Artsy ebbing (includes some spreads from the atlas)

It's been one of those weeks where nothing gets done and nothing comes out of my hands. I have been busy with other things, but it's not like I didn't have time to do art. It just...I don't know...sometimes it just won't work. I'm trying to get back in that artsy groove again, because I hate feeling so detached from the things I love doing most.

Of course 'nothing' is an overstatement. I have journaled (be it less than usual, also a sure sign that I'm feeling a little 'off') and I have sketched a little in my sketchbook (just to keep from feeling completely idle). I do try to keep my hands busy every now and then, but I just don't have that excitement going right now that you can have when you're really working on something that moves you. I suppose everything has its ebb and flow and I just need to ride it out. I guess I'm 'ebbing' right now. ;-)

This also explains why I haven't blogged since last wednesday, I just haven't felt like it (sigh). It seemed like just one more chore I didn't want to do. Usually I don't feel like that at all about my blog, I love keeping it up.

In my experience there's only one solution to this thing and that is just to keep going and doing my 'chores' whether I feel like it or not. So...today I have dragged myself to my computer and am doing a blog post.
Better a whiny blog post than no post at all, right?

And tonight I will drag myself to my studio again, which will be the first time in six days. The artsy stuff I have done, I have done outside of the studio, to sort of make it easier to take that first step, if that makes any sense? Unfortunately that also made me feel like I was just trying to escape the 'real' work. Really, I don't know why I'm so critical of myself sometimes. (another sigh)

I guess this kind of feeling happens to all of us at times (please say 'yes, it does'!). There's nothing really wrong, I'm not seriously depressed or anything and it's not like I'm unhappy. I'm just out of sorts somehow, not in that wonderful flow of things that I love so much, where idea after idea comes at me and I just get excited about all of them.

Funny, I look at the above picture and it has the word "Winterslaap"  on it. That is the Dutch word for "Hibernation". Maybe that's all this is, a little artsy hibernation, even if it is in the midst of summer. I kind of like that idea.

I wonder, dear blog readers, if you ever suffer from these artsy ebbs and what do you do to get back out so things can flow again? For me, like I said, it is usually a matter of keeping up my routine, even if I don't feel like it. I can't always get myself to do that when I'm in this mood, but it is in the end what works best for me.

What works for you? I'd love to read your input on this.