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Friday, January 16, 2015

Creativity begets creativity

As January rolled in, I promised myself to try and do one creative thing a day, no matter how small.  One day all I managed to do was glue a funny caption onto a photograph, but it still counted as progress in the collaborative art journal I was dragging my feet on.

With this goal in mind, I enrolled in Randel Plowman's 30-Day Creativity Workshop.  I knew I might need a little extrinsic motivation to gain some traction.  And of course it's working.  This first week of class involved a simple paper quilt exercise:

I'd pulled out several dozen magazine pages and cut the quilt shapes from the whole stack, not really knowing which pieces would catch my attention.  With the project completed, I had a huge pile of magazine scraps leftover.
I found myself feverishly gluing them into pleasing formations in a sketch book.

 


 They are quick and loose and don't mean anything, but I am flexing a neglected muscle and it feels good.

Life is busy and full right now, and coupled with the dark cold weather I am mostly inclined to lay on the couch under a fuzzy blanket.  Pushing myself to do that one small thing a day has re-ignited my interest, and motivated me to spend longer weekend hours in my art room.





And so collages are being made, postcards are being painted, new and old things are being mailed, and there is a growing body of evidence that momentum is building.


9 comments:

  1. Good for you! All your playing is yielding great results. I've been trying to do something creative everyday, too, mostly small collages and sketches.

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  2. your art is amazing as you are, I hear you about the weather, making us cocoon on the couch and not make art, sounds like a great course and good motivator

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  3. Does thinking about doing something everyday count? :P

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  4. Go Girl! Hope you find my addy in all that creativity. i'll send you something. Happy New Year!

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  5. That was very wise of you - I'm struggling with motivation as well, the cold and early dark have the same effect on me. This week I promised myself to spend time in my studio for a specific period of time in the evenings after work, no matter what I'm doing - I'm taking baby steps but at least they're steps!

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  6. Go girl! I have missed seeing your art, and these are teriffic. Thanks for the Road TRip card...I haven't mailed anything since Christmas.

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  7. I'm totally in the couch and fuzzy blanket stage myself. I sit and push my art supplies around the table but haven't done much since CarveDecember except my first two DLP2015 pages. Must get with the program. I like your collages as usual and thanks for the recent postcard. Will motivate myself to respond soon.

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  8. You're so right! Just doing something, however small, builds to wanting/needing to do more.

    I got a bad case of the post-Christmas slumps, - even going into my art room seemed too much effort. But I made a conscious effort to do something 'arty' every day - now I can't wait to get in there! It's even prompted a massive clear out so I can actually use the table rather than painting on my lap :/

    These collages are super.

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  9. Wow, very cool. Hard to choose which one I love best cuz they are all so luscious in their own unique ways.... Well done! Baby's Got Her Groove Back!

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