Monday, August 25, 2024 [1:24 PM]

My brain has been a little all over the place this month. I kicked off August spending the weekend in DC. I love DC and all it has to offer. I’m always inspired by cities — there’s a feeling for culture that I don’t get in many other places. It’s an opportunity to practice awareness and observation. I took some pictures, which I shared here, and returned feeling inspired to jump back into my digital collages.

Then, a new idea dawned on me, and I wrote about it here. I spent the next few weeks roughly piecing collage assets together on my iPad. It felt messy at first, then, as I kept working, it started fitting together. I had a lot of excitement. And began seeing my work from a new perspective. I saw a cohesion across all the mediums I work in that I hadn’t necessarily seen before.

But then, I got stuck again. There was too many questions that came up in the process - What type of book did I want this to be? How would I produce it? What costs were associated with it? How big of an idea did I want it to be? What was I willing to invest (financially and energetically)? Is now the right time? And I sort of froze. Albeit, I was frustrated.

I took many walks in an attempt to find the answers I searched for. And ultimately, I decided that sometimes the best way forward is to find focus.

I have a really beautiful collection of work that I’m ready to share. I have to cross the small hurdle of getting them posted to my website, but my energy is there. Before I get overwhelmed in needing to find all the answers to my book, I can celebrate all that I’ve created this summer.

When I came to that realization, I felt a complete shift in my mental state. I had just a bit more perspective for the cloud I felt I was living in this past month. I love ideas. And I love having new ideas. And sometimes it’s just as good to write down the ideas, and return to them when I can have more focus.

I think the key is to tune into how I’m feeling. Voicemail: What do I want to do right now? It’s a simple question, but the moment I noticed I felt distracted, hazy, I knew there was an opportunity to find myself in process again.