Haystack Journaling #1

6-3-2008
I'm here at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. I do have internet access, but it's dial-up and it's not wireless. Oh sure, there's a wireless transmitter, but it's not transmitting anything. So I'll type, save, and perhaps transfer it to this blog, connection permitting. If nothing else, you will read this after I return.

It's beautiful here, all spruce forest along a rocky oceanfront. I hear the ocean waves as I go to sleep at night and and can see the ocean from my cabin window. I brought along an electric blanket, so I would be cozy in the unheated cabin.

Still I have to admit. I was much more impressed 14 years ago. Perhaps enchanted is a better word, because I am still impressed by this beauty, but not so enchanted . Fourteen years ago I was younger, much less focused, much more romantic, much more dreamy and didn't have any kids. Now I look around and think that it's a beautiful place, and that's it. No more. No less. It's another beautiful place.

I used to need a beautiful place to find a center, or to find inspiration. Now it's centered inside me and the rest is frosting. If I required seclusion to make art, I'd never get anything done.

Bring me back! Give me kids, husband, distractions, chores! Give me Disney Pirates online! Give me a lot of coffee, super dark chocolate, and a little gin. Give me my own quiet studio out in the country, with fully equipped high speed dsl and satellite tv, at least Dr. Who.
Give me life with all of its mundane interruptions. Just don't expect me to get the housework done.

6-4-08
Tuesday morning now.
I was first to give my digital presentation for the session, my reasonable 25 minutes, all done last night. So that minor stress is done, and was actually enjoyable. This morning I've brought my coffee and my Asus eeepc out to the rocks over looking the ocean. I prefer a wood surface in the cold mornings, but the yoga folks have taken over the oceanside deck. I edited my last entry and promptly spilled all but one mouthful of my coffee. Grrrr. I haven't sketched any of the leafy stuff around here, tucked into struggling pockets of sun under the spruce canopy, or at the edges of the forest where the sun brings out the fiercest weeds. I may get to that in a few days. Maybe I'm having a leaf rebellion.

A client called the house inquiring about a design that I've neglected. My husband told her that he thought I had it done. So today I may work on a rough for that design and fax it out, assuming that they do have fax. I'm not sure I have time for this commission, but right now it seems manageable, or at least appealing enough to fit in.

My butt is getting cold out here on the rocks and it's time for a coffee refill. Hopefully I can get this text posted, for you all, sometime today.