Originally published at file under "Miscellanea". You can comment here or there.

(Note: This post is part of a series I am doing on my progress through Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way with a cadre of creative ladies. More info about this venture can be found in an earlier post and all of my related posts are under
one category.)

Give me this day to behold with joy,
to rise above all expectations and savor
the multitude of voices and colors.

This one day to delight in loving,
to answer my sorrows with grace and realize
the magic in each hour of existence.

To be present and join Phil Och’s song,
to raise my voice louder than the guns and honor
the mettle of living with intention.

Give me today without promises,
and I will create a tomorrow of value.

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Originally published at file under "Miscellanea". You can comment here or there.

(Note: This post is part of a series I am doing on my progress through Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way with a cadre of creative ladies. More info about this venture can be found in an earlier post and all of my related posts are under
one category.)

As I'm reading through each chapter, I take little notes in my composition book. Reviewing those notes as I do my weekly check-in, it's interesting to see what I find worth jotting down and how if plays out during my week, if at all. This week, my first note is from page 61 of my book:

Anger is a map. Anger shows us what our boundaries are.

I know I initially jotted this down because my mum talked a lot about the value of knowing your own boundaries, but in retrospect, this should have been a red flag: The whole first section of week three is about anger. While I am grateful for everything I've experienced and explored this week, I wasn't comfortable sharing a lot of it publicly nor would all of it had made sense without an extensive personal history.

What was most interesting during this process was revisiting emotional and explosive moments in this heightened creative state brought about by having my own studio, hanging my art on a gallery wall, and going through The Artist's Way with my cluster. While we often attribute creative endeavors and accomplishments a kind of head-in-the-clouds quality, I found that those things were instead quite grounding as I did this week's tasks and exercises. I started thinking less about the specifics of my life in some instances and more about the underlying themes--moments of bliss in hours of darkness and how to take that joy and do something productive with it, what is secret versus what is shown--and ways to interpret those experiences creatively. In discussing my house sculpture at the gallery opening, I realized these were some of the things I was thinking through, but I would like to do so in a way that retains its personal resonance while being more universal. Exploring the themes rather than directly mining personal history.

Some of week three's exercises/tasks follow, but I'll try to share more of week four's work:

Detective work, an exercise

• The best movie I ever saw as a kid was either The Last Unicorn or The Neverending Story. The former probably gave me unnaturally mature ideas about the nature of regret and life experience, the latter's special effects probably don't hold up today, but really transported me to a different place back in the '80s.
  
• If I could lighten up a little, I'd let myself take Polka or Bollywood dancing classes.
  
• If it didn't sound so crazy, I'd make a book out of a suitcase. Oh, wait, I am going to do that crazy thing!

• I consistently had high grades and test scores and held my own in honors/advanced courses.
• I won a state-level writer's award and was invited to a young writer's conference when I was around 12 years old.
• When my family raised and bred sporting dogs, I was responsible for the complete training of two dogs (though I assisted with others) and got points on each--one in confirmation showing, the other in hunting trials.
• Attending two pre-college summer programs--McMurray College in Illinois the summer before 8th grade, Washington + Lee in Virginia the summer before my senior year of high school--was a huge honor and really helped me visualize myself as a college student and meet some great people.
• Putting on a school play my senior year of high school; though the school had a drama club we had never, in the time I attended the school, had a school play, which I thought was ridiculous. (Having just spent too much time on said high school's terrible web site, I can't tell if the play is still ongoing.)

Week-end check-in

Artist's Date: First, I spent half an hour on a local nature trail, just taking photos (forthcoming!) and exploring the various colors and patterns in Florida's greenery. I came back quite inspired, even accounting for the heat and skeeters. That same night, I also pulled out a book a friend gifted me and taught myself a simple pamphlet stitch binding, making three small books. I feel this is the first week I've been 100% successful at the artist's date and honestly appreciated the time to myself, with my own ideas.

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Originally published at file under "Miscellanea". You can comment here or there.

(Note: This post is part of a series I am doing on my progress through Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way with a cadre of creative ladies. More info about this venture can be found in an earlier post and all of my related posts are under one category.)

Week two considers other barriers to our creative recovery, both from others (folks Julia Cameron calls crazymakers and poisonous playmates) and from within (the skeptical voice in my head that says, "You're not an artist!").

I've done a couple of this week's tasks, which I'll share here:

Life Pie

This is a great visual exercise--not just for those using The Artist's Way, but anyone--to make you consider and own up where the imbalance in your life can be found. To play along at home, simply draw a circle, divide it into the six pieces below, and make a dot in each "pie"--closer to the outer rim signifies greater fulfillment, closer to the center reveals displeasure in that area.

No matter what your final pie looks like, there will be some areas where you have achieved greater satisfaction than others. Give yourself a pat on the back--but also pay attention to the areas where you could be happier. In my Artist's Way journal, I'm keeping a running list of the things I can do to improve my happiness in the areas of friendship, exercise, and romance/adventure.

