Creative Wisdom: Begin Again

"Every artist was first an amateur."  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Spring is a time for new beginnings.

I am always enthralled with the opening of a blossom - watching a tight little bud swell and burst into a fully opened flower, full of life and color and light. I get just as big a thrill from seeing students find their creative confidence. Often they come in with just the hint of a wish - a deep and secret desire to be an artist and to create something beautiful. They are afraid to let the bud swell on the branch for fear of ridicule or failure.

A blossom needs warmth and light, time and nourishment in order to swell and open into it's full glory. I try to give my students those same things: a safe environment in which to explore, information that will enlighten them, and permission to expand into whichever form most suits their creative spirit.

"Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending." ~Anonymous

Give yourself time and permission to become what you were meant to be.

Are you holding your opportunities for growth tightly within or are you giving yourself room to grow and permission to learn? Blossoming can be a messy business with pollen and bugs and dropped flowers but that is how the plant prepares itself to expand for the next year. Give yourself time to experiment - let your wildest artistic ideas out into the light and see what happens. 

Come PLAY and GROW with Lyric this summer!

Four Fabulous days at ProChemical and Dye August 16-19th, 2012

Fall River MA

playing with paint at the VCQ

Are you are intrigued by the art of surface design but can’t choose which technique you most want to learn? Surface Design Sampler Platter is the perfect place to try a taste each! Play with paint, foil, photos and embellishments to create your own gorgeous fabrics. You will delve deeply into printing with screens, stencils, and with stamps you have carved yourself. Come be delighted by different applications of foil and  you will learn several methods of photo-transfer. Time will also be spent learning how to embellish your work with beads and as an added bonus, Lyric will teach the basic elements and principles of good design. With  good humored and gentle guidance you will work on your own textile art composition using the beautiful fabrics you have created

You can get more info and sign up here!

Lyricisms: Follow Your Bliss-ters

"Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls."    ~Joseph Campbell

Dance by Lyric Montgomery Kinard
40 x 48

What is your calling?

Finding your calling is a wonderful thing. Sometimes it comes to you in a blast of enlightenment, sometimes it slowly grows on you as you wander aimlessly. Either way you take the seeds of the talent you have been given and you nurture and develop it into something you can use to create a better world. Joseph Campbell said, "One way or another, we all have to find what best fosters the flowering of our humanity in this contemporary life, and dedicate ourselves to that."

Where is the bliss?

I know what my calling is.... so where's the bliss? It's the peak of summer and I'm tired. I'm keeping the children occupied, trying to keep the house from devolving into complete chaos, struggling to meet deadlines. My art-making feels much the same way. I'm barely slogging through the things that must be done. Aren't I supposed to feel bliss every time I sit down to my sewing machine or pick up a paint brush?

Follow your blisters

I recently read an article by Jefferey Thompson, a professor at the Romney Institute of Public Management. He studies things like "callings" and workplace satisfaction. Some of the most satisfied workers in their professions? Zookeepers. They are passionate about what they do. Are they always blissful? No. They are not paid well, the hours can be difficult caring for sick animals through the night, and the work can be at times - well - unsavory. Professor Thompson learned something very interesting.

"The pain and burdens and sacrifice were not threats to their sense of calling—they were part of it. The work was meaningful because of the trials and burdens. That is an important lesson. We can’t expect deep meaningfulness from our calling unless we are willing to assume its burdens as well."  A number of years after Joseph Campbell coined the phrase "follow your bliss" he quipped, "What I should have said was, 'follow your BLISTERS!'"

Ah. This is the "blister" part of summertime. Motherhood, art-making, zookeeping; they all have their slogging, difficult moments. They are worthwhile callings. The children will have had a good summer. I'll have time soon to develop some of the beginnings of ideas for some new artworks. It's not all bliss but it is my calling. What is yours?

~Lyric

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Lyricisms: On Being Blind

“I have learned that what I have not drawn I have never really seen, and that when I start drawing an ordinary thing, I realize how extraordinary it is, sheer miracle." ~Frederick Franck

photo by Julia Wade Photography

I'm half blind

It's true. I vividly remember being five years old and getting my first pair of glasses. As I came out into the shopping mall I was shocked to discover that the big colorful blobs above each store front were, in fact, words. The details I had missed had meaning. It felt like stepping into a new world.

To this day I still feel as though I need a different language to exist in the world without my glasses. I put on my glasses each morning and finally feel connected and awake. For me, it's all in the details.

When I'm drawing I see things differently.

These days, I'm finding that I feel half blind without my sketchbook in hand. If I'm not drawing something, figuring out how shapes go together and at what angle to curve each line, I feel as if I'm not really seeing what is there. It feels as if my pen is a pair of glasses, giving me the details I need to understand the extraordinary meaning and beauty in everything around me. The world is a magical place seen through the eyes of the artist I am intent on becoming.

"You are not stuck where you are, unless you decide to be."  ~Dr. Wayne Dyer

What tool are you lacking?

Where is your blind spot?

What skill or technique, what way of thinking, is keeping you from fully connecting to the world of your own unique vision and art? Often we get frustrated with our perceived lack of ability to create the visions in our minds' eye. It's too easy to say "I can't" or to say "I'm stuck" and to simply give up. Understand that giving up rather than doing the work is YOUR choice.

You can choose to not be stuck!

Stop and take the time to figure out what tool you need to help you move forward then do what it takes to add that tool to your kit. It takes work, time, and effort to master a new skill. Sometimes it takes an instructor to teach us the techniques we lack. Sometimes it takes the encouragement of a supportive friend or mentor to keep us going when we get discouraged. Always, it is a decision to plod along one small step at a time towards your goal. There might be missed footings and detours, but each step will take you closer to your goal of becoming an artist.

You can do it. I know you can!
~Lyric

This essay is from my most recent newsletter, Lyricisms. If you know someone else who might enjoy this please feel free to hit that little button up on the top right and share this via FaceBook, email, or Twitter. I'd appreciate it! If you would like to subscribe to the Lyricisms newsletter- you can do that here.

Links:

Frederick Frank

Dr. Wayne Dyer

Julia Wade Photography