Change is Good for the Brain

 

Travel is always a good stretch, especially in a foreign language, but darn, I just don't see Italy in the picture this summer! 

Promise. The studio pics are coming. But there is still one dreadful corner of the studio to attack tomorrow. I spent today on non-cleaning tasks, and a little R & R in the virtual world led me to this great article in the New York Times: Can You Become A Creature of New Habits, by writer Janet Rae-Dupree. The story is rich and full of food for thought. But it did reinforce my sense that changing my space around, no matter how time consuming it may seem, does add a little pizazz to the thinking skills. Keep those same photos and inspirational notes on the same bulletin board for too long, I forget to see them.

Here's a couple of my favorite grafs (she's quoting Ryan, author of a book titled This Year I will... and her business partner Markova ):

Ms. Ryan and Ms. Markova have found what they call three zones of existence: comfort, stretch and stress. Comfort is the realm of existing habit. Stress occurs when a challenge is so far beyond current experience as to be overwhelming. It’s that stretch zone in the middle — activities that feel a bit awkward and unfamiliar — where true change occurs.

“Getting into the stretch zone is good for you,” Ms. Ryan says in “This Year I Will... .” “It helps keep your brain healthy. It turns out that unless we continue to learn new things, which challenges our brains to create new pathways, they literally begin to atrophy, which may result in dementia, Alzheimer’s and other brain diseases. Continuously stretching ourselves will even help us lose weight, according to one study. Researchers who asked folks to do something different every day — listen to a new radio station, for instance — found that they lost and kept off weight. No one is sure why, but scientists speculate that getting out of routines makes us more aware in general.”

 I think that's the situation I'm seeking right now with a teacher, a workshop, perhaps travel, maybe just a self-directed course of study in a different field or different focus. Sure, I plan to keep the main thing the main thing (my fiber art work and teaching), but I know I make better and more interesting art and am a better and more interesting teacher when I'm building new brain pathways.

What are your favorite ways to stretch? Anything new on your horizon that you'd like to share?

Just to keep it interesting, I'll send a small art prize to the first 5 readers who comment! 

Up on the Majestic Mountain

 

 

Just a quick note until I get my long-promised e-newsletter together this week. The beautiful Majestic Ranch Arts Foundation will host a weekly fiber arts class this summer -- hopefully continuing throughout the year. I'll be there for the first six weeks, then Lisa Kerpoe , with her incredible eye for color and art cloth, will teach the second of two sessions.

The Majestic Ranch is located at the top of a spectacular hilltop about 5  miles from El Cielo (as the crow flies!), on State Highway 46 between Boerne and Hwy. 16 to Pipe Creek and Bandera. It's a pretty convenient location for those living in Boerne, Kerrville,  Bandera, Helotes -- and for those in the city who would like a little country respite each week. For more information, click through on the links above. I hope some of you will be able to take advantage of this wonderful setting and the studio fun with fiber.  

Teaching and Learning

 

This piece of art cloth was made in Kerr Grabowski's Deconstructed Screenprinting weekend workshop. 

 

The pondering that is going on in my morning pages today goes something like this: Who am I learning from? What do I want to learn? What is mastery? Where do I need to stretch, how do I need to polish?

As an artist, especially if one is past the earliest stages of one's education, this can be a tricky place to land. While I relish the role of teacher, I have a longing for the path of the learner, the student. I haven't taken a formal class longer than a weekend workshop for several years now -- the workshops provide great infusions of new techniques and new energy but I seem to have a need for something more sustained ... I enjoyed and profited from the 28-day Artist Breakthrough Program offered by Alyson Stanfield, but this longing is for  something directly related to my work as an artist.

Where will it show up? Who do I need to be learning from? What would take me to the next level in my work, without just being a "technique  of the momemt." I suspect it might take me deeper into the world of precision, or sewing, or traditional quilting. I'd like something demanding and stretching, something that challenges but contributes validly to my path and work. It will take a bit more meandering, I think ,for me to answer this question.

Meanwhile, I challenge you to the same inquiry. What would you like to end the summer with that you don't know now? Is it  a new skill or a new work habit? Is it more precision or more determination? Is it fluency of idea or better drawing skills? Do you really need a new technique -- or do you need to spend more time in your studio or at your desk? If you could pick any (teaching) artist alive to apprentice with this summer, whom would it be? Can you create a virtual version or that apprenticeship by setting your own learning goals for the next three months? Cobble together a plan that includes self-study, time with books, a couple of short-term workshops or classes, a once-a-week drawing salon, a monthly gallery crawl or museum day?

P.S. If you think a weekend at El Cielo might answer one of these questions for you, check out the schedule on the workshop page -- next weekend's Text on the Surface still has a couple of openings! 

Changing the Channel

 

Destination: Fulton Beach Road, Lamar, Austwell and Aransas Pass National Wildlife Refuge. Accomplishment: Changing the channel, celebrating my 60th, breathing in and breathing out.

