Tina Mammoser over at The Cycling Artist has been doing a fascinating series of podcasts about her artistic process. Last night, I listened to the latest one and I was very struck by something she said about how artists are either good finishers or good starters.

I'm definitely much better at starting things than finishing. Truth be told, I often dither over starting things too - I like to get everything sorted out in my head first and then I'll suddenly dive in and get going. So when I say that I'm better at starting than finishing, it's all relative: it's just that I truly suck at finishing.

I'm currently at the stage with the red embroidery (yes, the one I said I was going to finish weeks ago) where it's very hard to work on it because it's getting towards an end point. I know it isn't finished yet but I'm having a lot of trouble deciding where the next lines go. It's stopped being filled with infinite beautiful potential every time I drop the thread onto the canvas and the narrowing options are making me increasingly uncomfortable.

My instinct is to rush off and start a new one. A better one. One that will somehow miraculously instantly work without all this tedious humming and hawing.

But I'm plugging away trying to finish this one because I know how I am: new work tends to push old work aside and then the old work doesn't get finished. You wouldn't believe how much unfinished work I have in my studio. One of the things I loved about The Diary Project was that I had a daily deadline so I had to finish; there just wasn't the option to sit around being indecisive for weeks on end.

I wonder how I can incorporate that lesson, that discipline, into my regular practice? I've noticed that I often do better when the rules or limits of a project are clearly laid out at the beginning. Do I need to make all my work that way though? Surely there needs to be a place in my practice for freeform creativity too?

Sigh, you see how I am - these are the sort of knots I endlessly tie myself in. How odd that sometimes the work flows out of me almost effortlessly and at other times, it's this tortured, labyrinthine process. My mother says that I always have to make things difficult for myself; sometimes I think she has a point!

If you feel that you need a creative boost this summer, the lovely Camilla is running an online summer school. I'm still swithering about whether to sign up or not; it looks like fun but I don't know how much energy and time I'm going to have. But I'm certainly going to be dropping in regularly to see how they're getting on.