I am finally dipping my toes into my art practice. The last two weeks has been sketchbooking randomly without any plan or direction.

But now it’s time. I am feeling the stirrings of interest. Some idea of which direction I want to be headed in. And what steps I need to get started with to move in that direction.

I was wary of not feeling interested. But never disheartened, or worse, scared.

I have been through these cycles many times to know this ebb and flow is normal. 

Most times, I am doing, and thinking about doing all the time. The ideas are all over my head, and I cannot wait for studio time to spend my lonesome hours with my paints and brushes, creativity just flowing out with delight, and frustration. 

And there are these times.

When I groan, and procrastinate. I have no idea what I would do in my studio, and then watching the clock for a decent amount of time to pass by, so I don’t feel guilty.

Always, when I do go in, I do something. With all the materials laid out, and sketchbooks on the ready, I am happy to do anything. Just to keep the connection going.

No judgements invited.

This is me just biding time for excitement to make its way back in the door and sweep me off my feet.

I don’t worry because I know it will come. I only have to keep the connection alive. My curiosity awake, and looking for opportunities.

Because if I let all of it go in the name of a break for longer than, say a week or two, coming back and getting excited is that much harder. Squeezing out paint from a tube seems like a Herculean task with my eye on the clean up even before the joy of making. And that anticipation of messy cleaning up would put me off the whole thing right at the beginning. 

Or worse still, ideas would start drying up. Nothing would seem exciting enough. Finding that curiosity of trying something out would be a much harder task.

I don’t want to work that hard to find my inspiration. So I keep showing up doing simple things. Waiting for inspiration and ideas to show up. Having inspiring people and artists in my circle of connection helps with this tremendously. Their joy in their journeys rubs off and I want to have things to share with the world too, and their ideas spark my ideas. It’s a circle of positive influence.

So hopefully my 2024-25 winter slump is coming to an end. I am finding my way one step at a time. I am looking forward to trying little things in my sketchbook till I am ready for bigger things.

And just so INSPIRATION knows, I will quietly and patiently be waiting in my studio for it to show up with her sister IDEAS.