Working with gold.  Taken in Venice, CA July 21, 2005.

The fact that I was in a country that exists 14 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time last week has made itself known in weird ways this week.  No two days have been alike in terms of when I go to bed, when I wake up, and my energy throughout the day.  Today has been particularly odd – I feel pretty tired and spacey yet also like I’ve had one too many cafe au laits.  Sleepy yet wired.   Scattered yet focused.

The way my brain works, I tend to need to prepare myself for change early.  When I had my greeting card business, I would re-organize my inventory weeks before a new shipment was due.  When we decided to move my studio to a different room in our previous house, I started going through things and tossing what I didn’t want anymore days ahead of time.  Today I woke up with an intense need to get rid of stuff, with the goal of removing any tiny distractions that might linger once August begins.  This summer has been very busy and I have traveled a lot, but at the moment the entire month of August is wide open except for one birthday party and one wedding.  I have therefore decided not to make any plans whatsoever in order to keep my time as open as possible for writing and painting.  Today – and this week in general – was about looking at whatever remaining tasks, lists, piles and errands are still in my home and in my brain and plowing through them.  Yesterday I drove all over LA running errands.  Today I got rid of some clothes, hung some paintings and started a stack of new collages.  If you read my previous entry, in which I discussed wanting my Tokyo experience to sink in a bit more before I dove into any creative projects that reflect the trip, I was way off.  Today the energy to create came bursting forth, so I hit the ground running.

I have this funny habit of buying art supplies – especially papers, sketchbooks, illustration boards, etc. – and "saving" them for some special "magic" collage, drawing or other art piece.  Saving them for some perfect moment when my creative energy will be at its purest, and I’m guaranteed to create something I love.  I read this and laugh!  For whatever reason – maybe because I had the urge to get rid of stuff today, or if not get rid of certain things, use them – I let go of all that and pulled a lot of my boards and papers out and started new pieces.   Today was about removing things I no longer need, crossing items off my to do list and also letting my creative energies run wild.  There was no rhyme or reason to the way I worked today.  One minute I was wrapping a baby shower gift, the next minute I was on the floor, magazines scattered around me, collaging like crazy.  I emptied the trash and I painted.  I continued building an assemblage piece I started yesterday and I hung a new picture in my studio.  My studio is still a mess but I had to stop everything, sit down, and write this journal entry.  I am following my energy wherever it wants to go.

On a quirkier note:  I bought the weirdest book yesterday, entitled Happy Kitty Bunny Pony: A Saccharine Mouthful of Super Cute.  It is a totally kooky book with great images; they will be put to good use in my collages.  Also, if you are interested in seeing more photos of the Harajuku Girls, check out Fruits and Fresh Fruits.