 

I'll post details later when I have more time, but for now, here's a little picture tour of the tour (and a shocking picture of me with red hair.) This little trip to the coast was part biz, part party, mostly just r & r of the best kind -- agenda-proof, timeless wandering, emersion into the natural world from early morning storms to sunsets reflected in the choppy bay waves.

The cabins where we stayed were perfect: The Habitat Bed and Breakfast,  rather rustic, but wonderfully situated about a i/2 mile from the bay and sitting next to a small fresh water lake.

 

 

10 Ways to Unstick when You're Stuck

 

There is that moment after a big push for one reason or another -- in my case the work to prepare for the Fiesta Arts Fair sale -- when one sits, finally, and says, "well, now WHAT?" Although my calendar is filled with deadlines and commitments, most of them are out there on the summer sky horizon.

I've had to carefully consider what comes next, and for two days I have pretty much stuck myself on the couch in front of the laptop, Stumbling Upon, and/or the TV, stuck on HGTV and Bravo reruns (I think they are called encore performances, now). I really feel like a slug! 

Here are my top ten ways to get myself in motion, get myself into clarity about the next move -- recorded here as reminder and inspiration, primarily just for me. If you have other suggestions, please leave me a comment.

1. Well, silly. Just MOVE. Turn on some music and dance, dance, dance for at least 20 minutes. I try to make time for this every morning. Sometimes, when a major deadline hits, I skip out, get out of the habit and have to restrike the commitment. This morning, we turned on and tuned in to the fabulous soundtrack to Julie Taymore's Across the Universe.
2. Clean up. The studio is half-way back to normal state of semi-chaos. The best way for me to tackle what looks like a major ransacking by Mongol hoards is to, yes, put on the music, loud, set a timer for 2 hours and intensely rattle up the space. To make it more fun, I move some of the furniture or rehang the art as well. Makes it seem more creative than just the clutter cleanup.
3. Journal. I am writing Morning Pages, ala Julia Cameron, again. I circle in and out of this practise, and have for more than 15 years. When I don't quite know what to do next, I see what floats out early in the morning.
4. Walk. Today I am going to walk in the city, along the Riverwalk. Probably the first time for a long city walk since I moved out here to the country three years ago. And then tomorrow, I am going to walk at Lake Medina in the neighborhood where I lived for 3 months between the city and this new house and studio. Literally walking back into my past sometimes helps me remember more clearly where I am headed.
5. Make a list. Make lots of lists. Here are some starters: Things I am grateful for. Things I have accomplished in my life. Things I still want to do. Things I have learned about life. Things I don't want to forget. Places I have been. Places I want to go. People I love. People I have learned from. What I need to get done today.
6. Pay the bills. Balance the checkbook. Put some money away and maybe even spend something on a small luxury. Well, lets be honest, nothing motivates sometimes like realizing that if I want to go to Europe (or Rockport) I better get the trip fund started again.
7. Speaking of which: Plan a trip. Maybe something small, someplace close. Or maybe a dream trip that seems doable only in your dreams. But with the internet, it is instantly possible to start the research and planning process. Just google your dream destination or dream vacation activity and see what comes up!
8. Had to sneak in another -my numbering was flubbed: Cook. Cook something different. Try something challenging and exotic. I am making risotto tonight. Food is edible art and it disappears by the end of the evening. No commitment. No marketing (they either eat it or the dog does). And it can get the juices and sensory connections back in sync.
   
9.  Revisit your inspirations. Is there someone you need to call who always gets the juices flowing? Perhaps there is a teacher or mentor who has a class or workshop coming up. Do you need to get out the art books or take a trip to the museum to revisit and inspiring image?
   
10. Listen to your heart. Your gut. Your feet.  Your soles/your soul. A different voice in the wilderness of you, other than that noisy brain (specifically that judging left side of the brain that is yammering on about how big a slob you are, how maybe that last success wasn't quite successful enough, ouch). What about listening in to something a bit larger and beyond? Use Tarot or i ching or tea leaves to connect to the unconscious side of things. Examine the  day for happenings synchronistic. Meditate for 20 minutes llying lat on the floor paying attention only to breath. Find a mantra. In the words of Tim Gunn, "Make it work."

Coincidentally and synchronistically, Alyson B. Stanfield has a podcast that lists her 10 ways to get motivated and to get out of a slump. I think her Monday newsletter included the same info, but I didn't have time to read it this week. She includes some additional good ideas -- and frames some of the same ones in some different ways.

She Steps

 

A breakthrough in the studio yesterday -- that big blue quilt background that has been plaguing me finally had a visitor. I started my morning with dance as usual, and during the floor time and its final short meditation, I used Eric Maisel's 6 breath centering sequence (See Coaching the Artist Within for more information.):

"1.Come to a complete stop.

2. Empty yourself of expectations.

3. Name your work.

4. Trust your resources.

5. Embrace the present moment.

6. Return with strength."

This meditation, which one does with first person affirmations timed with in and out breaths "(I am completely) (stopping)" is becoming a practice for me. I haven't been successful at sticking with meditation techniques that ask for 20 or 30 minutes a day: I'd rather be dancing, which is for me a moving meditation about being present in my body. Maisel's 6-breath focusing technique, more cerebral and left-brained bridging) is do-able for me, and seems to be giving me what I need as I move through my day. I can call on this technique whenever -- not just at a specified "meditation" time, or when I have a spare 20 minutes (hah!).

