Halloween Mojo

Every so often people talk about "losing their mojo".  Lost?  How careless!!! I'm coming to think this is an unfair term, self-critical, not nice.  There are times when other hobbies rear their head - you are still creating when you cook a meal from scratch, especially without a recipe book, or when planting out the season's bulbs in the garden.   When health, family circumstances, work overload etc demand your energy be directed in those directions, they can leave no energy for creating in your usual way.  That doesn't mean you've "lost" your mojo - it's just that you have other priorities just now.  When in crisis mode, some people do find their outlet in creating art, others are caught up in the moment, leaving no energy for arting.  And even something as "little" as Daylight Savings coming or going also can throw one out of balance and habit.

A while back I got some of Teesha Moore's stamps (Creator of Zetti style), and very recently went back for some back issues of her publications.  I hadn't discovered stamping, mixed media etc when she was doing all this, so browsing through the pages were fresh to me, and have provided a lot of inspiration.  In Art & Life issue #7, Tracy Moore refers to a talk given by Jay Lake:
"He talked a lot about balance and finding how to be a "producer" more than a "consumer;" spending lots of time playing video games, watching movies, reading graphic novels, etc.  Writing, drawing, making journals, photography, and just plain doodling are all things that fall under the "producer" label.  The satisfaction that comes after "producing" something is so far superior to the feelings which remain after being a "consumer", the choice should not be hard to make.  But it often is.  That is where balance comes in."

I've found that attending a live-in class often stops my creating for a while - it's as though my subconscious needs a lot of time to assimilate the class.  Some might say I'd lost my mojo, or enthusiasm, for the craft.  BUT I'm not doing nothing during this period.  I'm re-balancing myself by re-reading books, catching up on all those recordings of Star Trek Voyager, meeting deadlines for this blog's pieces, and "doodling".

So with Halloween around, I'm preparing die cuts with no fixed intent.
Ravens, hissy cats, supposedly black.  I was playing with alcohol ink backgrounds, and drinking juice, which provided me with more material to die cut.  The juice cartons have that silver inside.

Why shouldn't a cat or raven be shining silver in the moonlight?

Or calico-coloured after smearing the alcohol inks around.

And they would both be standing out from their background (Heaven knows what that will be).  So that means glueing multiples on top of each other.  Or offset, as if they are jumping out of their skin

But then there's a tv advert for some cat food where a cat comes busting through the wall for it - so cut a cat out of the centre of a piece of card - a cat-shaped hole in the wall.  How about some cat-coloured flowersoft around the hole - fur that got caught in the wall...

So I'm playing, I'm creating, BUT I don't have the direction for a "finished" piece.  But I'm happy, and having fun, while Nevermore (the raven) and Alice (cheshire cat?  Michael deMeng's online class starting mid-October?) play with my mind.  And mess with yours.