Creative Wisdom: baby steps

Turn off your computer: go to the library. Bring your sketchbook along.
Randomly open books (over in the non-fiction section) and jot down ideas.

Creative Wisdom: baby steps

Today - Taking Care of Business.
You know there is at least one thing on your list of stuff to do that isn't the fun stuff. That stuff hangs over your head and gets in the way of your creativity.

Take one business related activity you've been avoiding - and do it. 

(I'm setting up my new projector and live demo equipment. I've had it for months and haven't turned it on. It's about time - I've got to get a handle on it before heading out to teach in Houston next month.)

Creative Wisdom: baby steps

Today's creative baby step - find another pile or mess that is in the way of your creative space and clean it out.

While you are there take a peek at a few materials, play with them, put them together, take a few pictures of your options.

 You might find that this opens a few windows to an idea. Or perhaps the floodgate opens and you just can't stop... flow with it!

So how has it been going this month? I hope you've been gently nudged into that creative place in your soul. I've done a little bit here, a little bit there... nothing dramatic. My studio is still half buried in piles of junk. But - half of it is useable again. That's a good thing. I didn't get any great works of art done, but I'm close to getting back into that creative place - where before the door was shut. I was burned out. I'm working on it.

Creative Wisdom: Baby Steps

I've just spent the entire day at the middle school, working with their horn players - and recruiting a few new ones. I'm completely exhausted. No wonder my kids don't want to get their homework out of the way right when they walk in the door.

Alphonse Mucha

So - since it's almost time for the rest of the troops to come in and get food before we rush off to various sports - today's baby step is very small.

Choose a piece of art you love. Look at it.
Analyze what it is about it that you love.

Mucha? I love, love, love his use of pattern, the sinuous lines hat lead the eye on a journey up and around and back again. In the print above, there is a repetition of the round shape and the organic but angular branching forms.

Creative Wisdom: Baby Steps

Remember what we've done so far? Cleaned off a spot or two, made a list, picked out a photo for inspiration...
Let's get just a little more specific today. Pick a work in progress, or something you'd like to start. Make a list of all the little steps that need to be done. Break it down to tiny bite sized pieces. Get the first thing ready to work on. If you get the urge and keep on going with it today, make sure to leave the next step out and ready to go for tomorrow.

Today so far I've looked at my possible entry deadlines (you can see a pretty full list of calls for entry on my website here.) I've chosen a show, ARTQUILTSwater that I want to be a part of and think I can manage. That's only because I've already got something in the works that will fit the theme. My list starts - iron cloth, find image to layer, pull out projector, mark image, find batting. Today I might have time to iron.

Creative Wisdom: Baby Steps

Today has been a very busy day with appointments that have kept me away from the studio. So what to do?

Frame added with Snapseed - but otherwise unedited.

While I was waiting for my appointments I pulled out my iphone, which I personally believe is one of the funnest toys and most useful tools ever invented. I always have photos on it so I pulled up Snapseed - a digital editing app - and played around.

Today's baby step into creativity
find a "to-go" project

Boosted contrast, used center focus to darken the outer edges, added a frame.

If you have something ready to go you won't waste time while you sitting and waiting, or while watching the television or riding in the car. I have several on-going "to-go" projects. My attention span is short so I only work on them occasionally and they can end up taking years to complete. That's fine. The point is just to have something, anything, to work on. Take a sketchbook and fill it up with drawings of your hand. Fill a candy tin with beads and a little bit of cloth and sew them on. Hand embroidery works well too.

Can't remember - maybe it was the "vintage" filers that I played with - a little added texture. The sky really was that blue though - beautiful day!

See you next week. Be creative!

Creative Wisdom: Baby Steps

How is it going so far? I've been trying out these baby steps in and effort to stop wasting so much of my time. On some days it's working and some - not so much. I'm so easily distracted. Yesterday I did my one thing and then immediately veered off in another direction. Today I will do better.

