Props, the beginning again and melancholia

Howdy folks out there in blog land.  I thought I'd motivate myself to get busy by sharing progress pictures of a prop for an upcoming series of images.  I am making a concrete bench out of closed cell Styrofoam   I have cut and assembled the pieces into the bench shape.  The second step as pictured here is with it's first coat of Gesso applied.  I am planning on painting it grey and then applying a coat of pumice medium to create the final texture.  This has been a fun process.

I have been struggling with motivation this summer.  No, it's not a lack of ideas.  Maybe too many or just overloaded with all sorts of mental stuff zipping around in my head.  I realized that I too suffer from bouts of melancholia from time to time.  I discovered the actual term quite by accident today.  Someone posted a video you can view at the link, describing a book project with that as the theme.  It was quite the revelation.  I knew that I didn't suffer from depression in the clinical sense of the term.  I can always bounce back more invigorated than before.  But, it was a vicious cycle I had to endure.  Now I know what it is and it gives me relief.  Mostly because now I can actually take the steps to understand the cycle and what it actually does for me as an artist, as a person and as a spiritual being.  Alchemists regarded this process very special.  Artists have been the most noted alchemists both historically and I think even today.  Visionaries suffer from this melancholia and great works have been the result.  Now I am not saying that I am a visionary but, I appreciate the process I personally go through even more.  Now that I know what it is and how it works in my life.

Hope you can illuminate more of who you are in your daily practice.

Have a great weekend one and all.