Night-night, Sleep Tight

What is the food that creativity thrives on?  I guess it's different for everyone.  I used to be an "early to bed, early to rise" kind of girl, grooving on the early start and painting on a 9 - 5.  And I took a certain pleasure in reading about all the artists who did the same:  Jennifer Bartlett, Elizabeth Murray...up at the crack of dawn to put in a good day's work.  And they have kids, just like me.  

Now here I am, two beers and a few hours past everyone else's bedtime, still glowing with some kind of 120 watt bulb that manages to illuminate the creative process for me, if only until I fall from fatigue.  What is it about a box of paints, a piece of paper, and some good music I've never heard before?  I can't help but feel like this is the elixir, the fountain of youth...it's like love, or jumping off the roof of your garage for the very first time...

Closing the Windows, Closing the Doors

"A painting is like the facade of a house...and you're like a janitor who goes around systematically trying to close all the windows and doors -- but when you get to the top floor to close the last window, a wind blows open the one on the first landing.

You rush down and close that one, and then one on the middle floor blows open and you rush to close that.But when you've closed all the entries to the house, then the painting is closed -- not that it's finished, it's just that you can't enter it any longer."  (Graham Nickson)