My brain just didn’t wake up this morning. There must be something wrong with it. Maybe it’s tuned to a different times zone. Perhaps if I moved to Hawaii, that might improve matters! Yes, I think that’s definitely the best course of action for me.

It’s certainly got to be better than the current situation. I spent a fair portion of today pretty much staring at the wall. I have heard it said that making art is 1% inspiration and 99% dedication. But I think it’s much more accurate to say that making art is 1% inspiration and 99% procrastination. That’s definitely more like it for me. And I suspect it’s the same for every artist out there.

There is a romantic image of the painter who sits and looks for hours at a time. Thinks carefully. Picks up a brush. Makes one brush stroke. Puts down the brush. Then looks and thinks for a few more hours. I doubt it really like that for the working artist. You do have to keep producing work. And the more work you produce, the better you’ll get.

And I find the hardest place to work is right at the beginning. Even with plans, it can be hard to make that first mark. Perhaps it’s the knowing about all the frustration and toil that are going to be ahead of you. But I find the hardest part just getting started. Some people talk about how intimidating a big white sheet of paper is. I don’t even get that far. I usually find more work-a-day things that I have to do to take away the guilt of work. There’s always the cleaning to do. “I’ll get started but first I have to tidy the bedroom.” I’ve heard it said that procrastinators are the busiest people around because they’re always doing something to put off doing something else!

I suppose by that logic I should take on the responsibility of doing something even harder than painting. Then I can start painting to put that off!