INT’L “ART IN” For PEACE & UNITY

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Would you want to be a part of an international “Art In” for Peace and Unity on Zoom this week?

No politics. No divisions. Just a big group of human artists who all want to share our love for one another dispite any boundaries, or cultural, political, religious or other differences, because we believe that humanity is one.

We are organizing this worldwide art making Zoom meetup.

If you would like to attend, just make sure that you are on one of our newsletter lists so that you get the Zoom link.

Share to your stories, leave a heart, a comment, or a save on this post if you would like to help out spreading the word that this event is going to happen on this Wednesday at 10 am EST.

ALL ARE WELCOME.

Peace, love and unity ❤️🕊️❤️

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Dealing with blockage.

Making something everyday keeps me in the groove of creativity. I don’t care about finishing what I’m working on because it’s simply to keep me in the habit of showing up in my studio. Spreading paint on whatever substrate I find sitting around is something I like to do. The action of the paint brush gliding down the paper and the way the paint brush feels in my hand is what I focus on. Sometimes ripping paper is all I do when I’m blocked and I set the pieces aside to use as fodder for other projects, this practice was all I could do when my mother died. I was so grief stricken that the intense emotions I was experiencing blocked my creativity and I suffer when I can’t create because making things has always been my way of processing my feelings, so all I could do was tear up pieces of paper while I cried and it calmed me and gave me some inner peace. This broke through my block because focusing on the feeling of tearing paper kept my mind from thinking and it inspired me to create something else that involved tearing paper. I created pyramids of stacked papers. I’ve included below a picture of what I made. I hope my sharing this will help you if you ever feel blocked in your own practice.

It's An Exciting Journey.

I'm working on creating a series of online classes to offer up, but can't seem to work fast enough. It’s a little frustrating, but I'm so excited to get this shindig on the road to launch. Learning the technology of getting things filmed, edited and everything else that this project entails is a bit daunting, but I will keep chipping away at it because I have a lot to offer you.

I'm not technologically trained and the #perfectionnotion kicks in, hindering my progress.

Luckily for me, while working it's easier to kick my inner critic to the curb as he’s whispering, “but it's not perfect..”

It took me a long time to be able to do that, now I need to work at applying this training to everything else in my life.

In my classes, I will talk about the perfection notion and encourage you to let go of the idea that your work must be perfect. I believe creating art should be an enjoyable and fulfilling process, an exploration of materials and what ifs. It's an exciting journey.

Letting go of expectations and kicking the inner critic to the curb are important steps in freeing yourself to create with a sense of fun and enjoyment.

I believe the label “artist” isn't exclusively reserved for the educated professional, it's inclusive to all of those individuals who have the courage to pick up their materials whether it's a paintbrush, a pencil, sheet music or a script.

If creating something is a longing you hold in your heart, YOU ARE AN ARTIST.

The Perfection Notion

In the late 90's artmaking became really hard for me because I felt what I created had to be perfect so I stopped and went to massage school. Haha.

I had to sit with this idea of what I thought perfection was for me. I thought about it and struggled with this for a long while until I came to the conclusion that the perfection notion I had was subjective, what is perfection anyway? 

I was being too critical of my work. I decided the need for perfection, which was was holding me back from creating stemmed from my inner critic, who was delighted that I was blocked.

When I came to that conclusion, I was able to let go of needing my work to be perfect. I decided that it was more important for me to just make stuff, have fun and stop being so judgemental of my art. 

That’s why I focus on artmaking being fun and playful. As soon as it stops being fun, I move on to a completely different project and I come back with fresh eyes. For some reason, working on a different project brings me inspiration for the one I was struggling with.

I relegated my inner critic to the back seat and told him to mind his own business, I could take it from here. Notice how I called my inner critic "him"? Ha ha!

Perfectly Imperfect

Means letting go of expectations and judgement.

Art Supply Addiction

I used to buy art supplies all the time. I bought them especially when I was feeling blocked because I would go to stores for inspiration and buy supplies that made me feel like I would be able to make the most incredible work.

 After much thought on the matter, I realized I was being an art supply junkie. Going to an art supply store was addictive for me and I did it simply to make me feel better because I wasn’t creating.  

I started to feel guilty though, when I realized how much goodness I had been amassing and hadn't used. 

To make matters worse, some supplies had dried up and some were way past their shelf life. Total waste of money. We all know how expensive those treats can be. 

That's when I decided to make an #artistresolution I resolved to stop trolling for art supplies to feel good. 

I started working with what I had in stock, steeling myself from the urges I would get for heading to the Michael's or Blicks. 

 Shit, it was like fighting a craving for a beer! 

<BTW I am proud to say I am five years sober from alcohol. 3/23/21 😉>

My resolution was to stop buying art supplies, but obviously it also entailed using everything I had on hand to make stuff. 

All my projects are like puzzles waiting to be solved, so being limited to what I had on hand was a unique way to "solve" my puzzles.

Making this resolution has been the most enlightening adventure of my artistic career because I realized I hadn’t been cracking open those brand new supplies for fear I wouldn’t be able to create some amazing masterpiece with them.

It all boils down to the #perfectionnotion 

I will talk about that in my next post.

I hope you’re having a very good weekend! XO

Perfect Imperfection

Hello,

Welcome to my blog! I’m currently working on my website, it’s a lot of work figuring out all the technological whatnot to make an interesting site. I have to remember that the notion of perfection needs to be kicked to the curb. Sometimes I forget to do that and it holds me back from getting work done.

Creating art was nearly impossible for me a few years ago because I expected my work to be perfect. I’m not even sure what my notion of perfection was, I had to think on this dilemma for a while before I came to the conclusion that perfection is a subjective thing. It was then I was able to let my hands do their work, I was thrilled to be able to create intuitively, without the hindrance of an expected outcome and in doing so I have made numerous pieces that have given me pleasure and inspired others.

Giving myself permission to freely create whatever my hands delivered and what quieted my mind was like sprouting wings and I have been making art now pretty much every day, always for myself and in sharing I am happy to inspire others to let go of the need to create something perfect.

Can you imagine the freedom of creating without expecting perfection?

Thank you for taking the time to read my first blog! Have a great day.