creative life

Meditation comes in many different forms

A message from Brianna Wiest was my focus and reflection during watercolor practice and play this quiet Sunday morning. Her letter really spoke to my heart.

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I know you are ready to be finished.

I know how much work you’ve done, how far you’ve come, and how much progress you’ve made. 

I know that you can see a breakthrough on the horizon, and the closer you get, the more frustrated you become that you have not yet arrived.

I want you to remember the simple fact that there are beautiful things to be found in the process. There is something here, in this moment, at this phase, that you were meant to feel.  

Everything you’ve been through — every dead end, every lost love, every heartache, every night of sadness, and of grief, every moment of confusion, every chance, every failure, everything that has ever lead you to where you are standing right now — it has not happened by chance.

Within every single one of those experiences was a lesson. Within every single one of those moments was a seed of your future that was being planted.

You see, you often have to learn what love isn’t to know what it is. You often have to do what you dislike before you realize what you love. You often have to become the person you are not in order to understand the person you are. 

We interpret this as failure, when it’s actually an essential piece of the growth process.

What I want you to know is that the very moment you’re ready to throw your hands up and give up is also the very moment that you’re closer to a breakthrough than ever.

Please keep going. 

Your new life is already here. 

Day 36/100

Or ask a friend for help

A dear friend asked me to paint a scene on a roller shade blind she hangs in the window above the sink.

She has a grey kitchen with aqua accents so I played up the mists in the mountains and added tiny touches of aqua to the cherry blossoms. I used medium body acrylic paint.

Thank you, Diane, for this project and for pushing me outside of my comfort zone. 😘

Day 35/100

For reference, I used a print that had no artist attribution.

Why it’s great to listen for the gifts

A couple years ago during the @melissadoty.art Squareathon challenge, I created a square with painter’s tape and watercolor. Tape removal revealed some bleeds and I wrestled with the imperfections. Since the square was “ruined” I jotted down some thoughts around the perimeter of the art and considered it finished.

But the words stuck with me.

I wrote them because of the mistake and the intention was to communicate from one artist to another. 

A kind of “the struggle is real” commiseration. But there were a few good wishes as well.

I kept calling it a “wish” or a “prayer” but that wasn’t right. It occurred to me to call it a blessing. An Artist’s Blessing.

When I created the color squares here, I didn’t know yesterday these would be today’s prototypes for a gift that’s been in the making.

I learned this is not the right paper to use but it gave me the perfect opportunity to use a brand new brush. @marisa_made showed us last week some of her favorite watercolor brushes and the Silver Black 3000s she showed particularly caught my attention. P.S. I LOVE IT.

I practiced handwriting around the artwork and learned placing the text spaced away from the art, like a little border or frame, is a better design. 

It also feels important the actual art have imperfections, like a little tape bleed. I’m trying on different pen sizes and whether to use color text or not.

So I listened yesterday when I felt inclined to create these squares and I’m happy I acted on the whisper. Glad I let my curiosity play.

I’m much closer to the end result—an Artist’s Blessing created because it needs to be loose and in the wild. A fun, lighthearted gift to make your artist smile.

This is a work in progress and it’s important to remember creativity lies not in the done, but in the doing. And once this IS done — it’ll be time for the next thing. 

May your creativity lead you to happy surprises.

Day 33 brings transition

What body of work do I want to have at the end of 100 days?

What’s the quality of my relationship with my project and my art?

This week the project asks us to find ways to invite more gentleness and kindness into our practice. To create space for what comes up.

Rather than be proactive with a themed challenge, I’m going to spend some time creating whatever the wind blows my direction.

I’m going to tie up some loose ends; projects begun last year, staring at me from the corners of the studio. And spend more focused time on the memoir and the children’s story.

For at least the first part of March, there will be a transition. A catching up. And I’ll spend time dancing with the critic who keeps stepping on my toes, telling me I “should” do this or that instead of what I feel I must do.

And I will be gentle with myself about all of it.

I went into this 100 day project with the goal of doing something creative every day behind the brush, the pen, or the lens. While I’d love to have 100 “things” that are neat and themed and uniform, that’s not going to happen right now, not for me. And that’s okay. 

I will at least have 100 days of doing and being creative and that’s a habit I can carry forward post-project and live with. Happily.

But for the sake of having some little thing to show for the morning, I took @alanaofloveandlight (on Instagram) suggestion today and played with watercolors on small bits of paper. 

Practice, practice, practice!