Yesterday, I knew I needed something specific to work with when I finished the meditation, so I had Linda trace my body on some large brown paper to use for pattern cutting. Then I headed to the studio, spread out the pieced blue background, dumped out some fabrics I had already auditioned during a previous visit to this work, and started fusing and cutting.

The women who inhabit my art quilts don't come to me full blown; they really do appear in the making, somehow communicating their insights and stories as I move through the design process. I've never been one of those artists who had a preset mental image or a schematic or detailed sketch or the final project, though I do sometimes use sketching as one of the stops on the journey. My starting place is generally with color or a color scheme, and with shapes and iconic doodles that are part of my tool box, those things that have come to my work over and over and have become part of my "style."

 

By the time I left the studio last night (for a really fun evening watching a DVD of Fat Actress) this new woman had found her place, stepping from one reality into the Cosmic swirls, juggling stories and moon spheres, leaving her watery scales to become part of the stars. As I worked I realised that Jill Bolte Taylor's story had worked its way into the piece, and that this was about that step from left to right brain. I'm not going to include a photo yet, I may want to enter this in one of those prestigious exhibits that don't allow prepublication, but I'll stick in a detail to give you a taste.

I'd Rather Be in the Studio

 

No kidding.

Wouldn't we all? The teetertotter between marketing and making is yet another of those dicotomies, those dualities, that I am working to embrace.

One of the best resources I have found is Alyson Stanfield -- Art Biz Coach, extraordinare. As

I mentioned a few weeks ago, I signed up for her first Artist Breakthrough Program. The results were both helpful and surprising. I intended to work on a plan for launching a coaching aspect to my work -- mainly because I know that I am called to mentoring other people's journeys to their deepest creative work. In working through the process with 11 other wonderful artists (see links to their sites at the end of this post), my first breakthrough was that I was nuts to try and start ANOTHER "business," which even a deep calling becomes when one decides to market it or make it part of one's profession. I do have my hands full. Instead, with the rest of the 28-day program, I focused on putting together a do-able promotion plan for the exhibits and shows that I am committed to the rest of the year: Fiesta Arts Fair on April 19-20, a group show at the New Braunfels Art League Gallery in August, a solo show at the Rockport Art, also in August, and a presence in the regional quilt shows in the Dallas area, September through December at the Arlington Art Museum. This blog will play a part in keeping my focus on making the most of these opportunities, and I hope all of you that are reading will help me stay on track! My goal is to show exceptional work, to invite friends and interested audiences, to sell work and find opportunities for commissions. All of these exhibitions mean that I must be both in the studio, and on my best business behavior -- with organization, optimism and confidence -- and good promotional materials, as well. As much as we artists would like to live in our little bubble studios, those of us who must pay for groceries, shelter and the ever-rising gasoline bill, have to face the entrepreneurial realities of the marketplace.

The ABP is just the latest of the courses and resources that I've had from my connection to Alyson's web-based work, and everyone of them has been helpful -- her's is one of the blogs that I read every week; I play her podcasts on my iphone; I  refer to her materials, and now, I dip into her book -- I'd Rather Be in the Studio -- for answers to specific marketing and business  questions. And I'm scheduled for a virtual book tour when Alyson stops by this blog on April 22. I am in great company I realize, now that the blog tour has begun. The first stop was with Cynthis Morris, a wonderfully inspirational coach and writer; today's stop was at Christine Hellmuth's blog. I can't wait to read who's next, and I encourage all of you to follow along. Here's the blurb from Alyson's promotion:

I’d Rather Be in the Studio! The Artist’s No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion is for artists of all kinds. Painters, sculptors, ceramist, jewelers, photographers, and others will benefit from the easy-to-follow self-promotion practices in this book.

Author and art-marketing consultant Alyson B. Stanfield, of ArtBizCoach.com, focuses on sharing the artwork directly with potential buyers through electronic and traditional communication outlets—in a manner that is comfortable, not artificial. Artists match Internet marketing strategies with sincere personal skills to take charge of their art careers.

The book includes online worksheets and downloads.

Meanwhile, what's up for MY promotional materials?  A new website for my gallery/art work home-away-from-home  is coming soon. This blog, at least for the foreseeable future, will stay on Squarespace, but I hope to move my gallery site to .mac within the next couple of weeks, with new images, updated navigation, a more professional appearance and an easier interface that will help me keep it updated!

P.S. Here is a list and links to 5 of the artists who were partners in the Artist Breakthrough Program (in no particular order, the others will be in the next post):

Patricia Scarborough, painter 

Lyn Bishop, digital fine art 

William H. Miller, fellow Texan (Houston), photographer, digitalist, painter 

Lynne Oakes, painter and teacher 

Karine Swenson, painter, abstracts, lives in the desert 

Mavis Penney, painter, photographer, lives in Labrador

Be sure to click the links to these artist's blogs (those who have them) -- a wonderful way to catch a glimpse of the creative life in a wide world of media, locations and situations -- like studio open house visits without the travel.  