Today's Baby Step - Find a pile and put it away.

 Mine's a big one. Problem is most of it doesn't have a home. The fun part is that I'm sure something in there will say - oh wait - PLAY with me now!

Creative Wisdom: Baby Steps

The weather has turned - from hot and sweaty to crisp and blue and... it's just my FAVORITE!!!!

So there is no way I'm staying inside today. I might even do some long neglected weeding.

So today my creative prompt needs to take me outside. You? Stay in or go out at your pleasure.

Right now - pick up a pencil. Draw something.

I just had to be outside so I found a bloom. And a really cool radial pattern of leaves. Nature has amazing patterns to look at, be inspired by, draw.

Draw a weed. Draw a rubber band. Draw a sock or a shoe piled on the floor.

Just do it.

Creative Wisdom: Baby Steps

Welcome back - did you have a lovely weekend? I did. I played Dominoes with the family, spent three hours shopping an annual closet sale at my very favorite clothing boutique*, successfully fought off the flu, and had a nap. I really like having a little time off every now and then.

So now it's time to get back into the studio.

Here is a little baby step kind of push to help you (and mostly ME) to get there.

Go find one tool or gadget or supply that you haven't used yet and do something with it.

(I know you have it.)

I've had this set of Tombo Dual Brush Pens for several months, have carried it along on two trips - and still haven't used it. 

 So I opened them up and worked on played around with a sketchbook page. 

I got them to play with the blendable aspect - and haven't done that yet.

If you are following along I'd love to hear about it.

Are you finding that once you start you keep going for a little bit? Is it only me that has the little character flaw that makes it so hard for me to just START something - especially when I have a deadline.

* If you live anywhere near Cary, NC and like funky clothes Possibilities is worth the drive. I hate shopping. I save up my whole budget and use it up all at once here. The sale is amazing with several thousand pieces of new or gently used clothing and a crowd of women sharing racks and mirrors. You freely give and receive opinions, you hand over the piece you just tried on but aren't going to get to the person next to you and you make a lot of new friends. (Hi Brie!) I might have to go back today.

Creative Wisdom: Baby Steps

There is no such thing as a long piece of work, except one that you dare not start. ~Charles Baudelaire~

Today's baby step

paint a background (or several) in a sketchbook

Drip some watercolors or splash on some acrylics.

You don't have to do anything else with it now but it might just spark something. 

Just being in the room or that certain creative space in your head might be enough to make you pick up another paintbrush or a needle and floss or turn on your sewing machine.

I got into it just enough to pick up a sharpie and scribble out some words on the page. Who knows what it will become? Not me. Most of the time it is creativity for the fun of it when I'm working in a sketchbook. Work. Play. Same thing.

What have your baby steps been this week?

What have they led to?

After a crash and burn summer I'm getting to the space in my head where I can start some real projects again. Baby steps work.

Creative Wisdom: Baby Steps

"Those who will not start, will never finish." Jack Adams

Take a baby step into your creative place - 

Right now - MAKE A LIST

It can be a big list - your goals for this week, this year, the next ten.

Or it can be small - one thing you want to get do and all the steps to do it.

Now turn off the computer and go do the first thing. (yes, I'm talking to myself here.)

Creative Wisdom: Baby Steps

Take a baby step - into your creative place.

Right now - 

switch over to your photo files and choose one image that inspires you.

by Lainey's Repertoire

I found this vintage letter at Flickr Creative Commons, a great place for copyright free images. I think I'll punch it up a bit and make a new thermofax screen for my shop. I have a tutorial for working with photos to prepare them for thermofax images here.

If your files are anything like mine they are a mess. I can never find the photo I want because I end up just dumping the whole card to make space on my camera. I don't often take the time to sort. So if you gain a little momentum once you've taken that first step, go ahead and organize a file or two.

Creative Wisdom: Baby Steps

And so we begin. Each weekday this month I'm going to post a little prompt - some tiny thing you and I can do to begin the creative process. 

