Autumn Art

Fall is a great time to make art. I've defined three areas for What I Want and What I Will Do to Get it:

I want to make things with my hands to give away - useful things, things that inspire and teach, gifts and craftivism.This will be my late week focus, Thursday and Friday, and I will plan and prepare on Thursday morning. 

 

I want to make artworks with a message - things that explore and support my Nature-Culture writing. This will be my weekend focus, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, with at least two hours in the studio, and I'll envision, explore, write, and set out supplies on Saturday morning.

 

And I want to make things with my grandsons - fun things, exploring basic skills, seasonal materials, and folk crafts. This will be my mid-week focus, Tuesday and Wednesday, and I will do all the prep on Monday, gathering all the supplies and making samples.

Agenda Today:

1. Read "The Creativity Book"

2. Evaluate my creativity habits

3. Craftivism plans

4. Preschool plans

5. Do the smallest thing

Home again

Home again, thank the universe! I will spend today recovering from the trip, catching up with writing and home tasks, and reconnecting to normalcy.

Agenda Today:

1. Read "The Creativity Book"
2. Write a letter about What I Want and What I Will Do to Get it
3. Creative visualization

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1. Read "the Creativity Book":  

A few years ago I started but didn't finish this book by Eric Maisel (one of my favorite writers). The subtitle is "A Year's Worth of Inspiration and Guidance." Who doesn't want that?
I'm on part 8, Be Ambitious, and last week I read Week 29: Want Everything. He talks about the "desire to make our mark, to do great work, and to create like a god..." and asks that my focus this month be to dream big, let my ambitions out of the bag, and to want it even in the face of long odds. He says it's in our nature to want what we want: to use our brains, discover new things, live authentically, and create something.

He challenges me to be precise - to want everything true, beautiful, and good. And then plan how to get it. He suggests that I write a letter to myself.

2. Write a letter about What I Want and What I Will Do to Get it:

Dear self, Fall is a great time to reevaluate my creative goals. I want three basic things this fall:

I want to make things with my hands to give away - useful things, things that inspire and teach, gifts and craftivism.This will be my late week focus, Thursday and Friday, and I will plan and prepare on Thursday morning. 

 

I want to make artworks with a message - things that explore and support my Nature-Culture writing. This will be my weekend focus, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, with at least two hours in the studio, and I'll envision, explore, write, and set out supplies on Saturday morning.

 

And I want to make things with my grandsons - fun things, exploring basic skills, seasonal materials, and folk crafts. This will be my mid-week focus, Tuesday and Wednesday, and I will do all the prep on Monday, gathering all the supplies and making samples.

 

3. Creative Visualization:\

Every month, at the waxing gibbous moon (my last push for action), I call on the practice of visualization to help me to see the next steps towards bringing my goals to fruition.

Today I shine a light on all my art projects, and picture what it will look like and feel like when they are finished.

Creative visualization is a technique that uses my imagination to create change. (Because of my visual and auditory sensitivity, this is the best process for knowing what I'm feeling.) It has these steps:

• First, set an intention: Say, "Today I call on the Spirit of Love to bring me clarity and open my eyes to a vision of my art projects finished and delivered." 

• Center and relax each part of my body: With each breath, allow my awareness to deepen and become softer. No stress. No rush. I walk or float in an imaginary void. Open a connection to Spirit. Feel a soft warmth begin to grow and spread through me, until I am radiating quiet energy.

• Create a clear, detailed picture in my mind, as though the objective has been reached. Paint a vivid mental image of a straw doll or my alter and one in each of my grandsons hands; a butterfly tag kit, with Friends making and taking; a clean water collage / painting with my thoughts and fortunes attached; and put as much positive energy into the images as possible. 

• Lastly, affirm that this is what I want with a short positive phrase in the present tense: "Today I will take the next steps towards manifesting the the art I want to make"

• Give thanks and return: Saying thanks out loud is how I acknowledge the reality of the gift of my vision.

The thought-image is like a signal-flare that guides the physical thing or deed to manifest in my life (and it's a good way to keep my intentions in my mind). I will carry the vision of the completed goal with me, and focus on it often during the day, in a gentle manner.

Autumn Art Plans

Autumn begins next week, and then we will be trapped  on a train for 8 days... I need some ideas that will span the trip and flow into an autumn art practice.

So what are my goals for art this autumn?

Agenda Today:

1. Read "The Creativity Book"

2. Evaluate my creativity habits

3. Discern Autumn art themes and goals

4. Preschool plans

5. Do the smallest thing

Reset on the Road

Monday is my day to reset for the week and get my ducks in a row - make some plans for health and home, and prepare for Grandson fun.

Agenda:

1. Read "The Sweet Spot"

2. My Exercise Script

3. Home projects

4. Bird School plans

Third Quarter Moon of August

Today is the Third Quarter Moon: This waning moon energy is yin - quiet, internal, heart-driven, intentional Being-ness. At this phase we can ease off a bit on actively pursuing goals, slow down, go within, and attend to inner work and self-care.

On this last week of August - before the transition time that Labor Day brings -  I will give gentle attention to my art and my garden, and to tying up loose ends.

