Summer Flower spiral

A few more images of summer are still waiting to be shared with you on my blog. I've been so busy I've hardly had time to process the images I've managed to create the past few months, so I've just filed them and stored them in my computer. But then I pulled out another storage card from my camera bag and found other summer sculptures that had not yet even been reviewed! This image was from that group.What fun to find more of summer's delights as we now sit on the threshold of autumn.

One observer of my work said recently, "Oh you must be so peaceful because your work is so peaceful" ... I had to ponder that for a moment because inside my own head things don't always seem very peaceful. Then I realized this... that the act of making the art is generally a quiet, peaceful process, unless I am being challenged by the elements, then there is the friction of the challenges: the light is fading, the wind is rising, the air is getting cold, or whatever is happening in the environment that I have to cope with to get my creation to an acceptable stage of completion. But all of these factors are things that generally can be worked WITH.... if one is observant, flexible and patient. These "focusing factors" as I like to call them, are aspects of my world that I am comfortable negotiating and can manage relatively calmly.

It is the other half of this endeavor... the attempt to make a living with all this creativity that I find to be really challenging and not very peace-inducing. The world of commerce and the rules and demands of this environment are foreign and alien to me, and highly frustrating and intimidating sometimes, so I often avoid them, which doesn't help. Perhaps it all boils down to one's comfort level. I have a relative who is very, very comfortable in the world of commerce with its facts, figures and sales. He however, is not so happy out in the woods... yet that is where I feel most at home. Stretching into the areas where we are not most comfortable is where the prickly edges arise, it seems to me. This is good to reflect upon as I get ready to simultaneously venture into my most intensely creative season (high autumn) and also prepare for the most intensely commercial time of the year (the approaching holiday season) with all of its demands. Trying to hold the "both-and" approach rather than the "either-or" may help encourage a more peaceful and yet productive period. We shall see!

Meanwhile, the treats of summer are still lingering in hidden places!