Creativity 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 projects, service, and caregiving; I need something that regularly fills my "creativity well", without much time or energy.

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 "Creativity Takes Courage"

2. Evaluate my creative habits

3. Starting

4. Do the smallest thing

1. Read "Creativity Takes Courage":

I'm reading this beautiful book by Irene Smit and Astrid van Der Hulse (2018) with the subtitle of Dare to Think Differently. Every page is a work of art.

Chapter 8 is Dare to Be Alone - not a challenge for me! I love spending a day or evening alone in my house. But they also talk about going out alone, to a museum, or for a bike ride. I used to do that more often, and now I resist it.

Today is an alone day and I want to protect this time, not fill it with chores. 

2. Evaluate my creativity habits:

Once a week I try to take stock of my creative habits: 

Have I launched into a large creative project, one worth exhausting myself on, and if not, why? 

Have I constructed a schedule for my creative work and am I keeping to it? 

Do I set goals at the beginning of each week? 

Do I have a daily routine that that supports my creative efforts?

Journal: I've been throwing myself in to my two big projects - writing and home renovation - at the expense of creativity. The kind of creative projects I need now are short - projects or art tasks I can complete in half an hour or less - but also compelling, so I can't blow them off. My motif idea isn't doing it for me, and I can't get excited about painting anything right now. What will it be? 

3. Starting:

And I need some kind of discipline that helps me to START. I always intend to make art, and it's always on my schedule, but I have a hard time keeping that time sacred, and doing the work. 

“Even if you can’t make it the first thing you do, it’s important that you commit to and maintain a daily art practice. Once we allow ourselves to miss a few days, huge swatches of time tend to disappear. Your job, then, is to determine whether you really intend to make art and, if so, to make time for it each and every day...” ~Eric Maisel

Here's my End of Summer Art Practice plan:

1. Review: When I review my schedule in the morning, make a list of what I need to prepare in order to do one of my art tasks. Also, pinpoint the first step to starting work.
2. Preparation: Gather supplies and information; at the very least, set something out on the kitchen table that will entice me.
3. Flow ritual: When it’s time to START, stop everything, turn off all distractions, and create a little space around my next actions. Pause to pinpoint the first step. Take that step, and give it all my attention, in the moment-- really take the time to savor it. Continue like that, slowly and whole-heartedly.

4. Do the smallest thing:

Eric Maisel has many suggestions for managing creative anxiety. Doing the smallest thing is a great way to make courageous creative work less frightening. In "The Sweet Spot", Christine Carter suggests finding the "minimum effective dose", the amount of work that keeps me challenged and joyful, and if I keep at it will get me to the finish line on time. The key is to create a pace and schedule that keeps me excited to get up in the morning, and feels ridiculously easy (so I will do it): It's effective but not stressful.

Today I will list specific goals for this week's creative projects and what to complete each day, and also itemize the preparation steps on a check list. My creative projects plan this week:

• Saturday: Butterflies in bathroom
• Sunday: Butterflies to hang - paper-folding
• Monday: Beachscape with boys
• Tuesday: Coat of Many Earth Colors- Sew sashiko on fern.
• Wednesday: Butterflies to hang - paint with Aldo
• Thursday: Coat of Many Earth Colors
• Friday: Meet with my creativity partner; go to MECCA together