Creativity and the Brain

 

 

From the realm of opinion, not science--my take on creativity and our right/left brain duality.

First, we need both kinds of "processing" to be grounded in this material world. As artists  (or anyone with a dedication to living as a maker, no matter the field of study) we transform spiritual, emotional energy into the material world. We communicate between. Given the way our 21st Century Western culture  runs, yes, we sometimes forget to spend enough time in the right-brained energy of flow. We all know it -- that sense of timelessness and non-thought that sometimes kicks in when we are focused, flowing and non-judgmental about the work on the table, the easel, the sewing  machine. But, especially once one makes the leap into "art as a business," allowing the flow can be frightfully under appreciated -- hey, we got stuff to make, stuff to sell, stuff to teach and talk about. We move over to Mr/s Leftie and forget the source.

How about giving that creative flow it's due today. If not today, then sometime this week. Turn off the chatter, find the right  music to help the flow. Put all expectations aside, drop everything and go with the flo3w.

And as you do (and I do), then step outside of the duality that right vs. left brain can (falsely?) promote. We do need BOTH. Process without product can keep an artist a dilettante, preventing one from finding and exploring deepest meaning and tackling the tough stuff both in and outside of one's work. Plus, you'll never get anything done. Product ion without process makes it easy to get lost in the doing, avoiding the being that actually results from this more determined left-brained exploration.

I've been reading and enjoying Coaching the Artist Within by Eric Maisel. He has this to say about dualistic thinking:

"When a person opts for the fully creative life, then she must do what is required of her to combat the powerful anticreating forces aligned against her. These forces arise from within her own being, from her cultture and just from being alive on this planet. One of the most important things that she must do is refuse to take sides with dualities like process and product, simplicity and complexity, discipine and flexibility, and so on, dualities that are integral parts of the creative process. Rather, she must accept both parts of each pair and come to a real understanding of the value of each, the place of each in the creative process. Then she can become a holistic creator, someone who has learned not to arbitraily and defensively exclude options." 

 So, just as water and stone might seem at odds, the universe would be profoundly unbalanced with only one or the other.

Nirvana and the Brain

I don't have much time to comment on this TED Talk, but, for now, just watch. I'll write a post later with some of my thoughts about this and how it relates to creativity.

Now for something completely different

Scrolling through UTube this morning, I chanced upon this bit of advice from Bob Baker. It was a good reminder to me of what to focus upon as I work on some promotional plans for upcoming shows and exhibitions.  

I am from...2

 

I am from the third seat of the aqua blue station wagon,
from Plymouth and Dodge,
from fights about whose turn it is,
and whether that was really a license plate from Alabama.

I am from the long, low front porch, screened, a cool cement floor
and the glider with a tin-chime in its swing.
 
I am from the thorny sweetheart rose outside bedroom windows left open,
from oleanders on the highway median,
a low hurricane sky stretched out flat as an ironed sheet over the coastal plain.

From the Hill Country, too,  with its false horizons and blanket of cedar pollen come December.

 I am from hardscrabble people who left and kept leaving, some coming back this way
and beauties with thin noses,
 from Rosemary who started out Rowena and sang opera while doing the dishes, from three generations of James Lee
and three doctor Shipps.

I am from the ones who take to their rooms and never come down
 from one who walked in front of a train.
And from others who don’t. Aunt Nan and Aunt Jack and Aunt Judy and Ruth, the dancer

 From those who shall sit at the table until everyone is finished
 and those who would never put to pen anything too intimate.

 I am from Catholics turned Methodists turned Presbyterians,
the chosen who can’t sing worth a,
well where I’m from, we don’t curse, that’s for sure.

 I'm from big oil city out on the edges where young families survive doctoral tyrants and colicky babies,
 from meatloaf and pot roast, and tomatoes picked just before supper.

 From the buzz of story that seeps under the door at night,
 Texas Rangers and buggy rides,
droughts and droughts and droughts,

and the flashflood that washed away Uncle Ray’s kin,
farms lost  and found,
 fortunes ebbed and flowed,
French poodles and  Neiman Marcus hats
and the occasional steer brought to market.

I am from thick scrapbooks on the bottom shelf,
baby books 1,2,3,4,
cardboard boxes stacked in sheds,
regrettably dusty shelves waiting for spring cleaning in a 4-square house on a few creek-navigated acres.
 From people in photos with names carefully noted on the back,
 living tangled tight in as many spider webs as my heart can spin.

Update on 2008-03-12 00:11 by Susie Monday

A few more found across the globe. Imagine that time travel between us seems interestingly similar although we are far spread globally. I think many of us must be around the same age...

Shirley Goodwin 

Suse, from Melbourne 

I am from..

I am from prickly pear pads covered with cochinil and from the sticky sweet carpet of yellow mesquite beans. I am from the grape Koolade scent of purple Mountain Laurel in March and the musty flame of sumac leaves in October.

