Is it always working, always playing, or always processing?

As a kid, I swore I would grow up to work with Jim Henson. As an adult I interned with a puppet theater, making everything from tiny Mexican Wrestler costumes, to gigantic working Jack-in-the boxes. As such, I now see potential puppets everywhere. Probably not the best impulse to have at the gynecologist.

There is something to be said, though, for constantly having the creative mind taking in and filing information away, to challenge oneself with "what could I do with this?"  I say that I am always working, and it is true. While someone may look at a sunset, I am taking in the interplay of the colors and where they meet. When someone goes to the zoo to see the animals, I am taking note of their muscle structure and the patterns of fur and feathers. Even if I don't have a sketchpad, I am taking little snapshots with my brain. Maybe that is why concentration lines are permanently etched into my face.

When you love what you do for a living, you never really stop working. You don't punch a clock and simply go home. However, it doesn't quite feel like work either. You just keep doing it out of passion, or because it is a part of your nature. The times I have been truly sad in life were the times when I did not create something. Sitting down to make art, whether working on-set, or sculpting or painting in studio, is not just a living, but a part of my health, part of the care and feeding of an artist. Really, it's in the user manual.

Just remember to put a lid on it sometimes. Just because a speculum duckie could be created in a few unsupervised seconds, doesn't mean the doctor will be amused.