I was strolling down State Street in Santa Barbara last Friday minding my own business, when I looked across the street and noticed a rather peculiar sight….Taken August 12, 2005.

These past few days have been days of tremendous productivity with regard to a number of ongoing to do lists in my life.  This weekend we were up at our house in Solvang, and I spent a good deal of time dealing with plant-related tasks.  Wrapping our passionflower vines around our arbor, cleaning our fountain, re-potting some plants and pulling a few weeds here and there.  Because we are only getting up there every few weeks these days, and we have to keep the house looking pristine since it is on the market, there are usually things like this which need to be done every time we are there.  I also continued to make progress on my herculean task of trying to get caught up with my photo albums.  I purchased my first digital camera in 2002, and have not gotten more than a few actual prints made from those photos since.  Many many weeks ago I decided it was time to get going on this, and I finally got through most of my photos through mid-2004 this weekend  Thank you Shutterfly!  It is actually a very gratifying project, but once I get all caught up I plan on getting into the habit of getting prints made as I download pictures from my camera.  (Ask me about this in a year.)

I also thought a lot about a few other ideas, undertakings and opportunities that have come my way over the past few months that I have mentioned in this journal…

* My transition from design & licensing to painting, collage, writing & photography (photography being a fairly recent addition):  I still feel like I am in place of uncertainty with this transition, but I am thrilled with all of the actual creating I am doing.  I have been a lot more focused on collage than I thought I would have been, but it has turned out to be a great way to get going on this new path because it has the least restrictions in my mind.  With collage, anything goes, so it is getting me in a really good space to open myself up more creatively.  I am also able to finish collage pieces much faster than paintings, so I can build a collection of work for my online store, shows, etc. sooner.

I have started working on my book again and it is like sinking into a favorite comfy chair – warm, inviting, and familiar.  I started feeling fairly disconnected from it as the weeks progressed without my working on it, so it was a bit of a relief to re-read what I had already written and still like what I had done so far.  I know a lot more will pour out of me over the next few weeks when I sit down to work on it in between all of my other work.

I have not worked on any of my paintings yet, but I started varnishing a few finished pieces, so I am at least making some progress in that area.  For photography, I am still letting that sit still in my mind, and enjoying getting great shots as I am out and about.  The Pink Project is going great – I love visiting my page each day and seeing what’s new.

* Cello lessons:  I wrote about beginning cello lessons a few months ago, and they were put on hold when we put our house on the market.  We had a lot of travel plans coming up at the beginning of the summer and weren’t going up to Solvang as often (which was close to where my lessons were), so I decided to put it on hold.  I want to wait and start another time when I can really focus on it rather than half-ass it.  If I’m going to do it, I need to do it.  Once the house sells, this will certainly be re-visited, as my teacher might be able to teach me down here in Venice.

* The Unexpected Opportunity I discussed a few weeks ago:  …which was related to a project I started well over a year ago and lost in a really disruptive and disappointing way.  This idea is something I am still considering.  The idea was presented to me by my fiancee’s daughter, and we have had a number of really honest discussions about it.  We both needed to take this month to focus on other things, but agreed to start taking baby steps in September.  It is a project I want to enter into methodically and carefully in order to make sure we both are committed 100%.  Stay tuned…

* Other bits & pieces:  My online store is up and running – with another addition coming Monday – and I spent most of my day today running around getting stocked up on supplies in order to spend the rest of this week in a guerilla collage fest.  I saw March of the Penguins this weekend and it was extraordinary, and I’m listening to Bjork’s new CD these days, which is inspiring in a lot of really interesting ways.  I love Bjork because she always manages to create something totally unique yet still undeniably hers.

"Creativity is essentially a lonely art. An even lonelier struggle. To some a blessing. To others a curse. It is in reality the ability to reach inside yourself and drag forth from your very soul an idea."  -Lou Dorfsman