There are times when being a full-time artist can be a tad quiet. I may go for days seeing only my husband and my dog. I have a radio and CD player in the studio, but I don’t always turn them on.
I enjoy the quiet. It gives me a chance to contemplate what I’m working on and make all those small decisions that come together and make a piece of art sing.
I talk to my artwork. It’s sort of like talking to the dog. Most of the time Drew just lets me chatter on without bothering to look up. But then he’ll get an idea that involves me, and soon I know with just a few looks, tail wags, or head butts that it is time for a walk or maybe past time for a snack.
My artwork does the same thing. We’ll go along with me caring about nothing in particular, and all of a sudden I’m given a look. This week it was Mae staring down at me with a slightly hungry look. First she asked what I was doing for lunch. I replied that I wasn’t really hungry yet and asked if we could just keep working on her background for a while. She agreed that a little more camouflage would be helpful but insisted that she was ready for a snack.
She said I should come up and see her sometime. Mae is such a friendly jaguar.