Creative Flow and Knowing When to take Time Out

These days, I am constantly creating art.  While working out one piece, several more are lurking in my imagination.  More than one canvas is pulling me to fill their surfaces with images already floating in my brain, waiting to manifest into completion.  The sewing machine stands ready to accommodate my scrappy pillows projects and the clay shards are lined up on my table, ready to jump into a collage.

Tempering the flow of all this creative output is the tricky part and, I find, quite the learning process.  If I leave the flow unchecked, I get bottled up like a log jam in a river moving too fast.  When I become conscious of going in circles, I give myself a “time out” to get centered, grounded and satisfy my Virgo temperament to reorganize.  It breaks the overflow.

Closing the studio door, I move to a more relaxed activity — reconnect with nature, meditate, garden, write, have lunch with a friend, or even clean the house or rearrange furniture – my all-time cure for chasing stagnant energy out the door!

Re-entering the studio rested and calm, I unlock  the best of me to express my creative self, one piece at a time.