Studio Time: I'm perfecting my procrastination...

I have been working diligently on my procrastination projects, if you can't tell already from my blog silence. I seem to be perfecting my procrasination abilities too! I'll show you the projects another day, though, since I had already started this post and want to finish posting.

My parents love this video:



I totally get it. I definitely have a woman's brain... everything is related to each other. AND IT DOES NOT COME WITH AN OFF SWITCH. Or compartments.

So, I installed an off switch. Mmmm.... maybe a better phrase is a method of compartmentalization that mutes the buzzing in my head from a stressful day or week. I highly recommend 2,000 degrees of fire to make you focus on the "here and now" and not the "earlier in the day" or "tomorrow". (And no, I don't mean pointing it at your head... I prefer pointing it at glass.)








On the other hand, a brain that does not shut off often finds unique, creative ways to let items come together. For me, it's part of the creative process...letting random colors of glass land next to each other, or odd combinations of beads, fiber, chain, metal get laid in a mess on my work table. Creative epiphanies arise from that chaos. So I embrace it. I also have to learn to live with it. Sometimes living with something means installing the "off switch" or "compartments". Creativity currently is my off switch...and for particularly hairy, daily issues that my brain wants to obssess over, fire is the answer for me.

And in other news, I'm playing with pastels and experimenting with more generic photographic backgrounds (unlike my previous post). This version is in the blues that match my business cards.



And these are patinaed, fine silver charms. They are part of my Re-Blooming collection. I hand-carved my own "chintz" stamp, which is the texture of these small charms.







And on the subject of brains...I was re-reading some of my Hong Kong posts and figuring out how to recapture that humor I was able to concoct about my life in a foreign country. I'm in my home country now, so life is "normal" again. But, I still have a sense of humor somewhere. (I think it's still packed, ready to go off globe-trotting again. And currently that suitcase is lost in the black hole where socks and keys go.)

Meanwhile, I'm physically in South Carolina and mentally trying to lasso my imagination and humor back into my consolidated Kanna Glass Studios Jenn. I fear parts are still scattered around the globe (part of the reason for the procrastination). One statement hit me as I contemplated my first Hong Kong-erversary: I still take pictures like a tourist; I am a resident adventurer. Ya' know...I can do that here. I already do that here...take pictures like a tourist. I wander. I'm a resident. Now we just have to roust out that sense of humor and figure out how to put those puzzle pieces of me back together.

I started realizing what caused this "reverse culture shock" besides landing in the deep south. (BTW, deep south is not the reverse culture shock for me because I lived in Texas before. Yes. Two different states...different cultures... but, different in ways I've already adapted to.) The reverse culture shock comes from coming back to a place I'm used to...people drive on the right side of the road, there are big box stores, there is ice cream I like, and fruits and veggies I recognize. Even though I was getting used to Hong Kong, there was always a daily adventure. Well. I guess there is adventure...but, maybe it means taking some things out of my subconscious processing and looking at them from a different way. I find myself reacting to busines situations in a way I learned in Hong Kong (interesting retrospective there on that little point).

Putting the puzzle pieces back together of the Kanna Glass Jenn is where my theme for Re-Blooming arises from, since I still feel mentally scattered across the globe. My heart is still in Hong Kong, part of my heart is here in South Carolina where my family is. Parts of my heart are in Texas and Wisconsin where I have very good friends. I somehow expected to land in a place like Seattle or New Mexico or back in Texas. South Carolina was a surprise. Greenville, SC was a really pleasant surprise. It fits me in many, many ways and I find I'm beginning to recover my energy and health (to a certain extent) here, plus having a day job I like.

Writing is cathartic for me...everyday stressors and frizzlers still make my brain explode. But, I haven't yet learned to convert life that is ingrained into my subconscious into Funny Friday stories. Well, there I go. I just gave myself a challenge: instead of frizzling or exploding my brain, I'll challenge myself to turn it into something funny. I don't guarantee much wit to begin with. I'm going to have to start over on the story-telling... but, I've found I loved telling the stories...yet a another creative challenge for me. :-)