I gather that swans sometimes have a real problem once they have landed on a stretch of open water. There are occasions when they don’t allow for an adequate amount of room when it comes to taking off again. It seems that they do require a very long space in which to build up the speed required in order to achieve life-off. I’m told that it is not unusual for the RSPCA to be called out to assist a swan which is perfectly healthy …. other than being grounded.
This might well strike you as an odd metaphor for the life artistic, but over dinner this evening it did strike me as having some relevance. I am afraid that I am, at the moment, suffering from the “grounded swan” syndrome. I haven’t managed to do anything interesting for several weeks now. In fact, the most interesting thing I have accomplished was a group of figures I did at the life-drawing class on Thursday evening. I did start a project, but it has run into the ground for the moment, until I can get some additional reference material.* This is a time of immense frustration, which occasionally tips over into a mild depression. I absolutely hate not being productively busy. In short: I’m grounded.
Anyway: I have drawn up a list of tasks I hope to be able to begin to tackle on Monday, and I just hope that I have allowed myself enough space in which to build up to take-off speed. I would hate to find myself crashing into another tree. (By the way: is there an artistic equivalent of the RSPCA on whose services I might call?)
*If anybody has a human skeleton to hand I would love to borrow it.