More Daily Collages

This week, I hit that point I've been waiting for, wishing for: The I Don't Care Anymore crossroads. It's an important moment in art making, in any creative effort. It's where you decide to either plug along in boredom, making more "safe" choices, or to acknowledge your boredom and stop making altogether. But there is one other alternative: it's about staying engaged in the work, and at the same time, letting yourself off the hook. It's about daring to make a mess, messing it all up, letting go of expectation that everything you make must be genius.

Thomas Edison is famous for saying that "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."

If you decide to stay engaged in the work at the point when you've run out of inspiration, you have to stop expecting everything you make to be great. You have to be willing to sweat, to work, to start taking bigger risks, maybe even ruining the piece entirely to invest in discovery, so that you have something new to bring to the next one. The surprising thing is, the labor feels good! It's a reminder: Ah, so this is play. I forgot! It's exactly where those elusive kernels of inspiration come from.

And so, the cycle continues.

This is exactly where I find myself, four weeks into my Daily Collage practice: Alternating between getting reckless, making a mess, and finding something new. And feeling inspired to be careful and thoughtful again, too.

#24 - Storm Moving In




#25 - After the Storm




#26




#27




#28