Getting a do-over. To get it right.
From my morning place of coffee and reading on our porch, today I looked out on the lawn at a loquat tree that we recently moved.
We moved a tree. Those words don’t nearly convey the effort of this foolish act: We. Moved. A. TREE! The two of us performing this act have an average age of 72-and-a-half years. It involved digging a hole. Digging up a root ball. Attacking roots (ouch!) with a shovel. Pulling. Yanking. Rolling the root ball up the hill to the lawn. Rolling it across the grass. (We had moved the tree about six feet. Too close to the house and an underground concrete structure.) Getting the tree down in the new hole. And then lots of babying and watering to get it established.
But we did it. And it was the right move. That tree was never going to be just right in its old place.
Inspired by this, we have since moved three daisy bushes from a way-too-hot spot of the garden to the place previously occupied by the loquat. Already they are beaming with gratefulness, greener leaves and lots of buds.
In the old place, they were never going to be just right.
A final affirmation: this morning the loquat was filled with a bunch of chirping wrens.
Sometimes, I have created work in the studio that Inspired me and pleased me at the time, but which, in retrospect, fell short of what I had envisioned. They weren’t quite right.
I worked on a project like that this week, giving myself the opportunity for a do-over
(This is the project for which I was screen printing stick shapes in last week’s post.)
Like the tree, this do-over required some destruction of what was. I ripped. I cut apart what was. (Some grunting involved.) I collaged. I printed new. I reassembled.
And I’m so glad I made myself do it. On top of the nagging sense that the previous construction wasn’t quite right, I added a deadline. I wanted something new and big to take to DeLand’s Fall Festival of the Arts next week where I will exhibit. So I was motivated.
Now it’s almost done. Here are a few details of what I liked about this artwork, what motivated me to get the construction redone. (As well as on new element – the ladderback chair, one of my favorite and recurring images.)
If you are a creator, I hope you apply the vision of getting-it-just-right to the projects you are working on now.
If you are an art appreciator, I hope you will look at completed works and see the effort, trial and error and vision that guide artists on their way.
. . . . . .
And now my last opportunity this year to invite folks to downtown DeLand for the Fall Festival of the Arts, DeLand, Saturday and Sunday November 18-19. Downtown Deland is a great destination to explore. This juried art show will feature a lot of wonderful, interesting artists and their work. From any place within a few hours drive to Central Florida, this is an event well worth discovering. And I’ll be there! I hope you’ll drop by booth #133 (right at the heart – near intersection of New York Ave and Woodland Blvd.) to say hi.
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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