Bringing Things Along
Friday morning I introduced some new friends to my studio environment.
I do this regularly. This morning was especially nice.
After a day of steady, steady steady rain, some containers I had outside my studio had filled with rainwater. So I pulled up a new batch of perennial peanuts from their place along our stone path and put the cuttings in bottles of new rainwater to grow some roots.
There was just something wonderful about having new rainwater to use. I was outside in my bare feet, feeling the rainwater on the concrete, thinking how good that felt.
In two places in our yard, we now have thick, healthy beds of these peanuts, which are a lovely low ground cover that produces little yellow flowers.
After trying other methods of transplanting that had very low success rates, I have now settled on bringing them into the studio a few at a time to root for a while before putting them in a new place.
Turns out, things just need a little time to be ready. They need to progress at their own speed. My job is just to help bring them along.
(You are, of course, realizing by now that the plants are plants – but also metaphors for all kinds of other things that grow.)
In the kindergarten class where I volunteer, some little brains are still trying to get that every letter has a name and every letter has a sound. So we bring them along to the next level.
Now there are some who can see the letter, know the sound, and figure out the word.
And now a few are putting words together to make sentences.
Ideas need time. Emotions need time. Insights need time. Using a technique well needs time.
Artmaking needs time.
And, as artmakers, all these things are happening on the inside. We are both the ones in whom things are coming along, and the ones to provide the nourishment so it happens.
What pleasing work!
…
By the time this blog post goes out Sunday evening, I will have had a weekend of exhibiting in downtown DeLand at the Fall Festival of the Arts – DeLand. I’m probably exhausted by now. It is also my hope that I’ve had some exhilaration and some learning and many good conversations. See ya next week.
For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating
Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi
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