Friday, December 5, 2008

Choice




Until one is committed,
there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back,
always ineffectiveness.

Concerning acts of initiative (and creativity)
there is one elementary truth
the ignorance of which kills countless ideas
and splendid plans:

That the moment one definitely commits oneself
then Providence moves too.

All sorts of things occur to help one
that would never have occurred.

A whole stream of events issues from the decision
raising in ones favor all manner
of unforeseen incidents and meetings
and material assistance
which no man could have dreamt
would come his way.

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
Begin it now.

Goethe


I love that quote, I believe that quote... for others, for myself... mmm... not so much.


So choosing just one thing to pursue is a real act of faith on my part, not easy at all. Declaring a direction to the world is really hard to do. However it is time for me to quit dithering about and just pick something and do it.
The direction is chosen...


I will try to get some of my work licensed. Ive decided I'm going to stick to this goal for one year. (that is long enough to give it one hell of an effort) At the end of that time if it feels like a huge mistake I will pick something else.


I've been talking about licensing for an embarressingly long time without really doing much about it (in fact I'm pretty sure that I can hear the rolling of some of my friends eyes right now).


I'm not sure why this gives me the frights, I suspect that I am afraid I will choose"wrong" (like that is possible) and then there is the very real loss of having to put some things aside that in a perfect world (the one with 48 hour long days, no work and no distractions) I would be able to do.


I've got groups of designs finished as well as half done and reams of ideas that can be worked on and many thoughts on how to use shibori for this type of work so I will be continuing many of my experiments. I want to reduce the amount of time I spend on product, but as I will be keeping the ETSY store and doing a few select shows so I will have to do some. I think I can handle this as long as it doesn't consume me.


The pic above is of my studio wall, I got out all the sketches and notes as well as the half finished work that will be a part of my first design package and hung 'em up where I can see them. I've even started some new coordinating patterns on rice paper, but that is for another night, for now I think I will curl up with a book for the rest of the evening.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm interested to hear more. i was just looking at the Surtex show website:
http://www.surtex.com/showinfo/

there are others too.

i walked through that show a couple times when i had a booth at the NY stationery show and thought it was very interesting. more interesting than the stationery show!

next time you have a minute check out the recent posts at elementary art. you might be interested in those books.

alsokaizen said...

Hi Glennis
I skipped last years SURTEX/Stationary show but I went up for the three before that. I always find it both inspirational and overwhelming, I like going down and checking out both of them and I always save just a little time to check out the home design show too (kind of a visual dessert)
And those books look really interesting! I have a great deal of belief in the healing powers of making!

Gilli said...

Good for you!!! What a great plan. It'll work, you know it will. Thank you for the inspiration. Now to pick my "goal" for the year....

alsokaizen said...

Thanks!
I will keep you posted on how it goes...