Knowing why I am waking up each morning and reporting to my studio, just like going to work (although it’s right here in my home) is a conscious “why” decision. But it’s gone through several stages.
I began seriously concentrating on making 2-D mixed media in 2010. My methods and ideas were not all thought-out at that point, but my “why” was clear. The other work I had been creating bottomed out. I worked hard, created an interesting body of three dimensional work, developed avenues of selling, and then it just hit bottom. No sales. No prospects for more. It was time to learn a new thing. So, as I went about the process of learning and developing new ways of artmaking, my “why’ was right there before me each day: I needed to learn how to do a new thing.
Once I began to feel at home in the world of 2-D mixed media, the “why” changed. I had developed some image-creating methods with outcomes I liked. I had learned a lot about working with the mix of paper and fabric. That allowed me to begin digging deeper. Why do I want to create a particular image? What meaning is there in the composition? What am I trying to communicate? How do I want a viewer to feel? How do I feel as I create?
Those “why’ questions continue to keep me interested, anxious to get up and go to work each morning.