Copying my own work

I've been away from this blog for so long. Life has been really sweet, and busy. For the last few weeks, I've been "copying my work". I'm working on reproducting a set of three very colorful 12 x 12 painted encaustic panels . A person saw (the sold ones) on the web, and wants to buy them. So, I said I'd simply make a new set up. Yeah, right. Guess what, it's not that easy!

There is something magical that happens when we work in our studios, it's unexplainable. It's part knowing, part alchemy, part interaction of who knows what. It's why we do what we do, to have that magic, the amalgamation of everything coming together in an instant. To recreate that moment, and set of circumstances...well I dunno.

It takes me back to "the olden days" when I did comissioned work. It always gave me a certain set of anxieties. Will they like it? Will I do it right? Will they be pleased? Will I be pleased? Now I'm interested in pleasing me, mostly. Selfish? Or my right as an artist? Perhaps just saying no to copying my work is in my future?

Now, on the other hand...I've been fortunate to have Beauty at My Feet chosen for the International Fiber Exhibition, which opens in April, in Pittsburgh. When I was notified that this piece was selected, it had just been purchased 3 weeks earlier by a lovely couple in Kansas City. The piece was to travel for a year to two years. If you would have seen the adoring faces of these people when they bought "Beauty". Truly it felt to me like an adoption, and how could I take their baby away from them? A little Jewish Guilt? Since the International Fiber Exhibition insisted that the piece had to be the one they selected from slides, I asked the KC couple if they would loan their artwork, and I would make them a "placeholder" piece. They were so gracious, and told me that they did not want me to make something I had already made, to use my creativity for something new. Now, because they were so gracious, I wanted to make them a new piece! I must say that I procrastinated like crazy. I waited until the deadline was looming and then I was fueled by my adrenaline! So today I ship the new little darling, whom I've titled Beauty's Daughter to them in Kansas City. It's in this gorgeous crate, made by Rodney, of course. They will receive Beauty's Daughter, and put Beauty at My Feet into the crate and ship "her" off to Pittsburgh.

So today starts a new day of exporation in the studio, and back to "normal". Hahahahahah.

I know in my bones that my most precious gift is that of my creativity. I am blessed with gobs and oodles of it. A mind that won't quit, eyes that won't stop seeing, examining and twisting and tweaking things till I'm bursting, and hungry for studio time to breathe fire into these artworks. I live to explore new territory and discover new worlds, whether it be new materials or the same materials in new and different ways. I adore fanning the flames of my creativity.