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Bex Hall > the artist’s way

the artist’s way

The Phenology Wheel Project evolves

March 2, 2021

It’s about the process, not the product

February Phenology Wheel

On January 26th, I wrote about the phenology wheel and how Rebecca Morris had inspired me to create my own. The post explains a phenology wheel is simply a visual representation of what is happening month by month in the natural world around you.

It was a clumsy start in January. I would forget to record a day’s temperatures and weather and have to scramble for old information. It was mid-month before I began, so half the entries were blank. I considered adding the first part of February so I’d have more entries, but then what would February’s wheel look like missing the first five days? I began to dread showing up to the journal.

My heart wasn’t in it. 

That was a clumsy attempt

Before I knew it, the month was over and I hadn’t drawn anything else. I had noticed many things—squirrels, a rabbit, a hawk—but there was a disconnect between my eyes and fingers. And a lot of procrastination.

In the Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron speaks about procrastination as fear. “Fear is what blocks an artist. The fear of not being good enough. The fear of not finishing. The fear of failure and of success. The fear of beginning at all.”

She goes on to write, “There is only one cure for fear. That cure is love. Use love for your artist to cure its fear.”

Since I consider February to be the month of love, I took what she wrote to heart and look what happened.

February Phenology Wheel and Nature Page

The art just poured out onto the pages. It was easier when I loved my inner artist instead of yelling at her for smudges and crooked lines. There was joy in the process instead of worry about the end result.

“Focused on process, our creative life retains a sense of adventure. Focused on product, the same creative life can feel foolish or barren. We inherit the obsession with product and the idea that art produces finished product from our consumer-oriented society.” 

—Julia Cameron

We will do well to remember art is a process and it’s supposed to be fun. When there’s play and joy, you’re free to be yourself and share that on the page, and then ultimately with others.

Go create something, anything! Pick up that paintbrush, that pen, or that camera.

Go.


Outback and Over Yonder
Weird words and books I’m reading
February P wheel

Filed Under: Art Projects Tagged With: creative life, nature journal, phenology wheel, the 100 day project, the artist’s way

What’s your direction today?

January 29, 2021

This morning’s sky was too glorious to let slip by without a few photos.

A colorful sky like this gives me hope and inspiration. And some motivation. Today’s direction toward creativity finds me clipping images from old magazines and catalogs.

I’m collecting any images that reflect my life or interests. Whatever catches my fancy, for whatever reason. Then I’ll use an old fashioned bottle of Elmer’s and a glue stick to affix them in an old scrapbook. Or maybe on an art board. Not sure yet. I’ll let the flow take me wherever I need to go.

According to Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way, Week 7, page 127, it’s important to set a twenty-minute time limit “…which will allow yourself to freely dismember.” So I did. But I’m going to do it again a few more times. I find myself lost in a most delicious way while in the act of clipping images!

Later I will arrange them in a way that pleases me and glue (or staple) them to whatever surface feels right.

I’ll post later when it’s finished. Until then, may your day go in the direction of creativity, wonder, and beautiful images.

“Creativity is in the doing, not the done.”

—Julia Cameron

Filed Under: Art Projects Tagged With: creative life, the artist’s way

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About Bex

 

Bex Hall

Her writing has appeared in various online and print publications, most recently in Kerning, a literary magazine, and in the Stories of Hope Collection in Transplant Living. Her artwork has appeared and sold through the Grayson Gallery. She blogs here about creative life and creates in Studio BE overlooking the Ohio River. Her work in progress is a memoir about the secret life of objects.

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  • Creative practice goals:

    Show up every day behind the pen, the brush, or the lens and share my work.

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