Mental sorbet.

As I get deeper and deeper into staggeringly pressurized projects I tend to reduce stress by crafting. Crafting provides an opportunity to be creative without expectation or meaning; it restores sanity to an overly stressed mind.

While working on my B.F.A. exhibition I made porcelain pendants. During my M.A. thesis I became obsessed with making Shrinky Dink style jewelry out of recycled plastic. I have yet to discover just what my M.F.A. thesis vice will be but there is a significant chance it will be the Scribbler.

The simplicity of the program is genius. A friend of mine has devoted a blog entirely to her own scribbles and it’s understandable why. In the hands of an artist the products are quite seductive. (The Scribbler Gallery is hit and miss.)

Crafting is like mental sorbet – it cleanses the mental palette. While Scribbler is not exactly “crafting” the result is the same.

I started reading back through hand-written journal entries as a way to evaluate what I will need to address in my thesis. I am sort of annoyed by how philosophical I can be at times, lots of open-ended questions with no answers. Perhaps this sort of exploration will be beneficially in the long run but it is not as helpful now when searching for tidbits I can pull across.

Still, reviewing previous writing has made it more clear to me that what I’ve finally arrived at is something genuine and honest.

Every artist should consider keeping a journal in addition to a sketchbook – it’s a very illuminating exercise, particularly when working on a project like a thesis. And, keep things light…

Find a creative diversion – in moderation it will prevent the damage that can occur from over-analyzing the creative work that matters the most.