When all else fails...

I experienced technological shut down on Saturday. My card reader stopped working. My camera, when I tried to use it to download photos, stopped working completely. (Spent an hour trying to figure out why the lens wouldn't open...) And my small traveling computer's keys would not function. Frustration...frustration...frustration. In spite of the little voice in my head that whispered: "Forget all this technological brouhaha  and make art.", I persisted in publishing a back blip. But even that was a struggle.

Yesterday I finally surrendered, facing the application of glaze on the sculpture that has waited since shortly after I left the annex, and I quickly understood why it took me so long to arrive at this moment. Everything was new. Unfamiliar glazes: The others had been forgivable; I could rub them off with my thumb or a tissue...play with effects. Once I stroked them on, they were on. My brushes, too, were new, and hairs came loose on the first one I tried. I mixed the initial color, adding white and hoping the color would not be too garish. It was shocking to see the first stroke of the violet/pink color go on to the pristine white of the clay. I was awkward as a beginner as I tried to control the brush, but I persevered...reminding myself that risks must be taken if one wants to grow. And at some point, things changed; I was simply working, forgetful of  food and drink, of stiffening knees, of my pets...of all things beyond the immediate moment of making art. I was beyond caring whether I was making a mess of the sculpture I had liked without color. The work of my hand was going forward...and for those few hours... was free.

This photo was taken with my cell phone right after I stopped. I was still in that space of liberation, and I like what the dear old face is telling me of inner and outer convergence, and of the gift of quiet joy we can give ourselves when we allow the twain to meet.