Fairfield and Creative Solitude

My trip to Ketchum started with mules,


How would you like to live here?


And then endless snow for hours,




I don't know the reason, but after an hour of driving in solid snow covered mountains, and about an hour from Fairfield, I started to get nervous with my gut telling me to turn around. I tried to ignore it and then to understand it, but by Fairfield I decided to just pay attention to it and turn South. I took some great pics in Fairfield, like this barn,


I am amzed at the variety of color in the grasses coming up out of the snow, they range from lavender to maroon to red. There are some bare trees that are bright yellow. Then I turned South and in 10 minutes I was out of snow. I ended the trip with sheep, this is in Gooding,


I did not read about an avalanche in Ketchum, but it was about 10 degrees in Fairfield and Ketchum would be even colder. The roads were clear with no weather on the way, but I do not have a snow car. When I was stoppped in Fairfield taking pictures, some guy in a giant truck stopped to ask me if I needed help. He said no one parks on that road unless they are having car trouble. I will try Ketchum in the Spring.

I did not think that the Gandhi quote was really appropriate for the topic of Privacy, but the Artist's Way Week 5 sure is. The author talks about the Virtue Trap and the necessity for an artist to withdraw. Artists need down time and they need time alone to work. "An artist requires the upkeep of creative solitude." Non-artists don't like it or understand it and they take our withdrawal personally, so we try to do what they want and we call ourselves virtuous. (We also use our virtue as an excuse not to do our art for various other reasons.) And then we get depressed and hostile and we take that out on the people who demand our time and attention. I lived this years ago. My need for down time was selfish and worthy of punishment. I was living the life my ex-husband chose for me, but he would still say today that I am selfish and always get what I want. No wonder I ran.

We need some human interaction, too, and it takes a great deal of practice to know when I need creative solitude and when I slip over into living in my head with doubt and worry and it is time to go out. Someone told me once that they did not know anyone that isolates as much as me, and in this case "isolates" meant something bad. Today I say yes, I have trouble with isolating, but I am a painter and I work on the wisdom to know the difference between "isolating" and creative solitude (or privacy).

At least I do not have trouble with the Virtue Trap right now. The biggest demanders of my time are my cats, who sure are self-centered and demanding, but they take a lot of naps.