I get to my studio with a nice big full day in front of me and then I can't focus or work. I eat my lunch at eleven and my thermos of tea is finished by noon. The week end was very distracting. I pulled a muscle dancing at a party and feel best reading or sitting quietly. I walk around mumbling: do what you tell your students to do: Have fun, Do something joyful, Just draw or doodle to warm up. Instead I have laid out all these largish paintings that I thought about all week end and want to finish. But my muse is on vacation (or more like a dog on a leash who refuses to budge and sits down in protest) - working on these pieces is simply not forthcoming. So, I do what I constantly recommend to others: keep my hands moving by making ANYTHING. The terror and pressure of art making has to be picked up like a soccer ball and bunted with one's head swiftly out the window. I take one of my small blank mixed media books and I put Pandora on and I begin to play, glue, draw, splash paint. No pressure, no expectations - just the reason I became an artist in the first place: because it was fun.