Friday 4 March 2016

writing: getting from Aargh! to Aah!

It's been one of those weeks where I've had to sit my keester on a chair for hours at a time while I bleed out words on scrap paper that may eventually become three coherent artist statements and an updated bio. I don't mind sitting if I'm stitching or collaging, but "writing sitting" is wretched. So, I write a bunch of crappy first drafts (Anne Lamott says it differently) and I do some long proprioceptive writes (I call them pro-writes because I'm too lazy to say it the long way). Then I get up and go to my studio where I stand for a few hours and prepare surfaces for collaging. Or I ride my exercise bike. Taking a shower is a good thing too. Anything to caress my alpha waves, increase my dopamine levels, and expose myself to healing negative ions. All that preliminary pain and then distraction has paid off because words are finally flowing and I'm on my way to coherent sentences and my Mennonite series finally has a proper name. Writing is difficult, but NOT writing is worse. Aah!

2 comments:

Claudia said...

I hear you, sister. Glad you've come through it although I didn't see you mention the healing power of dark chocolate...

Jennifer said...

I'm with you!