Agenda:

1. Read "The Creativity Book"

2. Renewal plan

3. Evaluation House

4. Monthly journal brainstorm

5. Do the smallest thing

6. Surrender, rest, recuperate

Year of Witness

My theme for this year is Witness, and I started off strong in January with that focus, but my attention has wandered. 

Witness (verb): To have personal or direct cognizance of something important or amazing; to see or experience something oneself, and then to testify, make a statement based on that personal knowledge or belief.

In the Bible, “bearing witness,” is when someone sees something important or amazing, and then begins to share what they’ve seen. Quakers call it testimony - the public witness of an inward faith; the consequence of one’s relationship to God and the outworking of that relationship in one’s life. Friends have always believed that what was most important was how you live your faith in the world.

Today I will review my start-of-year intentions, and see if I need to make a change or a recommittal.

Agenda:

1. Review Witness intentions

2. Witness ideas for fall

3. Tiny steps for art as witness

4. Recharge my talisman

Grandmother Artist

I'm adopting a new persona as Grandmother Artist: Loving-wise-woman-creator-guardian-and-guide. This naming is internal, to give me a better framework for my daily interactions, and for choosing projects. So, when I plan my time with my grandsons I will think, "What would Grandma Artist do?", and when I decide to start new projects I'll think - "What would Grandma Artist make?"

Agenda:

1. Read "The Creativity Book"

2. Parameters for Grandma Art

3. Do the smallest thing

Good Fortune for Nature

Fierce Chickadees

I'm working on a series called "Good Fortune for Nature", that visually articulates my deep yearnings for the earth, and for all of us.  

Wendell Berry said, "There is in fact no distinction between the fate of the land and the fate of the people. When one is abused the other suffers." 

My wishes for good fortune focus first on the smallest butterfly and bee, but spread to include us all: I hope that my grandsons will see butterflies in their gardens throughout their lives, and that bees will survive to pollinate their food.

Agenda:

1. Daily moment for Earth Unity

2. Read Nature's Best Hope

3. Set parameters

4. Write good fortunes

5. Creative visualization

Summer Abstraction

My summer art goal is to explore and experiment with mixed media, using watercolor, fabric, and items from nature (sticks, leaves, shells...) to create abstract pieces on the theme: Good Fortune for Nature.

 

Agenda:

1. Read the Creativity Book

2. Abstraction plan

3. Do the smallest thing

Creative Anxiety

Creative anxiety is sneaky: It dresses itself up and hides out. You would think at my age I'd be able to recognize it quickly, but here I am, dealing with it again.

When I get sloppy with the art-work I'm doing, and begin to turn out messy, meaningless pieces, I forget that it's anxiety at the root and not that I've lost my touch. When I begin to feel lethargic and put off doing the work of art-making, sometimes for weeks, I forget that it's anxiety at the root and not laziness, or busy-ness, or disinterest.

When I face up to my anxiety, then I can make a plan.

Creative anxiety agenda:

1. Read the Creativity Book

2. Set an intention for summer creativity

3. Do the smallest thing

4. Lifeboat drill

First Quarter Moon of June

Tonight is the First Quarter Moon; we are one-quarter of the way through the moon cycle. The moon is waxing - growing in light and energy, creating a time for decisive action. I use this June quarter moon's energy to help me find a balance of doing and being; I am embracing the paradox of the expansive, free, effortless ease, and rich, complex, and vital profusion that is summer.

Agenda Today:

1. Journal queries
2. Make a full effort plan
3. Read the Creativity Book

4. Gather some objects

Summer Zen Art Practice

My summer zen art practice is beginning this week. Yesterday I packed the needed supplies, and today I will head out to the garden for 15 minutes of art meditation! I'm going to make a mandala each day; a mandala represents wholeness; it's a cosmic diagram of the world that extends both beyond and within our bodies and minds.

Agenda:

1. Pack supplies

2. Prepare myself

3. Make a mandala

4. Read the Creativity Book

May Retreat for Inner Synergy

I'm celebrating synergy today - the ability to seek unity, embrace teamwork, live holistically, and work tirelessly towards a better end. Synergy is the eternally active primal force of creation: No matter what the conditions are, they will change.

Stephen Covey says, "Fulfilling the four needs [spiritual, mental, physical, social] in an integrated way is like combining elements in chemistry. When we reach a "critical mass" of integration, we experience spontaneous combustion -- an explosion of inner synergy that ignites the fire within and gives vision, passion, and a spirit of adventure to life."

I'm going to create some synergy today, here at home, all by myself.

Agenda

1. Read "Writing and Being"

2. Practice the Stoic Art of Inquiry

3. Create synergy for Art

Wake Up Practices

Artists need a lot of mental energy to make art. We need to be fully awake, passionately curious, and open to joy. It's a kind of wild awareness that allows a "helpful obsession" for our art. When I am awake, I have a natural rhythm throughout my whole day, pulsing between focused attention and floating openness. I pulse as distractions arise, and as low energy slows me down; it's a kind of steady heartbeat that carries me with equanimity and perseverance.

