Confessions of an Unmotivated Creative

I have a confession to make.

Since I started this blog a month ago I have felt more of a sense of 'I need to make something.' I mean I've always had a need to be creative, but now instead of just thinking about doing something I'm actually going and doing something. Not just because I found my ambition and drive, but because I somehow feel obligated to keep making things to write about on here.

My finished yarn.

Maybe obligated is too strong of a word, compelled maybe. Whatever it is I find myself doing more rather than thinking about doing more. I want to do things because I want to tell all of you what it is I am up to. If I'm not doing anything or if I find myself feeling like a slump coming on, then I won't have anything to tell you, my readers, about.

This is a good thing though. Feeling compelled to make things because I have a sort of responsibility to this blog and all of you means than I will at least try to make something. This feeling is a little like being back in college to get my art degree, people assume because you are an art student you are always making something new. And not just in class but in your free time too. I usually had something going on outside of class, a quilt, an afghan, crocheted stuffed animals, so I met the expectations of others while I was in school.

My finished quilted skirt.

But since I stopped having that constant expectation, daily questions from numerous people about what I'm working on, my expectations for myself went stagnant. I still expect to make things, that will never stop, but the frequency with which I finish projects has, let's say, become secondary to doing what I want to do.

I don't always want to be making things, or the same things. My interests are varied and for good reason. I can walk away from one project that isn't going anywhere and pick up something that amuses me for the time being. However, I've noticed a pattern in my creativity. Shortly after my shows are done for the season, sometime a couple weeks before Christmas, my desire to create dissipates. I just reestablished it at the beginning of February. For most of the month of January I read. I must have gone through three or four books a week. At least.

Freshly trimmed pots.

I had basically stopped making. I do this to some degree every year and I don't usually get back into the groove of making until April or May. I might finish enough work to fill one bisque kiln and one glaze kiln a month, whereas in the middle of summer I can end up doing one bisque firing and two glaze firings a week.

It comes down to accountability. During show season, people, customers expect me to be at shows and to have a decent selection of pots for every show. They also expect me to be able to keep the gallery stocked with my work. So I work harder, I have reason, motivation to keep working. There is no urgency in the winter. Everything slows down. You'd think, and I expect, to use the quiet winter to get stocked up on inventory. Every year I say this will be the year. I'll be so overstocked I will be able to get into new galleries and still have enough to go to shows. I'm getting better, I keep going longer in December, but January is still a bummer.

A quilt that has been sitting in this box for 3 years may finally see the light of day!

I'm still not being overly productive in terms of pottery, but having this blog, this little bit of accountability has proven to kick start my creativeness for the year. I have pots waiting to be trimmed right now, and plans to throw more, I have made yarn out of the roving I bought probably close to ten years ago and plans to get to work finishing another thing of roving this weekend. I made a skirt that would have probably ended up being a UFO, an Unfinished Fabric Object, had I not had plans to write about it. I want to pull out the pieces of a quilt I started two or three years ago and finish that. And I found the supplies to finish a sculpture I started in college and I think I should finish it now that I no longer have the excuse of "I can't find my beading supplies." All just so I can tell you guys about it!

It's good motivation for me. So thanks!