Noodles

Yes, noodles. They are inspiring. You might start picking up a theme if you look at my work over a long period of time: FOOD (and toys). Ideally it comes from plants which are... gorgeous colors.
(Yes, I have been watching mind of a chef and obsessing about ramen noodles as well. )
My computer is still haunting me with nerve wracking error messages. Adding to the fun I'm behind on photography....etching, polishing....catalog making, and show applying. All my pets seem to be molting and nobody is vacuuming....for a really long time, like all summer........GAR.
All of this sort of peaked when a client from California I hadn't spoken with in a while hunted me down. It was incredible. A great compliment (as well as being a cool and awesome person to work with). I loved the idea of my work being in Cali even if I couldn't. Its hard to describe the deluge of issues it did bring on. I really didn't feel like I'd been making any work. What did I make now anyway?! (I really have barely made the type of work she knew me for since our move to Maine).?How do I charge for that now? After paroxysms of self-loathing, sweating, agitating over the old crucible in our furnace etc. I....just kind of blew it off, which made me even more sad and stressed out. GEEZ...It got overwhelming. These jobs though eventually (hopefully) reach some kind of critical mass (it took a whole month), and the easiest ones go first and get some of the other ones shooting out after them. I knew it was a good push (request from said client), but I found the fear and loathing part making me think: "Maybe I don't even want to make that work anymore." (chills) I mean it is technically challenging...I may not be up for the same levels of self punishment I previously seemed to enjoy....Well, good news: Apparently its not true.
Long and the short of it though is that the self loathing bit had me thinking I wasn't making work that was uniquely me (like what I did before Charlie and I formed Tandem, when my assistant was not my co-conspiritor). This is not entirely true of course. Everything I do for Tandem is mine and many of my color choice and designs fill what we have goin on here at the shop. I guess it's more the challenge of any shared partnership....and being an introverted creative type I need to stake out undistracted time.
Which I got this weekend. I found I have been working on my own designs, a few actually...kind of a lot of ideas. I'm actually thinking of applying to do a show with just my own work..