When I'm not awake, I can't seem to make art at all. And so this week I'm using a variety of Wake Up Practices.

Agenda:

1. Read the Creativity Book

2. Tiny tasks list

3. Review-Prepare-Flow

4. Clean the studio

5. Waking up!

Designing a practice

I need an artistic practice for the end of summer that will give me a creative outlet without too much pressure. I'm full up with expectations and caregiving; I need something that fills my creativity well without much time or energy.

The kind of filling I need is quiet and contemplative, and also short; projects or art tasks I can complete in half an hour or less.  

A day is an abundant portion of time; I can accomplish great things in a day or I can waste the day, whichever I please. And moments in a day are meant to be wasted - if I want to read a book, I should read! If I want to play a game, I should play!

But by the end of each day I want to feel like I did the work of an artist, teacher, activist, and loving human. I want and need to do something meaningful each day, to move closer to my purpose, because if I fall in to a pattern of wasted days, weeks, months, then I will feel unhappy; working on my priorities fills me and frees me.

Agenda:

1. Read the Creativity Book

2. Interesting art task ideas

3. Starting

Summer Art Retreat

Love poem #1

I've called myself an artist for nearly 50 years now, but often my feelings about art are a vortex of chaos, and it's painful and frustrating. Currently, I'm having a struggle with direction, and I'm being pulled in so many ways I'm feeling torn.

This spring and summer I've made a few interesting collage pieces. I stillI don't have a clear idea of next steps, but I trust that light will dawn if I keep faithful to the process. My starting point is the firm belief that art is a healing force in the world.

I've set aside parts of two days to dive in and muck around with art.

Agenda:

1. Read "The Creativity Book"

2. Clean the (metaphorical) refrigerator:

3. Guided meditation

4. Harvest drawings

5. Unity art plan

Creative Anxiety

Creative anxiety is sneaky: It dresses itself up and hides out. You would think at my age I'd be able to recognize it quickly, but here I am, dealing with it again.

When I get sloppy with the art-work I'm doing, and begin to turn out messy, meaningless pieces, I forget that it's anxiety at the root and not that I've lost my touch. When I begin to feel lethargic and put off doing the work of art-making, sometimes for weeks, I forget that it's anxiety at the root and not laziness, or busy-ness, or disinterest.

When I face up to my anxiety, then I can make a plan.

Creative anxiety agenda:

1. Read the Creativity Book

2. Set an intention for summer creativity

3. Do the smallest thing

4. Lifeboat drill

Medicine Art for Autumn Leaves

I'm designing a Medicine Art practice that I can teach and share, that will open the doors of creative healing to anyone, any age, any ability. The goal for my practice is to heal our connection to the earth and Creation.

We are all (de facto) connected because we are a part of nature, but we have built walls to keep nature separate, because our culture is human focused; we've been taught that we are more important than other parts of nature, and that's a hard lesson to unlearn. And when we begin to care more about nature it's easy to become overwhelmed, and then we need more walls to protect ourselves from feelings of anger and guilt.

Last week I shared some Medicine Art practices and projects for fall seeds that included the intentional steps of collecting, observing, preparing, creating, sharing and giving thanks. What I'm finding is that it's easy to find ways to connect to the earth, and  - with intention - any simple task (even a chore) becomes a path to healing.

Agenda:

1. Set leafy intentions

2. Collect leaves as a sacred activity

3. Observe leaves (with kids)

4. Observe leaves (with adults)

5. Create leaf mold to cultivate abundance

6. Leaf mold thanksgiving

Art Retreat

Love poem #1

I've called myself an artist for nearly 50 years now, but right now my feelings about art are like a vortex of chaos, and it's been painful and frustrating. I'm having a lengthy crisis of inspiration with art-making (an old familiar feeling!) and I'm in deep discernment about my painting. 

It's been months now, I stillI don't have a clear idea of next steps, but I trust that light will dawn if I keep faithful to the process. My starting point is the firm belief that art is a healing force in the world.

My mission haiku this month is:

Love poem #2

Take root, grow skyward,

and create love poems to the earth; 

share them on the wind.

A couple of times this week I took a bucket of supplies (watercolors, brushes, paper, charcoal, pens) to my garden, let nature talk to me, and created love notes. 

Today I'm going to dive in and muck around with art.

Agenda:

1. Read "Healing with the Arts"

2. Weekly lesson

3. Guided meditation

4. Medicine art

Hungry Ghost Retreat

Today is my new moon retreat day, a chance to spend time alone with my inner guide. 

A retreat (even a short one) needs some definition or it is just a vacation: I want to broaden my inner experience and gain clarity. I need open-mindedness and a little discipline in order to maximize my effort. The most important components to arrange are solitude, silence, and simplicity. I will do less talking, less business, and more personal thought and action. 

My theme today is Depth: What is my Truth, my intentions, and my purpose?

Agenda:

1. Retreat plan

2. Read "The Earth Path"

3. Truth Walk

4. Garden observation

5. Permaculture tips for August

6. Set a sacred intention

7. Healing art practice