 

OK, let's take a tiny creative break from all that focus.

I spent half an hour this morning soaring around the blogosphere. The best thing by far I picked up was a wonderful writing exercise on Terry Grant's blog, And Sew It Goes (I followed the trail from one of my regular must-reads -PaMdora's Box).

The premise is to write something based on a evocative poemevocative poem  titled I am from by George Ella Lyon.

This is making its way around the internet (see 2 Lime Leaves), not quite a meme as one doesn't exactly get tagged, but  I hope you'll try it, and if you have a blog, post it there with a comment so we can find it. If  you don't have a blog, just put your version in the comments here or in my next post where I will publish my version! See you tomorrow with poem in hand. Here's the template that started it on its internet voyage, from writer  Fred First in his blog  post on February 18, 2005. He put this together from the original poems structure, I think.

I am from _______ (specific ordinary item), from _______ (product name) and _______.

I am from the _______ (home description... adjective, adjective, sensory detail).

I am from the _______ (plant, flower, natural item), the _______ (plant, flower, natural detail)

I am from _______ (family tradition) and _______ (family trait), from _______ (name of family member) and _______ (another family name) and _______ (family name).

I am from the _______ (description of family tendency) and _______ (another one).

From _______ (something you were told as a child) and _______ (another).

I am from (representation of religion, or lack of it). Further description.

I'm from _______ (place of birth and family ancestry), _______ (two food items representing your family).

From the _______ (specific family story about a specific person and detail), the _______ (another detail, and the _______ (another detail about another family member).

I am from _______ (location of family pictures, mementos, archives and several more lines indicating their worth).

Of course, you can make your own version without the template, too; many of those doing this exercise have done just that. But I think I will enjoy the structure -- open-ended forms like this appeal to me, just like figuring out the size of a potential art quilt seems to be the first step my creative process requires. I like filling in a space with colors, rhythms, lines and shapes and this kind of writing is the literary equivalent, I suppose.

Think of this as a creative breather, something that might take an hour out of your busy day, but that will feel as though you've had a wonderful massage, a walk in the woods, a picnic by the lake -- all without taking much time or gasoline to get there. 

Focus is fine. Necessary and Essential. But we creative beings (and that's all of us) also need to take deep drinks of water from the random universe. Playing around with a not-so-familiar framework or media or idea is often just the thing to renew your energy for that big push. 

Focus

 

What does focus feel like?

I am taking an online course -- actually more of  a group coaching program --  that asks me to focus on a specific goal for 28 days. (My goal is to plan a creativity coaching service that complements and extends my teaching and studio work.)

This focus thing is hard for me. Really hard. Even in attempting to focus, I find myself all over the map. Am I really such a flittery-gibbit? Oddly enough, I know that one of my strengths is my ability to focus on the task at hand, in hand, on the table top. Once I am in the flow with a concrete activity, it is easy for me to have my headlights on the task and the work gets my total attention. BUT, focus that is conceptual -- to narrow my thinking and planning to a specific end -- rather than a hands-on goal -- like finishing that piece of art on the table -- is more difficult. I don't know what to do with the sea that I am already swimming in. I am trying to transfer the feeling of concrete focus to conceptual focus. What does it feel like in my body, in my spirit?

Last week (the first of the 4-week program) I made a bit of progress. This week I want to do even better. One thing that seems to help is intention (and stating that intention out loud): Today I will spend 4 hours on my Breakthough Goal, and 4 hours on the other work that needs doing, chosing the most important tasks, making a "next action" list and checking them off as I get them done.

Another thing I learned last week is that the more specific and measureable my actions are, the more likely I am to accomplish them --As one of Linda's statistics professors says, "If you can count it, you can do it."  For example, last week I  set a goal to collect 50 names for my mailing list, as I am planning a quarterly newsletter and want to send it to a wide audience. At the Joan Grona sale, I made it a point to ask every single person who walked into the gallery to give me contact information if they would like to receive arts event and workshop information. And it worked. I now have 50 new names to add to my list.

So, off to the studio -- today, to the desk -- focus, focus, focus. I'd love to hear any strategies that help you accomplish your goals, especially those that help to make the fuzzier conceptual ones more like real on-the-table tasks.

Zero InBox

Here's another helpful organizational hint from Merlin Mann's 43folders, one of my very favorite website/organizational resources. I am posting this today, because of a topic on a private blog that is being used by participants in Alyson Stanfield's Artist Breakthrough Program -- more about that in my next post.

Email can do us in, but also add immense productivity. It's all in the way we use it. Taming my Inbox has made me more efficient, less likely to succumb to cute-but-tame-wasting forwards, and has helped me keep the main thing the main thing.

Under the Big Quilt

 

The Wanderer/The Dreamer, Susie Monday, 2007 

 

I just filled in my faculty contract for the Houston International Quilt Festival. For those of you reading who are not in the quilter's world, this is an annual journey to Mecca for many a quilt-hearted soul, from traditional to fringe element. Or bead element. Or doll or wearable or art quilty edgy element.  Acres of quilts, acres of quilt-related items, hundreds of classes and workshops.