Di and Cassidy have already completed their "20 things I like" lists, so I ought to also join in. The following is an alphabetized list of activities I enjoy doing, followed by the last time I had the pleasure of said activity:

1. being pampered (Aug 07)
2. brewing beer (2 years)
3. camping/hiking (March 08)
4. chatting w/ girlfriends late into the night (Nov 07)
5. cooking for friends (March 08)
6. embroidery (Nov 07)
7. enjoying thunderstorms (currently)
8. going to the movies w/ husband (couple of months)
9. making my own clothes (Sept 07)
10. meeting new people (this week)
11. reading (today)
12. seeing live music/theater (2 years)
13. sex (today)
14. shopping thrift stores/estate sales (Feb 08)
15. spending time w/ brother & husband outside of house (this month)
16. staying in bed with husband (this week)
17. traveling somewhere new (5 years)
18. visiting galleries/museums (Nov 07)
19. volunteering w/ Habitat for Humanity (2 years)
20. walking the dog (yesterday)

What surprised me in doing this was the disparity--so many things I had done in the last month or so (approx 40%)...and then things I haven't done in two years or longer (45%, italicized). Any of the things in italics which can be done for little cost are now officially on my to-do list. Others--travel and homebrew, for example--need to wait on other things, but this has certainly put them on my radar screen. (Note: I specifically didn't mention my artmaking activities, one, because they are many and I could have used slots 1-10 just on that; and two, because they are obviously a priority for me else I wouldn't be reading this book, maintaining this blog, etc!)

On that note, I'll close with some advice from Ira Glass of This American Life about being creative and enduring that has definitely helped me squelch my Inner Censor and Skeptic as of late:

The thing I would just say to you with all my heart is that most everybody I know who does interesting, creative work--they went through a phase of years where they had really good taste, and they could tell what they were making wasn't as good as what they wanted it to be. They knew it fell short. [...] The thing I would say to you is everybody goes through that. The most important possible thing you can do is do a lot of work.

That tidbit comes from the video below, which is part of a series of four clips; I recommend you watch them all and soak up the inspiration and compassion for what it means to be driven to create:

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Originally published at file under "Miscellanea". You can comment here or there.

(Note: This post is part of a series I am doing on my progress through Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way with a cadre of creative ladies. More info about this venture can be found in an earlier post  and all of my related posts are under
one category.)

This first week focuses on the monsters and champions of our creativity and was difficult because I didn't really have anyone, let a lone a list of people, to point the finger at for squashing or attempting to stifle my creativity. Didn't that mean I got to slack and take the week off? Not even slightly! Instead, I had to wrap my head around the idea that I am often my worst critic/enemy/saboteur--but also that some part of me keeps the faith and takes any safe opportunity to whisper, "Go ahead! Try! Do!"

Similarly, even friends who intend to be supportive have made me feel like my interests or the things I make are silly or goofy. Instead of deliberate sabotage, I think what I am seeing instead is how much we lack a vocabulary and a means to support people's creativity. I thought about this a lot Saturday as I watched and encouraged many young children color and draw at the gallery's table during a local festival, where I was a volunteer. I never said, "Is that a turtle?" to have a child then say in a discouraged or confused tone, "No, it's a hat!" Instead, I said to the kids, "Do you like how that is looking?" or "I really like how you are using many different colors." I looked at the things they were coloring, but focused more on how the activity made them feel and less on judging their output.

It's hard then, to feel safe in your creativity if even you and those who mean to be supportive can thwart or diminish your efforts. There's risk in creativity, and we each need not only champions and records of their words (recollecting and writing these were two of this week's tasks), but also a reservoir of bravery to do the work and to share it with others. Some of my bravery as of late comes from this cluster; from remembering those people who, intentionally or not, have inspired me; from knowing that we generally let the little voice in our heads get away with much more negativity than positivity and only consciousness can correct this; and from being open to the experience of synchronicity, just making myself available for opportunities.

Week One Check-in

1. How many days this week did you do your morning pages and how was the experience?
I did six out of seven days this week and am sooo frustrated I blanked on doing them Sunday morning. I really love doing the morning pages and am a bit embarrassed I didn't start doing them again sooner, with or without the rest of the book and its tasks. They're just a great way to pour out the contents of your brain. My favorite thing about them as a tool is that on the days you think you have nothing to write about, mid-way down page three, there's almost always this epiphany that could knock your socks off!

