Okay, so maybe I just can't stay away!  Maybe I'm having such a great time getting to know my new "family" that I'm finding it difficult to wrench my fingers off of the keyboard.  Maybe my poor dog - whose name shall remain "Pumpkin" - does have to wait a little longer to take a potty break.  (Maybe I do, too, for that matter.)  Maybe I am loitering over my computer and not working in my studio like I scheduled in for this time (yoiks!)...but, it's really important to establish an understanding of how Scuttlebutt works at the beginning of my sojourn here so everything will go much more smoothly later on.  (Or at least, it's how I can justify my new obsession!) 

Sigh.  My alter-ego, (aka "Slavedriver") tells me to get off the computer already and get going as I have too many deadlines to be lingering long.  I guess I will comply because Slavedriver is the one I depend on who ensures I can pay the bills!  Yeah, I guess I have a bit of a split personality when it comes to my work.  There is one side of me (aka "Dreamer") that is meticulous and detail oriented.  Dreamer would love nothing more than to take my time at everything - no matter how much time it takes - to make certain all is completed beautifully, lyrically, perfectly (well, as perfectly as is humanely possible.)  And then there is Slavedriver, that is constantly standing over my shoulder, impatiently watching the clock and tapping my toe.  "Must complete.  Get it done already.  You're taking too much time.  Too much time.  Did you hear me?  TOO MUCH TIME!!!  Gotta move on.  Get moving.  Finish that up already, won't you?"  You get the picture.  I'm in a constant battle between making deadlines (whether it's the client's or my own self-imposed one) and making quality art. 

Some time back I reached an agreement with myself:  I give myself a deadline and have to reach it with a finished piece.  If I don't finish in the deadline, I have a little bit of a grace period, but then I have to tolerate Slavedriver, who is standing behind my shoulder as depicted above.  If I can't get it done in the grace period, I start to feel overwhelmed and too pressured and then I have to set it aside as "not making progress" and move on to the next project.  Thank God it doesn't happen often that I have to set a project aside!  It would make me crazy!!  Anyway, I do try to get back to former set-asides, but I don't often manage to complete.  They kind-of tend to get stuck in "No Man's Land" (a certain drawer in my flat files) and often never actually emerge as a complete "being."  They stay perpetually looking a little bit like those poor, broken androids with pieces of their structure missing in the film, "Artificial Intelligence." 

Okay.  Well, I've enjoyed today's blog about enough.  Slavedriver is...well, slavedriving.  Must go before I get myself into trouble. 

Ciao, darlings!

Karen

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