My Funk

These days I've been feeling at a loss for things to blog about - a direct result of My Funk. I've been feeling distant from my work. Bored, annoyed, and tired. Last week was full of avoidance. I did everything I possibly could to stay away from my studio. I was wallowing, feeling utterly uninspired. It's all part of the artist's life - a cliche I know, but it's a cliche for a reason: it's TRUE! Sometimes we get in funks with our work and we just can't look at it anymore.

My solution was to desperately seek out, hunt down and trap inspiration, hence my trip to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens last week. The flowers were beautiful, and the smells lush with spring renewal, but in all honesty, it didn't make me want to run home and sketch in my sketchbook. I came home with some pretty photos, and an overwhelming feeling of deflation. I wasn't any more inspired than I had been when I left. And what's more, I was annoyed that my plan to rejuvenate myself with nature didn't work. But sometimes when we try to FORCE inspiration, it doesn't want to show it's face. In fact, it heads in the complete opposite direction.

Instead I discovered the turning point to My Funk rather unexpectedly: this weekend, after a long shopping day in Manhattan with a friend, on my subway ride home. Glancing around me at all the people on the train, I noticed the diverse, distinctly unique faces and body types. The facial features, expressions, nose shapes, eye glasses, hairstyles, skin tones, etc. I was struck by the intense individual beauty of everyone on the train.

PEOPLE are what inspire and fascinate me. It's always been true and is part of why I love living in NYC so much. Perhaps it should have been more obvious to me, and my day at the gardens could have been replaced with a $2 metrocard and a few hours on the train. But then… maybe I needed to be reminded at precisely the right moment, when inspiration was least expected, when I wasn't seeking it out, or paying it any attention, so that it could make it's grand re-entrance back into my life.

Thankfully I'm back at it full force in my studio this week, and ready to conquer the tasks at hand. I'll be back soon with the photos to prove it.

Thanks for reading!