2. Did you do your artist date this week? What did you do? How did it feel?
I did a few things this week that, cobbled together, I'm calling my artist date. Because of a kinda panic situation at work, I had to walk six miles roundtrip to a local shopping plaza. While the events surrounding this hike were not of my choosing, I enjoyed how aware I felt of little things as I walked a long--everything from really noticing the different shapes of leaves of trees to finding funky objects on the ground. Also, I got to finally stop and look in at this large flock of birds living behind our bookstore. The next day, as I noted above, I volunteered at my local art gallery and helped run their table at a street festival. While not a solo event, I was introduced several times as an artist and encouraged a gaggle of children to be creative. Even prior to joining the gallery, I had intended to volunteer there (shadow artist intentions, anyone?), and it felt really good to finally get around to doing this. Finally, tonight I spent some time in the studio trying out a new technique and really just playing with paint with no expectations.

All of these activities were little adventures and really made me feel good about myself.

3. Other odds & ends

• I made a copy of the Basic Principles and have them hanging on my bathroom mirror, an easy reminder to read them daily. You can download a PDF of the principles in this format, too.


• I added the following paragraph at the end of my Artist's Way contract: "I also commit to respecting and encouraging the creativity and experiences of Christiane, Di, and Cassidy. I will be generous and supportive of them throughout this work."


• None of Julia Cameron's descriptions of the Censor--those nasty thoughts attempting to stifle and diminish our creativity--really worked for me. Know what I see in my head when I think of my Censor? Either of these two guys:

They both perfectly encapsulate the kind of mockery I feel best describes my Censor's modus operandi!

Week two details will be forthcoming later today.

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Originally published at file under "Miscellanea". You can comment here or there.

Maybe it's the influence of journalism school, but I find I actually can be quite creative and productive under a deadline. The local gallery is having a members' show in June, and I have the opportunity to include a maximum of five works. At the time I learned of the show, I had only completed my first canvas, a gift for a close friend's birthday:

Take off your coat and vest, 2008
mixed media on canvas, 8x10"

Over the course of the week, I've now added two more canvases to my hoard and hope to exhibit them:

Whether we dance or not, 2008
mixed media on canvas, 10x8"

Drift, 2008
mixed media on canvas, 10x8"

After I've dropped off the works, I plan a longer blog post about transitioning to canvases and documenting the experience of my first showing, but for now I just wanted to share them.

As always, comments and questions are welcome.

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Where do you want to be in ten years?
Submitted by baby3194.

Inspired by AmyH, I'm not looking forward so much as backward:

• 1998 -- In the early part of this year, I was completing sophomore year of of college as a journalism major in Pennsylvania; in the fall, I got on a plane with my boyfriend of two years and headed for England, where we both had a year of study abroad and I was giving myself a shot at studying art history. My mother was married to her fourth husband, and I hadn't spoken to my father in years.
  
  
• 1988 -- My parents by this point had divorced. I lived with my mum in a large house on a few acres of land and a lake. My family raised and bred hunting dogs, and we also had a horse and a turtle. My father lived in a suburb of Chicago and had to learn to drive to come out and pick me up for our every-other-weekend visit.
  
  
• 1978 -- In a March chill, I was born on the South Side of Chicago to two people too young to know better and held together by religion and parental authority.
  

When you look at things this way, it's easier to see how futile looking into the future can be.

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Web site Copyblogger.com is hosting a twitter writing contest challenging people to tell a story in 140 characters. If you're a twitter user, you have until 5pm CST today to enter, otherwise, I'll just share my entry with you and recommend some of the better vignettes below:

• teepole
• shawnfarner
• ajuliano
• JeremyJames
• jonathanacohen
• optative

If you also participate, feel free to leave a link to your entry in the comments below!

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• An as-yet-to-be-titled mixed media house sculpture
• Door hangers for baby boy and baby girl's rooms

Some technical snafus have delayed the day-in-the-life pictures, but I plan to post mine after the holiday weekend. :)

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1.  Did someone in my neighborhood recently (in the last month?) do a post that was your day in photos? If so, please message me the link b/c I think I'm going batty.

2.  On that note, said post--which I now cannot locate--inspired me to do the same and to drag my best friend in the action. In the next week, I'll be posting a montage of photos--one taken for every hour that I was awake yesterday. Now I just need to clean up the photos, make the montage, upload, etc. Plus, I'm allowing for time for said friend to do the same. If you're intrigued by the idea and want in, pick up your camera first thing tomorrow morning and also leave a shout in the comments below.

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Magnolia blossom, originally uploaded by artg33k.

...when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. -- Anaïs Nin

The post-dinner dog walk has become a nightly ritual for my husband and I, and [this is good] on all fronts: we exercise a bit, the dog with four short legs exercises quite a bit more; we enjoy the Florida weather and the opportunity for us-time (I originally wrote "private, adult conversation," but that gave an illicit sound to the whole enterprise; I'm sure the parents out there know what I meant, however).

Last night, my husband found a tightly wrapped magnolia bud on the ground; it had dropped before it had the opportunity to blossom and was such an interesting shape and texture. I brought it home and some Southern impulse made me drop it into a bowl with a shallow pool of water.

This morning, I saw the flower had use this opportunity to the fullest and rewarded me with a magnolia-scented room.

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