Away from the world

IMG_0875.JPG, originally uploaded by jordan_mitchell.

TIme collapses and folds in on itself. Voices fade, and lines of conversation become twisted and blurred. Soon my mind splits in half, and I am half on automatic pilot, conversing with the client...laughing and telling jokes, and half supporting the most powerful concentration I have ever experienced. I feel like I have been training all my life for this.

Recalling how I would stand for hours in front of marble statues in Rome (um, and all over the world), the musuem and crowds of people swirling around me fading out as I propped my journal between my stomach and my left hand and drew with my right. A musuem guard had been watching me for hours and ambushed me when I was leaving so I could draw a portrait of him that he could frame for his wife. He asked me to sign it, very seriously.

Also recalling how I would concentrate so hard and use such a tiny brush that my nose would almost touch the painting. Being that I often painted on the floor, I would sometimes end up (very flexibly) with my nose near my ankle. I would come to, and realize that the sun had dropped down and I was painting in half-light, my stomach growling from not eating for 6 hours. I would consume raw slices of bread or jellybeans or an apple, hurriedly while standing at the kitchen counter. I'd go back to my room, turn on the light, and get back to work.