Today: turn off the computer, go into your space and clear off a surface...

even part of a surface will do.

I started with this - which was the easiest pile to attack in my much neglected studio.

I sorted papers and put things away and found the little stack from the vintage style candy store we visited in Philly this summer. I intended to glue them into something for a collage.

 So instead of putting them into another pile, I did.

It might be different for you, but the beginning of any creative process for me requires clearing out space. I am by no means a neat-freak, in fact I'm something of a disaster when it comes to housekeeping. But I find it difficult to work in a cluttered environment and find myself getting frustrated when I have to step over things and can't find what I'm looking for. I'm well used to distractions from my kids while I'm working - I don't need any more from my creative environment. It's a good beginning.

Then I looked over and just kept going for a minute. I had to move the ironing board and Brunhilda, my dress form out of the way to even reach this foot high stack that I've been ignoring for months. 

This bit of wisdom comes from Susan Simonson (of Arusha, Tanzania)

"You are far too young to remember the movie “What about Bob?” which starred Richard Dreyfus as a psychiatrist and Bill Murray as an emotionally dependent patient.  “Bob” the patient, could not let go of his need to see his doctor, who, in a moment of exasperation, told him to just take ‘Baby Steps’.  Baby Steps are hard to initiate, very wobbly, often directionless, and one is prone to end up on one’s face in the dirt.  But each Baby Step, in and of itself, is a HUGE ACCOMPLISHMENT, if only because one did it!

So whenever I am faced with something that seems too new, too overwhelming, too impossible to envision the end result, then I ‘give myself permission’ to just take a Baby Step.  The accomplishment comes from just lifting one foot off of the ground, one line drawn on paper, one seam sewn, one magic moment of thought; no more, no less; and I can say “I did it!”

The rest comes with practise, hard work and effort.  But at the moment of each Baby Step, that is inconsequential, which is the great thing about Baby Steps. "

Well. I was quite flattered that she thought I was so young. Hey, I'm old enough to remember that I saw it and to know I've forgotten all the details. 

Nautilus by Sue Price in Freeform Screen Printing

Susan has taken some of my on-line classes at QuiltUniversity.com. My class, Freeform Screen Printing is currently open for registration and begins September 14.

Creative Wisdom: Where to Begin - and How?

There is no such thing as starting where Cezanne left off. You have to start where he started... at the beginning. ~Kimon Nicolaides

Now is the best time to start: My children go back to school this week. This has been a wonderful summer full of family, travel, and even a lazy day or two at the pool. But now I think we're all ready to get back into the routine of things. I find myself re-energized at this time of the year. I'm ready to make a new start and accomplish big things!

You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. ~Zig Ziglar

Often, a very small action sets the stage for large results: This is a philosophy that I believe applies to many facets of our lives. Getting out of bed begins with the simple act of opening your eyes. You pick up a pencil to sketch. Your next work of art might begin by sewing two scraps of fabric together. Think for a minute about what it is that you want to accomplish and write it down. Do you want to "finish a quilt and enter it in a show" or "learn to sketch" or "go back to school?" No holds barred - dream big!

If your goal seems overwhelming and unreachable try finding the smallest possible beginning step. What if you walk in to your studio or creative space, pull out a piece of paper, or google one college and write down it's name? These are minute steps but they are, in fact, a beginning. Sometimes kicking a pebble can start an avalanche thundering down a hill. More often, it just moves the pebble a little further down the path. So tomorrow, wake up and kick the pebble again. You'll get there eventually!

Where to begin? Try this:
1 - Turn off the computer and walk to where you create.
2 - Clear off one square foot of table next to your machine.
3 - Pick up two pieces of fabric and sew them together.

This month I think I'm going to put my philosphy to the test. Each day on my blog (and probably on FaceBook) I'll post a small "starter" and show you the results. I'd love it very much if you played along with me! What is it you want to accomplish? What will happen after you take the first tiny step - and the next - and the next? And..... what shall we name this endeavor? Anyone have a pithy little word that signifies the act of beginning? Send me an email and let me know!

