Penned silhouettes of sandhill cranes fly across the sky in my sketchbook. As I went through some inventory between projects, I paged through a sketchbook and found this drawing.
Having multiple art projects in the works simultaneously is not uncommon for me. While working on a lengthy colored pencil drawing, I tend to sprinkle smaller pen or watercolor pieces into the timeline. Not having any art to work on is rare, but sometimes projects line up in such a way that there are spots in the timeline where there is nothing in the works at all. That has occurred recently.
The span of time that stretches from one art project to the next is one of limbo and preoccupation. Thoughts of images, materials, sizes, and colors circle in my brain while my art supplies sit untouched. Art still manages to creep into my days, though. During this time of not making any art, I switched a piece I have on display in a gallery, organized some unframed art in my inventory, visited some exhibits, and acquired some more supplies.
Then some plans solidified. I decided on an image for my next piece, picked the medium, and picked the size. I cut the paper. The next tick in the timeline was reached. Before the sense of weirdness of not being creative morphed into uneasiness and discomfort, a project commenced. And all remained well.
A note on sandhill cranes: These birds, as pictured above, have been migrating northward en masse. I usually hear them before I see them. I look up and see their sparkling figures arranged in an irregular flight formation and engaging in their signature gliding habits. Migration has begun, and I am having a nice time observing its start.