I’ve been moving along with my research in my sketchbook. I have spring break coming up next week and just spent the last weekend by myself in Massachusetts painting and journaling. Its a very different experience when you are alone. Recently, I painted at a friends house and she asked “How do you do that?!” when she watched me paint. I responded with “I don’t know! It’s almost as if my brain shuts off because you’re here.” Other people distract me, they occupy my thoughts unintentionally. I can still paint, but I was painting from an image. So this was different. When I’m painting something new or from my imagination, I can’t talk to anyone. They can’t be around because I can’t separate the thoughts. They can’t be organized. Kind of like when I try to do math in my mind. It gets jumbled up and I get flustered. That’s one thing I’ve noticed since spending the weekend by myself. When creating my own paintings, I need to be alone. When recreating an image, I can still focus when other are near me or talking to me because I see it, I don’t need to visualize it. I’ve also been very stressed out lately, which got me in a painting funk. I didn’t want to create anything. But the temperature is rising and I just need to be outside!!!