Filling the well, or in this case - the fountain

A couple of years ago I reached the conclusion that technically my progress in art was only going to move forward at a certain pace in spite of all effort I made to hurry that along. I decided to look deeper at things I could do to enrich the art and it all boils down to the thinking process that begins before pencil ever hits paper (or stylus hits tablet). It's ALL about creativity. But how to develop that? There's loads of ways really but I am always seeking ways to further that along too.

A friend in my critique group recently recommended The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron (thanks Kathy!) I have enjoyed the book but am going to have to postpone the full 12 steps until I don't have quite such a deadline/childcare burden going on. One of the things it teaches is to make certain you re-fill your creative well. In skimming the book I discovered a few things about ME that I hadn't been paying proper respect to. I have always made stuff. As a kid my folks didn't have the resources or time or patience to provide me with all the raw materials I wanted so I had to scrounge for it here and there and use my creativity to put it all together. I still do! I need to do this, it is a part of what makes me, me. It re-fills my well.

On Sunday I got the idea to make a fountain from a random comment my husband made about our old turtle tank pump. Monday afternoon I had a fountain! I re-purposed (Macgyvered) everything in it. I got a ceramic frog a few weeks ago from my favorite garden store, had a cast aluminum turtle trivet from the flea market at the fairgrounds, three flower pots and a saucer, and the turtle pump! It is fantastically wonderful to sit next to and I can see it from my kitchen window. Other things in my house: my headboard is an old coal room door, I pierced the bottom of a lamp shade and put all my old dangly earrings around it, we have an old cigar store humidor that I put a stained glass window in and a string of Christmas lights - sparkly!

This totally blows up my skirt! More importantly it fills the well.

This rooster in my backyard blows my skirt up too, but I didn't make him. He's doing his best to encourage the grass to grow.