Growing pains

These were some quick 2 minute gesture poses/sketches that I did on Friday morning at the Art Establishment.  I have lots and lots, but that is a good thing.  Figure drawing sessions are hard to come by in this area, and having the sessions at Lafayette and the Art Establishment really are invaluable.

I am sitting here, sipping my coffee, listening to the rain.  My brain has been on fire lately, but that is both good and bad.  When I reach a fever pitch like this, it usually means I'm ready to start in on a new project, and that's good.  The bad part is it literally makes me crazy...I can't sleep, my mind races, and I'm all over the map...that's the bad part.  The last few nights, my mind has germinated a new set of paintings I'm going to begin today, after taking all of the material I was mulling around in my head from India.  There was India and the hot stillness, with the rhythmic sound of the women washing their clothes in the backwaters, and cool quiet dreams of Russia and Romania flitting around in my mind, and then Paris has been whispering softly in my ear, and then I had a crazy dream of Barcelona only all of the people were from Bulgaria...I saw La Sagrada Familia, but I was spinning around over the city, in a little paper airplane...

So, I mulled these things over.  The dizzying and terrifying, and haunting, and nostalgic, and hopeful, and distilled it all down into an idea that could encompass the mayhem and make it coherent.  I feel it is what I was looking to hit upon, after the ideas I had for India were not to be, and then there was a larger idea to grasp on to.  And with this maelstrom purged, my thoughts turn forward into the mist of the always unknown future..  Maybe Africa or South America.  Definitely Israel.  And of course, back to Europe.  I don't know if I can ever stop circling in the little paper airplane.  As much as I swear that this is it, I'll not do it again after the last trip, the discomfort goes away and the madness creep up again. The wanderlust I can't quell. The longing for something new, new sights, new faces, new tastes, new experiences, new cultures, new visions.  I just can't seem to stay put, but that is OK I suppose.  It's just part of who I am, and I am OK with that.  

So, for now, I am mulling Istanbul, or Bolivia for next summer's residency.  Still in the thinking process, so it may be something else all together...