I reworked yesterday's image and feel much happier. It was a good night to work. The studio was humming. Sometimes I get overheated under all the lights and need to step into the garden to cool off. Tonight I was overwhelmed by the smell of honeysuckle. I planted it 3 years ago and this is the first season it's had enough bloom for the scent to completely envelop me. It created a moment where everything dropped away and it was just me and the scent and then just the scent- my sense of self briefly, blissfully vanished. It's the same feeling I get when I'm making art. It's funny that to make something so personal, you, the ego, has to disappear otherwise there is no space for the creative flow. It reminds me of a poem by Angelus Silesius from 17th century Germany
by Angelus Silesius, trans. Stephen Mitchell
God, whose love and joy
are present everywhere,
can’t come to visit you
unless you aren’t there.
xoxo