Portion of a new work on paper in progress. Some days the practical aspects of being an artist can seem a never-ending trial. Having had years of dealing with the issues that come up, I'm usually able to deal with what comes my way and move on. Every once in a while, the mental and financial gymnastics one has to go through sometimes are enough to leave a black cloud the size of Texas dangling over my head, like this morning. Once again, I was able to get by, but it still left me in a foul mood for a while. Luckily, I had things to do before heading up to the studio, so I had some time to distract myself, reflect, figure things out and ease out of my bad mood so that it wouldn't affect me creatively. Once I got up there, I was more than ready to dive into work. I've spent more time out of the studio in the past couple of weeks than in and in that time, I'd had plenty of time to think, and re-think some ideas for projects that I've been working on. No matter how rough things might make me feel, getting into work-mode always puts me in a better place. I always feel at my best when I'm figuring out problems in the studio and seeing the results of learning from the good and bad can work wonders.
