{({ Yawn })} Hibernation!

Not me.

I have been quite busy, but I feel like my MUSE has been hibernating.

It takes time, quiet, contemplative time, for me to create and be creative. I have had neither for the past three weeks (and more). However, last week I learned a new skill and have been told I have "potential". I have learned to paint the minis I QC at the company I work for -- Reaper Miniatures. Here is my first piece:

Also, I have joined Lori Anderson's second Bead Soup Blog Party. (Check out the button to the right). My partner this time around is Lisa Boucher. We both love the same colors but we work in different media, which is going to be a good stretch for both of us. This is what I will be sending out to her:

I will be getting a couple of extra hours off in the middle of the week from here on out. I hope that will give me the time to create, or at least to think creative thoughts.

What sets the tone for your creative Muse?

Creativity -- What a Concept!

This will be a short post today, but it packs a punch.

Business Week has an article online that states CEOs are looking for something we as artists and designer already have: Creativity!

We think outside the box. We do not wait for all the reports to come in before making creative decisions. We do not rely on the status quo. In short, we shake things up!

Finding your genius

Get in touch with your Genius! Listen to Elizabeth Gilbert, author of "Eat, Love, Pray" to the very end -- this is fantastic! (Thanks to Beth Hemmila at Hint for posting this video)

This is Post #94. Go {HERE} to be entered in the Pass-It-On Challenge and win the Bindweed Beetle bracelet on the day I post my 100th blog post.

The Ups and Downs

Where does your creativity come from? Are you a thoughtful, focused, organized processor of your creative ideas? Or do you come to your ideas from intuitive spurts that are erratic and disorganized? I imagine quite a few artists with claim the second process over the first but that probably varies depending on the medium an artist chooses.




Right now I am having a little trouble, because I am taking a medication that diminishes that sort of euphoric feeling you get when you are at the beginning or in the middle of creating a piece – where time stands still and all the separate elements seem to fall into place. That euphoria is the same feeling you get in your gut and head when you have laughed long and hard. The effect of the medication has me very concerned. I am taking it for very good reasons, so I will continue to take it even if I don’t like this particular effect, but I fear the flattening of that “up” feeling.


In short, I fear losing my creativity.

I have been told that the medication will help me focus and finish tasks -- and that is a very good thing, but I worry about the beginning of tasks – especially artistic endeavors. From my own observations I think the artistic temperament tends to be more sensitive and skates a little closer to the edge than other folks. It also seems to be a two-edged sword: creative euphoria with dramatic highs, or numbing lows that prevent any creative thoughts a place to roost. I have experienced them both, and I must say I prefer the “ups” – and who wouldn’t! But if they are too high, the fall is farther and much more pronounced. (What I am talking about is NOT bi-polar disorder, but depression with manic episodes.) We all have our demons, this is mine.
At this point, my creative output is a moot point – I am not creating anything tangible – but I do have lots of concrete ideas I want to pursue.

So help me out here: whether or not you suffer from similar demons (no need to self-disclose), do you see your creative self in any of this? How do you deal with it in or outside of your studio? Do you have organized processes to get to your creative work? Do you keep an art journal (and does it help)? What practices could I adopt to “get me going” when the “up” isn’t there? Give me some boot-straps I can pull on.

Since I did not have any takers for the last giveaway – the Snowflake Obsidian and Fresh-water Pearl earrings will go to a special someone (selected at random) who posts a comment to this blog between now and Saturday Morning.


Thanks in advance.

Rollin', rollin' rollin' like a river

There is a spiritual side to creativity. Sometimes we have to step into the stream and flow with it to see where it will lead. But you can’t just step in, you have to be ready for it, you need to be open to it. I am not quite sure where it will lead, but I think I am just about ready to follow that creative stream.

In this first week “without a job” several wonderful, helpful, thoughtful friends and family members have made suggestions. Some of these suggestions have been way out in left field, but now I feel like I can recognize the direction I need to take. A dear friend asked me to join with her in a co-op gallery. She is a watercolorist, and I make small art quilts as well as jewelry. When she made this suggestion, it felt right. Now I have all these wonderful ideas swirling in my head and I can hardly wait to get to my quilt studio. Stay tuned!

Now, I would like to introduce you to an amazing artist who is just joining the blog-o-sphere: Catherine Davies Paetz. She works in precious metal clay and enamels. Her first blog-post is about mandalas and meditation. Check out her blog and website and give her a warm welcome. It was Cathy who reminded me of the spiritual side of creativity – I will certainly be following her blog.

Spring Busy-ness

It is the busiest week of the year for us, well, for my husband. Between last Sunday and this coming Sunday (Easter) he will have conducted or attended 12 church services. I will have attended most of them too. It is Holy Week, the opposite of Mardi Gras which kicked off, this whole Lent thing. (Technically, it was the day after Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday that started it, but you know what I mean.)

This Lent has been one of the most introspective I have had in a very long time.

Along with the expected “denial thing” more time was spent working out my “stuff” than ever before and I have actually made some changes for good that have impacted the way I see myself and the way others see me. With the help of good friends and fellow seekers at church, I started a group, a support system, to help me get my chaos in order. My universe is by no means well organized yet, but I have made a start.

I have been working feverishly on my e-textbook with all its stops and starts. I have only just begun taking advantage of two or three hours a day that I did not acknowledge before -- the time between “alarm-clock Lindi” (our pushy little b*%$#h mini-schnauzer) and “make tea for Hubby and Me” usual beginning of my day. I have said it before, but not here, I do some of my best writing in my pajamas.

One of the things that I do each day is to read the blogs (see the left-hand column) of artists who love their work and their creativity and whose words resonate deep in my chest. I want to be creating beautiful things too, but cannot seem to find the time. So much to do – teach, write, church, family, home.I am looking forward to our time in Amsterdam, to get some perspective and to relax in a different environment without all the usual tugs at my time and attention. I will be working, but I am sure it will not feel quite so much like work.