I was asked to submit a proposal earlier this year for the Mixed Media room, was accepted as a teacher, and so will join a 147-member faculty for the 2008 International Quilt Festival in Houston, October 27-November 2. I'll be teaching a three-hour workshop that is a short.sweet version of my Artists Journey/Artist's Journal workshop on Monday, 6-9 p.m. -- this is at the VERY START of the conference before many have arrived, but I am thrilled to be on the schedule at all. I also will be demo-ing an Inspiration card deck project in the Mixed Media Miscellany Ampler on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2-4 pm abd again on Saturday, 10-noon. I have also submitted a proposal for another demo of my art quilt artist altars. It will be a full week for me, and, judging from my previous visits to the Quilt Festival, quite an inspirational time.

The catalog comes out in July I believe, and at that time you can register for these (and other!) great workshops. If you've never been to festival and like fiber art of any sort, try to make it part of your travel plans this year. My first visit completely shook my understanding and comprehension of the world of the quilt, and subsequent visits continue to do so.

• International
  Quilt Festival/Houston
  October 30-November 2, 2008
  Houston, Texas
  George R. Brown Convention Center
  Order the class catalogue
  

Meanwhile, due to a couple of people changing their plans, I have two openings for the March "Calling All Archetypes" workshop. There is only room left for sleepover participants for one of the studio beds  ($15)  or for the sofa in the living room (free bed), so if you are interested contact me soon. The workshop is March 7,8,9 beginning with a potluck on Friday night. Here's the plan:

Explore the inner team that keeps you going, makes a difference and sometimes holds you back from your best life. Working with exercises inspired by Julia Cameron, Caroline Myss and  the Tarot. Create a unique fiber art quilt altar to one of your personal archetypes, learning fusing techniques, sun-printing with dye and soy milk (weather permitting), photo transfer and machine quilting. Suitable for all levels,  and inspiring for those  beginning an art journey in fiber. Note: Friday night is an optional evening potluck and stayover. $150 if payment is received before March 1, $160 thereafter.

(The photos in the post are examples of a small archetype piece of mine --above-- and participant work in progrss from a recent Archetypes workshop in Arizona.)

 

Finding your Voice, part 2

About time for part 2. Actually, it's about content. The second stage of finding one's voice as a visual artist has to do with content and themes.

Many artists who are just starting out jump around from one topic to another, one genre to another, one influential teacher to the next -- this is an important stage in  learning to be oneself. Sooner or later the time comes to get beyond the surface of a topic or interest, whether it is rural landscapes or flowers or political activism or portraiture. Committing to solving the same problem different ways earns a potent benefit in the process of finding one’s voice. How do you pick?  Start with something that holds some passion for you – something with enough personal interest that you might have a chance of making it interesting to someone else.

Sometimes the content of one’s work is directly related to “formal” interests (for example, an artist interested in rhythm, might find a study of African mudcloth patterns particularly inspiring and influential, or maybe exploring the visual idea of windows would appeal to an artist who likes spatial concepts.) For others, a theme or content is something important because of experience, story and memory – journaling can help you identify these kinds of themes. Themes and content lead one to develop personal imagery, ways of handling materials and tools, narrative content sometimes.

Working in series is at the heart of finding content. Some artists resist this -- the "lists" are full of dialogue about those who defend their right NOT to work in series -- and sometimes the arguments can be convincing. But I challenge you to find any artist  (in any medium, even) who has achieved a measure of creative (or professional or financial or even popular) success who has not come to grips with working in series. Yes, a body of work might travel through a universe of themes in its breadth, even a galaxy of styles, but within that space travel, the artist finds herself or himself treading some familiar paths over and over, if only to find new ways to solve compelling problems. Series work does not have to be exclusive or linear. I have several series all going at once -- but I do return over and over again to address and to identify certain key images, shapes, icons and themes. One visit just won't do the trick.

I do allow myself to wander around between the roads. One needs  to stray, to play, to meander -- just where do you think those series are born? So the artist's life seems to me this seesaw -- pushing out from what is known, tackling the next turn around a known arena and, on the downside, dashing out into dangerous traffic.

There are times (and I happen to be herein) when one can't stand the idea of doing anything that looks anything like what one has done before. That's scary. One little inner voice says: You have worked hard to establish this content as your own. This IS your style. And the devil on the other shoulder argues, Tsk, tsk, repeating yourself again are you? This teetertotter can be paralyzing. My advice (to myself, mostly) keep the momentum. See what happens. Do the new. Punch it up next to the more familiar and see what happens.

What do you do? Where do you dance with content? How do you own your work?
 

Creativity Coaching?

Line Collection, 2008

I have a question for all of you: I have been thinking a great deal about my "mission" and my "business." Although making art is very important to me, even more important (in a life mission kind of way) is my commitment to helping others develop and strengthen their own creative and unique "voices." That's why I teach in the ways I do, and why I usually end up doing the other consulting in arts ed fields that I do. 

