After The Painting's Over

Ok...the latest "Walk On By" is done and I'm ready to start the one that's been crowding in my mind-sort of a "brain pileup"-got a new canvas ready and the next photo inspiration all lined up and etc. etc.
So why am I procrastinating?
I seem to need this 'down time' before I can dive into the next one....and I wonder if it's akin to an 'etch-a-sketch' board. Remember those? You had to shake it vigorously to renew the surface to begin a new drawing. I feel sort of like that. I muse about this though. IF I did just flip right into another canvas; would it become 'rote'? You know; a certain 'robotness' to the paintings.
I know I'm forced to stop for a longer period every few weeks because my shoulder craps out on me, usually after I've done a few straight 7 hr marathons back to back. That's pretty much when time disappears for me. I keep thinking I should eat or stuff but it becomes a "one more section here and then I'll stop". Now this probably sounds cool but really is not a good operating system. I generally put myself into a strange state of exhaustion and hunger where I'll go for whatever is fast and plenty (toast) and then keel over on the couch for a 2 hr nap...not good if it's 4:00 in the afternoon and I might want to sleep at night instead of prowling around wide awake.
So I've taken to listening to Talking Books while I paint as they go for @ an hour per disk and focus me more on a coherent schedule. Mind you, yesterday the CD stopped and I kept on painting thinking "Better stop and change the CD" and a whole hour and a half went by.
OK, still working on that.
In any case, I feel a certain excitement to be this eager to start a new painting. I'm always intrigued to see how my hands turn my mind's eye vision to reality. (Now, that would be fascinating to know how I DO that - do Scientists even understand 'Creativity'? hmmm, another post methinks...)
So where was I...oh yeah...The Next Painting. I really love this process. Gathering the research together, planning out what kind of background, arranging the elements to produce the whole...love it all.
Better get started!