Studio Wormhole

by Donato

Yesterday afternoon I found myself staring into the beginnings of a Studio Wormhole.  These ultra rare manifestations of space and time occur when a series of events align to place me in a moment where my studio time is not conditioned upon completing an assignment for a client - I have finished an oil painting, I have completed all sketches for the next immediate commissions, and I have no pressing commitments for conventions, lectures or gallery exhibitions.



It is like the art world has been sucked out of my universe and I can walk in a place where time has no meaning - a place where I lift my head from the drawing table and can do anything I dream.  These moments are the real reason I wanted to become a freelancer in the first place.



 So what do I do with time which is now my own?  I make more art, as if you had to ask.

Sitting beside my drafting table is a board filled with rough abstracts of paintings and drawings I wish to embrace, organized by themes from images for gallery exhibition to the inspired worlds of Middle-earth.  Every day I am reminded of these little gems, waiting for the time to weave them into a client's commission or stirring forth on a day like yesterday ready to be hatched unimpeded.  Some will take weeks to unfurl, but I sit on them nurturing their inspirational power month after month, some year after year.



Each one of these images I have seen in my mind's eye and know it is worthy of generating into a fully formed painting.  Some I have even begun to gather references for.  My only regret in collecting so many precious ideas is knowing that I may likely not have the time to hatch all of them, for as these are gestating, I am making more - my sketchbooks are tremendous incubators these past years. But thanks to my Studio Wormhole yesterday and today, I have brought life to one of these babies.  At least one more shall see the light of day!



As I write this, the Wormhole has collapsed, a client emailed with requests for a sketch revision and the preliminary coat of oil on a painting will be dry tomorrow morning, waiting for me to jump back into a client's commission.  Back to my commitments.



But I am happy.  I have a new artistic creation to share with you, and I could not be more content about my chosen lifestyle.



 I only wish the Wormholes would come more often.

Fall of Gondolin     16" x 20"    Donato Giancola     Watercolor Pencil and Chalk on Toned Paper