Some ideas are 

Baby Steps

Creative Wisdom: Time for Art

"Nothing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen." ~Epictetus

Time is precious: It's summertime and the kids are all home. Time is at a premium. I keep reminding myself that I started this career as an artist when I had infants and I really did get a lot accomplished in five minute increments. I keep hearing about how creativity needs time. I keep thinking I don't have time to get anything done. Hogwash!

"People ask me how long it took to make a work. I reply by giving them my age." ~Ted Godwin

You can eat an elephant one bite at a time: I could make excuses all day about not having time to get into the flow or I could get down to business and DO something. It's amazing how those five minutes here and there add up.

Are you making excuses too? Let's do this. Keep a hand-work project nearby. Sew a few patches together. Pick up your sketchbook and draw your hand or a flower or your lunch. Set a timer for five minutes and grab a glue stick and some fabric scraps and play with one of the elements of art. 

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!

Creative Wisdom/Faces on Friday: doing the work

I've been thinking about my favorite subject again. Why is it that people are afraid of drawing? I say this almost every time I open my mouth in a lecture or class. We have to give ourselves permission to be imperfect. We have to give ourselves time to learn. I think it's crazy that we assume we are not an artist if we can't automatically draw the first time we pick up a pencil. We don't expect a food lover to be a Chef until after they've trained. We don't call someone an author without them first having learned to read and write and compose.

Here I am an artist- and I have to admit that I'm sometimes guilty of it myself. I sketched all the time but was afraid to draw a face because - well - it's HARD! I finally stopped whining about it and decided to 

DO THE WORK! 

The goal was to draw a face a day for a year. I'm not so good at consistency when it comes to things like daily tasks - there is is too much "life" going on at my house. But I did fill the box. And I'm still doing it. I used 3x5 cards instead of sketchbook because they are not "precious." They are kind of junk paper. You can't ruin something if it's already junk right? 

Guess what - it's paying off.  

The time and effort and the work, work, work.  It's paying off.

More than once in the past few weeks I've held up a sketch to show a member of my family and they immediately knew who it was. That's huge progress here. :-)

Mind you - it's by no means effortless. I still have a long way to go but it's such a fun journey to be on. What pleasure to open the box and see how far I've come.

How about you?

For those of you who followed along last year - have you seen the fruits of your efforts?

What is easier now that you've put in some time doing the WORK?