I make, exhibit and sell art in order to have credibility to my main "audience," which at this time in my life is other artists, often it seems, other women artists who work in fibers. And, because personally, I NEED to make the art I make to feel whole and fulfilled at a spiritual level. But, in honest truth, my driving motivation is not making the cover of Art in America or hanging on the walls of the American Museum of Craft or turning up on the Today Show as some kind of superartist. I don't have that kind of ambition or singlemindedness! I have entered enough juried shows to know that I can sometimes get in and that it has more to do with what show and what juror than it does with the quality of my work. I have a style and a body of work that is evolving fast enough and consistently enough that I don't feel stale or stuck. And I think what I do is a pretty good example of an artist finding her style and voice.

As I sort through the expenses and income of the past year (and I do need to make a living doing this or some other work) I am thrilled to find that the workshops here at El Cielo Studio have been successful both creatively and financially. And, that those workshops that are less technique oriented and more conceptually dealing with artistic and creative growth are the ones that seem to be the most in demand.

I have had the idea of perhaps also offering some kind of "creativity coaching" or maybe even an on-line course that would help emerging and developing artists locate, develop and strengthen their one-of-a-kind visions -- finding a style or "voice" that has at its foundation their unique perceptions and process of work. The point would be to move some of these emerging artists more quickly along the path from being dabblers and workshop junkies and pattern followers to finding their own most powerful areas of creative "production," whether their goal is selling, exhibiting or just for personal enjoyment. My work with children and teachers for the past 35 years has had this kind of approach at its core, based on my early work in the  "Integration of Abilities"course,  the children's theater work, and late Learning about Learning, with my mentors Jearnine Wagner and Paul Baker.

What do you think? How could I make this work? Do you think there is a potential market for this kind of coaching? It would differ from traditional coaching in that much of the work would be hands-on assignments, with the "clients" sending  images of their work (or posting them) for feedback, direction, analysis and critique. I think that some kind of "group setting" for this kind of work will be best, because sometimes the things people need to see and recognize about their personal approach and individual style is best seen in contrast to what others are doing. So some form of on-line group with lists, photos to post etc, seems called for. However, with a recent book study group that I set up on the social networking site  NING, it's been obvious that MANY people (of a certain age anyway) have a resistance to using  more complex internet interfaces, and don't feel comfortable about poking their way around to learn new interactions. Maybe an orientation session would solve that problem?

Anyhow, this is as excited as I have felt in a long time about a possibility for my work. I'm getting those tingly little feelings that either mean it's a good idea, or that whether it is or not, I better try out a version somehow and see how it flies.

 I plan to participate in a new online course/group, the Artist Breakthrough Program,  offered by Alyson Stanfield, ArtBizCoach, with this idea as the core product to plan during a 28-day online format (if I get accepted). That should give me more experience in the nuts and bolts and possibilities of the online group, too.

Anyhow, I'd love your feedback and comments. If you were going to take part in this kind of thing, how would you like to see it work?

 

Texture collection, 2008 

Meanwhile, back from future plans to the world of almost-right-now, I have a new session of Independent Study starting at the Southwest School of Art and Craft. I am planning on opening each session of studio work with a short creativity lesson session and a quickie demo of a new or underused surface design technique. The school's facilities for doing large dye and print work are superb -- each participant will have a full 4 foot by 8 foot print table for her or his work. If you live in the San Antonio area, consider signing up for this 6-week course on Friday mornings, through Feb. 28.  (And there are a few spots left still in the next two El Cielo Workshops -- Feb. and March. )

Jan Phillip's Artist Creed

Something my friend and sister artist Martha K. Grant sent me this morning begs to be shared with all of you. I will find out more about Jan when I have time, but meanwhile, this is a lovely sidebar to my weekend with the Artist Journey/Artist Journal. Hope you enjoy it.

Sensory Alphabet

 

 One of Nina's line collection photos (at the Aldrich)

 

Another chapter in the Creativity Sagas. Susan, Cindy (both colleagues from our nearly childhoods) and I have been working with the educators at the Aldrich Contemporary Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut, giving a 3-day crash course in using the Sensory Alphabet (an equivalent of letters and numbers for everything except letters and numbers) and developing programs that help kids (and their parents) identify individually powerful and authentic creativity. This was a kind of step 2 interaction after the successful program Susan ran at the museum last summer for 5 year olds. Remember this post?

The sensory alphabet (which might sound at first blush like design terms or an art vocabulary) is line, color, shape, space, rhythm, movement, texture, light, sound. And yes, the arts (visual, performing and edges and overlaps thereof) are where this "alphabet" can be used easily with children, but the idea is broader and deeper than that. ie: Creative people in many disciplines and fields of study and invention are most likely working from their strenghts corresponding to their perceptial strengths. Show me a good mathematician,  I will probably see a person strongly interested in rhythm, space and line.

