Dormancy

I apologize for not putting much of my art up lately, but you have to make art to show it and that's the problem.  I've been, shall we say, distracted and not painting.  This too shall pass.  I've noticed that periods of dormancy are followed by periods of great productivity and creativity.

In the past, I would try to force the creative process or coax a painting or two from the dry well of my creative self.  I would put into place an appointed time to paint each day believing that the practice would elicit the return of the creative impulse.  Sometimes this worked.  Most times it only produced technical paintings without spirit.  The idea being that if I faked it long enough the spirit would return with the practice.  But here is what I've found later in life and in this cycle of my life.  That "pushing through" the dry spells with work that was uninspired was wasted energy.

What I've understood lately is that periods of dormancy are as much a part of my creative experience as winter is to the perennial flower.  Instead of fighting the seemingly harsh weather of a creative winter, why not enjoy the beauty of the stillness and clarity the winter season brings.  A time to reflect, see the creative landscape unclothed and naked. Listen to the silence. To appreciate more fully the spring of renewal that awaits beneath the cold and seemingly dead surface. Are periods of dormancy any less important to the cycle of creativity?  I now know they are every bit as important for renewal.  But for years I have feared them and fought the inevitable.  Read the books and practiced the "cure".  In the end, its a cycle.  I can fight it or settle into it and learn to weather the season!

Thanks for waiting and reading!