Creative Wisdom: Robert Genn's Five Skills Worth Learning

Zen (detail) by Lyric Kinard I subscribe to Robert Genn's newsletter (link below) and this particular post struck a chord. I asked for and received permission to share it with you. Five skills worth learning February 14, 2012 Drawing mastery is understanding our world and understanding relationships. Contrary to popular belief, drawing doesn't mean trailing a line around things--it means seeing and reporting the relative distances between things. Drawing is a non-literary way of looking--and the skill to put down what you see in a two-dimensional way. Drawing mastery takes time and patience. Soar IV by Lyric Kinard Colour mastery involves knowing the properties of pigments, both in theory and as chemicals that have certain effects on one another when juxtaposed or mixed. Colour mixes that call for opposites on the colour wheel (complementary), as well as nearby on the colour wheel (analogous), or even so closely related as to appear to be one colour (monochromatic), make for lively and sophisticated effects. Colour mastery takes time and patience. Dream (detail) by Lyric Kinard Abstract understanding doesn't mean arbitrary sloshing and messing. Abstract art is controlled visual magic based on laws and methodology. Abstraction generally involves implication, suggestion and mystery rather that obvious description. Like a good poem, a good abstraction attacks your feelings before your understanding. Abstraction within realism adds zest and excitement to otherwise dull subject matter. Abstract understanding takes time and patience. Compositional mastery is a variety of traditional rules that beg to be broken. That's why composition is the queen of the skills. With composition you learn to control and play with the eye and move it within the picture plane. Composition includes the golden mean, the rule of thirds, big and small, dark and light, activation, circulation, focus, pattern, stoppage and a pile of other ploys, many of them developed by you and unique to yourself. Compositional mastery also means the avoidance of lineups, homeostasis, and a jungle road of potholes too tedious and disheartening to include in a 500-word letter. Learn to compose intelligently in your own vocabulary and you can get away with murder. Compositional mastery takes time and patience. Dream (detail) by Lyric Kinard Emotional evolution means combining basic skills--such as the above--so that a unique voice and engagement occur. Finding yourunique voice may not be everything, but it's way ahead of whatever comes next. Emotional evolution takes time and patience. Best regards, Robert PS: "Skills aren't enough on their own. Emotion has to come through. But when you've got the various skills sewn up, that's one thing you don't have to worry about." (Zoe Benbow) Esoterica: You can choose to make unskilled art if you wish. Unskilled art has its allure. The mere act of moving paint around can produce joy. Knowing little or nothing in the "how to" department and failing to inquire about it can probably make some people happy and may even be good for the soul. But if you persist in this direction, your unskilled work will be like that of so many others--and you will begin to bore yourself. On the other hand, the skills I suggest are worth learning for their own sake--and they will stand you well no matter what you try to do. They are hard won. We value most what is hard won--and so do many others. Skills worth learning take time and patience. Yes, please go ahead and forward this letter to a friend. This does not mean that they will automatically be subscribed to the Twice-Weekly Letter. They have to do it voluntarily and can find out about it by going to The Painter's Keys website. Subscribe Free! Your name and email address will be kept safe. To Unsubscribe or Change Your Email Address, please click Safe Unsubscribe or Update Profile/Email Address links found at the bottom of this email. (c) Copyright 2012 Robert Genn. If you wish to copy this material to other publications or mail lists, please ask for permission by writingrgenn@saraphina.com. Thanks for your friendship.

Creative Wisdom: The Gap Between Art and Taste

This quote from Ira Glass, the host of the radio program "This American Life" speaks to something I think I'm STILL going through. It's something of an achievement gap. I like my work - I just think it has a ways to go before it lives up to the potential I imagine it to have.

Signature by Lyric Kinard

Ira Glass

"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. 

A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. 

Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through."

Creative Wisdom from Pixar's John Lasseter 7 of 7

John Lasseter’s 7 Points (by way of Scribble Junkies)

7. Surround yourself with creative people whom you trust.

“Bring only those new members into your creative team, whom you consider to be at least as talented as you. If they also have a pleasant and nice character – even better. Most managers don’t follow this approach, as they are insecure. Insecurity and creativity do not get along with each other well. Most managers surround themselves with yes-men, and in result, the audiences get bad films to see.”

…and lastly, as Lasseter once told a group of graduating students at Pepperdine University

“never let anyone kill your dreams.”

As an aspiring artist, don't be afraid to associate with people who are more advanced than you are. There is so much to learn. Be humble and grateful and realize that you will have the chance to pay it forward at some point. Don't be intimidated. Simply realize that they have walked much further down the path than you have. I have been greatly blessed with kind and generous mentors whom I aspire to emulate.

Find a generous mentor. There is no need to copy their art because you are completely capable of creating your own unique work, but go ahead and aquire as much wisdom as you can. Learn the best of what they have to offer. Go ahead and copy their work ethic. Soak up their business savvy. See if they have organizational skills that you can adopt. Pick and choose and learn as much as you can from the best of the best.

Then go do your own work.

Walk your own path.

Here is the rest of the series:

1. Never come up with just one idea

2. Remember the first laugh

3. Quality is a great business plan. Period

4. It's the team, stupid

5. Fun invokes creativity, not competition

6. Creative output always reflects the person on top

7. Surround yourself with creative people whom you trust