Creative ADD

I sometimes feel I have a case of ADD...Attention Deficit Disorder. I can’t seem to keep my mind on any one thing at a time, but bounce from one thing to another.

One aspect of this is the thinking, the planning, of one project while I’m doing another. Pinterest is somewhat to blame because it constantly throws new ideas in front of me, and I’m helpless to resist. It’s an addiction, for sure.

Last year I wanted to do an art piece in wood. I found a four foot long, four inch wide piece of pine and brought it home...where it sat, as I waited for inspiration to strike. I finally decided I wanted to do a tree, and my first thought was to do it in nails, all different sizes, colors, maybe some screws for texture. My son gave me a container of old nails to get me started.

But then my mind went to wood burning, or maybe Sharpies in a Zentangle style. I couldn’t make my mind up, so I did nothing.

After a time I went back to the nail idea, thought I would do the tree in cast off pieces of metal, in a sort of Steampunk style, and started to gather bits and pieces. I got so far as to draw the design on the wood, and that was it. I got involved in other projects and sort of forgot about my tree. It was winter and hard to get out and about looking for bits of metal.

Then the summer was hot and humid, and I stayed home and out of the heat. Some days I accomplished nothing but searching the internet, which, of course, included Pinterest. I would do a search for some craft or art form, and collect ideas.

One day, after searching jewellery and polymer clay sites, I noticed that wire had been used very creatively, and it made me think. Wire? Made into specific shapes and designs?

Now my head is full of ideas for my tree again. Filling the whole tree with nails seemed a bit too much, in nails, noise and hammering. But what if I used a specific number of nails to form an outline, and joined them with wire? I could string the wire around the nails and fill in the space with wire shapes. Kind of like a wire Zentangle design.

Here’s where the ADD comes in. When I had this thought I was working on a series of 12 paintings for the Native phases of the moon. I have another painting started, but it needed some more thought and planning before I proceeded.

I have 2 afghans on the go, and a sweater almost completed. I was also making some simple crochet items for Christmas and played with making jewellery. And that doesn’t take into consideration the lanyards I made for my son and his hunting buddies, or the silk bouquets I made for my daughter’s wedding.

I went to the closet for something, can’t remember for what, and found my stash of different wires. Immediately all else was forgotten and I was right back thinking about my tree. I gathered the wire and sat. But there was no available space to set the wire down, so obviously, no place to work on it. I looked around.

Paintings in various stages on the kitchen counter, crochet bag with sweater under the table to my left, a bag of Christmas crochet on my right, and almost every surface covered with a project in some stage or another.

I got up and put the wire back in the closet. I need a To Do List, in plain sight, where I can be reminded of what I’m doing. I need the sense of accomplishment of taking these projects through to completion. As I write this I’ve finished the series of 12, and the Christmas crochet.

So that’s a start, right? At least with the arts and crafts. I won’t even go into the three novels I’ve started, two abandoned and one current, but temporarily set aside. Winter’s coming, and I’ll get back to it.

Go with the flow, seems to be my mantra. I go wherever that creativity takes me and can’t wait to see what happens.