that direction and it's really frustrating.

It was back in October that I attended a baby shower for a friend.  About a month prior to the baby shower I was uncertain as to what I was going to get the Mother-to-Be.  I was in the mindset of painting almost daily then and knew that I wanted to paint something that she could use in the nursery.  Once I'd had chance to speak to the Mother-to-be and the ladies whom were hosting her shower it was clear to me what I thought would be perfect and I set to work.  The outcome was ultimately two pictures of girls playing dress-up and having tea. For you see, the theme of her shower was along the lines of a garden tea party and her new baby was to be named Violet.  So these just seemed to be perfect.

It was about two weeks ago when I received the invitation to a baby shower for another sweet friend of mine. She is due with a baby boy in March and I have to admit that painting for her has been quite the challenge.  First part of the challenge has been the fact that I have not been in the mindset to draw nor paint these past few months.  Second drawback was that I had no definite direction for ideas.  I seriously sat and wracked my brain for weeks trying to figure out the perfect image to adorn her nursery. In the end, after many failed attempts to come up with something, I decided to clear my mind of everything I'd been guided towards and thought long and hard about this mother-to-be and what I know about her.  Finally it came to me and I was able to paint her two pictures of boys playing in wash tubs.  Yes, they are from a Precious Moments coloring book but they couldn't depict more perfectly what she loves most in life. Her boys!

Unfortunately, due to how crazy the past 12 days have been for me I was unable to attend her shower and give her these gifts.  My mind and body just really wasn't up for much of anything yesterday.  I am sorry to have missed what I am sure was a beautiful celebration and a great time with some great women but as I am quickly finding out, I am no Super Woman. I need to take a break from things and let my mind and body rest.  So now that the kids are back in school and the house is almost back in order I think I'll take the rest of this week off before I begin to tear down my next brick wall and work on my next gifts for some other wonderful women that I know.