All this is the subject of our book-in-progress, but the work this week has been to help this staff apply some of the key concepts we've all been interested in to their program development. The most important and critical reason we are interested in putting this work out in new forms and with new audiences is that since our work in the '70s and 80s, the world of primary (and secondary) education has gotten smaller, tighter, less interested or responsive to individual talents and interests and more test driven than ever. The results -- here EVEN  in this quite affluent area of the U.S.: parents hungry to find programs that actually help their kids find successful and creative paths into the future, something more than just skill aquisition, something that touches and awakes a fire for learning, achieving, applying information, using deep wisdom.

Here's the an example of the COLLECTION exercise we started with. Try it! (I've got eight others, if it's of interest, email me and I will send you the complete list of 9.) 

Collecting Ideas with the Sensory Alphabet

The next 2.5 – 3 hours will take us through the Sensory Alphabet with a series of collection techniques – these are just a few of the ways the SA can be used to generate personal content  -- as well as to explore a theme, a period of art history or a work of art.

We will spend about 15 minutes with each of the 9 alphabet concepts: Line, Shape, Color, Movement, Rhythm, Space, Texture, Light, Sound. As you work with these Sensory Alphabet “screens,” you might also want to consider these “modifiers”:
Tension
Balance
Contrast
Progression
Direction
Size/Scale
Volume/Mass
Weight
Emphasis
Repetition/Diversity

General Instructions:
During the next 2.5-3 hours,  (that's for the entire 9 categories) use as  many different spaces and materials and media available as possible. If you usually sketch to collect ideas, spend at least part of each session doing something completely different: writing, moving, making sounds, taking photos, tearing paper, etc. Use both the familiar and the unfamiliar.

Work quickly without judgment. This is art-making; this is not product. This is not good or bad. This is collecting, stretching, playing, finding new and old ways to interact with the environment around you. Play as a child would play, but record as you go, finding different ways to record what you notice, engage with and find interesting.

Don’t pay attention to what anyone else is doing. You can’t be better or worse, by definition.

Pick and choose between the following assignments for each sensory alphabet element as you wish. You may do several of the assignments or  only one in the time allotted. BUT the emphasis is on fluency to some degree. It is more appropriate in these exercises to work with flow from one idea to the next, collecting as much information and as many ideas as you can during the assignments.

LINE

• Collect 15 different physical lines.
• Draw at least 20 different lines on LARGE pieces of paper.
• Walk the patterns of  at least 5 lines you see in the natural world or in art works around you.
• Write the story of a line you like.
• Pick a natural object that appeals to you and find all the lines in the object. Sketch them over and over.
• Translate some of the lines you have found into a collage using string, yarn, sticks, thread, wire or other linear materials.
• Draw lines with a variety of different media. Go for diversity in scale, speed, color, fluidity or lack of, weight, thickness, etc.
• Fill a sack with lines.
• Make contour drawings of something you see. Draw very slowly following the lines in the object without looking at the paper. Use the pen as though you were following the lines by tracing them with your finger.
• Fill different sizes of paper with as many lines as you can. Or with one very long line.
• Imagine a new written script or language and write it out.

6 Steps for Mapping your Creative Journey

One of my New Year rituals is to map my creative path --  where I've been, where I see the road unfolding ahead. It's one of the exercises for my Artist Journey/Artist Journal workshop, and it's one that I've begun doing each year to set my own compass. And it's what I will work on for some time today in the studio. I like the visual nature of this exercise and it seems to loosen me up for more pragmatic, linear, word-oriented goal-setting. Perhaps you'll hear more about that later this weekend!

Here are the basics. The task: Draw , paint, collage an illustrated and annotated map of your journey as an artist.

Six steps to map your creative journey.

1.  Chose a time period -- last year or the last five years -- or take the whole of your life's creative path. Work big, on a poster sized sheet or on a long accordion-folded length of pages taped together. You may need to do a little research: look back at calendars, a blog or journal you've kept, your morning pages, the photos in your albums. Don't read in detail, just skim the territory.

2. Is this the map of a world, a state, a universe, a neighborhood? Set the scale at what seems most pertinent, most interesting at the moment. Draw the shape of that known world map. Is it a circle, a rectangle, an unusual polygon, a universe with your solar system at its center?

3. Start with drawing in the big cities (or buildings or planets), the departure ports and destinations, the major landmarks, the mountain ranges, light years or busy streets you've traversed. What stands out from the background? Name and label these if you can.

 

4.  Where were the highways, the byways, the crossroads and the roads noted but not taken? The deadends. The distracting side streets, any detours (and were they worth it?) What were the oceans crossed, the rapids and rivers that took you with the flow? Remember you are working on this visually and metaphorically; it may not seem to fit together exactly,  but your job is to keep drawing, painting, pasting and collaging.

5.  By now, you have much of this known world sketched in. Add some details -- historical markers: "What HAPPENED here," "On this spot in 1972."  Name the streets and buildings.  Note who else is wandering around your map -- add the names of friends, supporters, fellow travelers (maybe even a nemesis or two).

 

6. Now look at the territory outside the known map. Where are you headed outside the comfort zone? What other destinations beckon? And, like a Medieval map, there might be some places that deserve some warnings: "Here dwell dragons," "Beware the wormhole, "  "Sirens sing here, wear ear plugs."