How to Begin

Deadlines inspire me. Since I do so much commission work I schedule every day around deadlines. When I am interrupted by an "art emergency" (?) I lose focus.

Yesterday afternoon I got a call for concepts for a hotel in Orlando. Had to have something that day. I worked on the computer to create something that would fit in their parameters, but I got burned out early on. I have a finite inventory of painting images, and yesterday I felt as though I had combined and re-colored them all I could. I just didn't have any creative juice left. Then I got another call asking for a companion piece to something I had created earlier. I sent four different images before they accepted one.

In the meantime I have a 48" x 48" canvas up on my wall. It's a grid painting and should be easy to complete. However, I only really started it yesterday in the midst of all that brainwork. I felt as though I had sat in front of my computer as long as I possibly could. I had to get out of this chair and into the studio. So at 4:00 when my client called asking for delivery of this new canvas, I said "sure" in answer to the question "will you finish this week?". So I have created a deadline for myself. I'm off to the studio now.