On Creative Slumps and A New Etsy Shop

I’m cringing as I look at the date of my last post – more than six weeks have passed in which I’ve broken the cardinal rule of blogging – don’t ignore your blog!

Well… I haven’t been ignoring my blog exactly, but my art is another matter. And since my blog focuses on my art… you get the idea. In hindsight, which everyone agrees is 20/20 ;), I think it’s fair to say this frigid winter literally froze my creative spirit. It was reeeeeally frustrating. The harder I tried to sit down and make art, the worse it got. I bought new supplies and played with colors:

Took a drawing class (what do you think, does it look like me?):

Even printed collage sheets… nothing worked to get me out of my slump. If I got anything out of this winter it’s the lesson that creativity doesn’t submit to force.

Since the light in my workspace was dim at best I decided to flip my office and my studio. Big project! That resulted in lots of organizing, culling and weeding. The move did prompt an idea, but not one I was expecting.

I opened an Etsy shop.

There were a number of resources I had, most of them vintage ephemera of one sort or another, that I either wasn’t going to get to, were duplicates of things I’d already used or things that no longer fueled my creative spirit. BUT, it occured to me that others might be able to find these things useful and so my little Etsy idea took on a life of its own. As I curate the chaos of my art studio and personal stash of creative supplies I will continue to add items. Please click on over and have a look. And let me know what you think! Since the ephemera is all resources I originally bought, reclaimed or thrifted to use in my own mixed media art, I’m only listing items that I believe would work in mixed media art. I hope it inspires and generates creativity in others.

So that’s what I’ve been up to. That, and I made 3 new art journals to get myself going again. (Don’t you just love this table? My dad made it when I was about 5 years old.)