Revision

Shakespeare my hero!

I'm deep in the revision of my novel and there are moments when I want to throw the laptop off Taos Mountain. And then there are flashes of time when I finally solve a verb or scene or character flaw. Revision is the hard slog of writing, or painting, or composing, kicking the soccer ball into the goal, or getting the dance move just right. It's practice, practice, learning, and more practice. Sometimes just as I think I'll have to scrap a painting, it suddenly becomes right. I read Shakespeare and wish I could write like that. Yet, I know enough about the theater that I know he had to constantly revise his plays as he got new insights as the actors moved across the stage and something didn't work just right or could work even better.
Life is that way too. We think we have just conquered a big portion of our life, like forgiving a hurt by a friend decades ago, when it rears it's ugly again, and we have to revisit and revise our pov! It's hard and we do it, and then we feel the joy of resolve rush in. Now to go work on that drawing again where I made one object too dark for the composition. I hope your week resolves itself ever so nicely.

Creativity as Labyrinth

"Over There"
ink on wood, 3" x 2"
Judith, March '10

I've been thinking of labyrinth's lately, how after you start out, they somehow circle back on themselves at several spots before reaching the center. I find that my art and writing do that. It's nearly like a deja vu of being at this point before: do I dare to paint differently this time, or the same? Do I dare to make my characters seem a little crazy, have big flaws, step into their unknown, make huge mistakes, or do they play it safe like so many of us try to do? This weekend I moved my studio back into its own room from a table in the living room where it is much warmer in the winter. Sitting at my "real" art table, I looked at this painting above that I mentioned last time where I dared to make the ground red. Oh, I was so tempted to use the accepted colors in my new painting, you know green grass & blue sky in back of a yellow daffodil. Ah, I've been there before! Yep, it was scary, but I decided to make a fuchsia, orange-y background instead. When I paint the daffodil will it be yellow, red, turquoise, or ...? I'll let you know. At least I past this point of the creative labyrinth & am closer to center. Now to make the main characters in my book both a little more crazed and bold! Where are you on your labyrinth of creativity and life?