Following the process of my creation and inspiration.

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I’ve been talking a lot about using media outside of my mainstay (glass beads) for inspiration and to give my creativity a break, in a sense.  Back in October of 2008 I started on the color study journey, but through painting.  I was partly inspired by our new “Love Nest” and took to painting an old table.

Well, we finally got the legs sawed off of that table and hung it on the wall.  I realized again, as we were centering it on the wall, that this table was one of my first studio tables from way back when I did polymer clay.

It’s still not done (I need to add lots of beads for embellishment and maybe hang some from the bottom of it) but it’s a start.  It’s also not taking up floor space anymore so I have room for new projects.

We’ve been coming up to our place in Sedona, AZ regularly this summer and I’m really enjoying not having my regular ’stuff’ around.  It has encouraged me to work more with paint and my Sharpies.  It’s the first time in years that I feel like I’ve actually had a ‘hobby’.  You know…making stuff just for the fun of it rather than with an aim to sell.

I’m hoping that this pours into my creativity with my beadmaking too.  On some level I think it does because I get a break from it.  Four days at a time up at the condo my brain unplugs from business and is just allowed to wander and create spontaneously.  I can’t tell you how freeing that is.  One would think that the life of an ‘artist’ is that way all the time.  Not so much in my case (and I suspect others too) when you always have in the back of your head “what will people like?” and “what will people buy?”  It’s a process getting out of thinking that way and has been an ongoing struggle.  I think I’ve found the remedy though.  Get a hobby!

The other thing that is inspiring to me is the volunteer work I’ve taken on.  Another way to get outside of yourself and give the old brain a break and the soul a purpose.  This year in Tucson Beads of Courage had a reception at an art gallery and a silent auction.  I became the proud winner of this piece:

It’s called Three Beads and was created by Steven Derks just for the Beads of Courage fundraiser.  It’s about 4′ x 4′, acrylic on brushed metal and it’s heavy!  We finally found someone to hang it for us.  It is hung on the wall opposite from my studio table and I am feeling the inspiration more and more as the days go by and we’re surrounded by art. Art with meaning to me.

Lori Greenberg blogs about beads and the business of beads from her studio in Cave Creek, Arizona. You can see more of her beads at her web site: www.lorigreenberg.com