How many of you do more than one art or craft form?  I do–sometimes I have to rein myself in, because I could easily get seduced by every need-to-buy-new-supplies craft that comes along.

This week, I’d like to examine the ways our various creative activities inform each other.  I’m interested in finding out if perhaps we can purposefully choose activities that give a boost to each other–not just the expected creative pairs like painting and drawing or writing fiction and writing memoir.  I’m interested in more obscure, less expected pairings.

Make a list of your creative pursuits. Make sure you include things like dancing, cooking, gardening–anything you do that may fall outside the typical things we think of when we think about creativity.  Then examine ways these activities might influence each other.  Look for the subtle, maybe even subconscious ways this happens, and also consider ways you might purposefully help these connections to occur.

Have fun with this.  Consider it a chance to play with all your creative loves.  Let me know what you discover about how your creative activities play together.

Anyone else having a Frankie Goes to Hollywood moment?  Anyhow…

Starting with that list of five ways to relax I planned on coming up with.  First on my list, and sorely neglected lately–reading.  I used to read constantly, going through at least two or three books every week, sneaking a paragraph or two in whenever I could.  But life got busy, and I kept thinking I needed to do other things before having reading time, and then I’d always be too tired by the time it was the time I told myself I was allowed to read.

I have to admit, reading is the only list item I actually gave attention to this week.  I thought of a few other things that might go on the list–dancing, knitting or embroidering.  And that’s where my list ended.  Nothing else I came up with sounded like anything I’d really manage to turn to for relaxation.  I’m going to keep working on that list, though, but I was kind of surprised and a little sad that I could only think of three things.

This brings me to the next bit–why don’t we give ourselves time and permission to relax?  For me, it’s this constant idea that I need to be doing something else, something I’m “supposed to” be doing, something “useful.”  Show of hands–how many of you found similar thoughts and attitudes roaming in your own heads?

I also found that even when I was trying to do a relaxing activity, I couldn’t sink in and really relax because my mind was skipping ahead to when I’d have to stop and get back to those “useful” activities.

That’s how my week went.  No real answers, lots of questions.  Plenty more to think and write about.

I’d love to hear your experiences with relaxation.  I’d like to delve deeper into this and examine the idea that relaxing isn’t a useful activity.  Anyone else interested in pursuing this with me?  Drop me a note and let’s talk.

This week was awesome!  The main thing I found out–fearlessness snowballs!  Really.  I started out earlier in the week finally trying an inkjet transfer:

For the fishies, I used Transfer Ink from Stewart Superior.  This stuff is fantastic!  I used it on bristol board and did the transfer over a watercolor wash. I think the colors would transfer more brightly on plain paper, but I like the slightly muted, underwater effect for my fishies since it fits perfectly with my plans for the finished piece.

My idea when I started this fearless week was to try this inkjet transfer method and also a gel medium transfer.  But I think my great results with the fishies boosted my confidence.  I found myself suddenly, finally jumping in to do an actual mixed media painting–my first outside an art journal!

I also found myself spontaneously working on my story planning.  I suddenly wasn’t so worried about getting it right the first time through.  I was deeply, intensely interested in getting ideas down so I would have something to work with.

I’m planning to ride this wave of fearlessness forward, to keep stretching my boundaries and trying new things.  I suspect that fearlessness is something you need to keep practicing regularly in order to keep reaping the rewards, but I think it will get a little easier the more you practice pushing outside your comfort zone.

Did you find ways this week of getting fearless?  What did you try?  If you didn’t get started this week, though, there’s no need to worry.  There’s always time to get fearless right now!  Sit down, grab a pen and paper, and write down three things you might like to try.  Then, give yourself a push and jump in.  Trust me, it’s worth it.

Have another fearless week!  See you Tuesday for the next experiment launch.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote here about working through our fears and anxieties.  I mentioned that one thing that happens to me is that I get anxious, I put off projects, and I end up not having enough time to actually do the projects the way I really want to.

I’ve heard from quite a few people saying they run into similar troubles.  Fear and procrastination–double whammy!  Let’s break through that this week.

Let’s get fearless!

That’s right, we’re going to take a clue from the fabulous Connie at Dirty Footprints Studio !

Here’s our challenge–we’re going to pick something we’ve always wanted to try but keep putting off because we’re afraid we won’t get it right.  For me, it’s art journal and collage layering techniques.  I love the look of pages layered in color and images and papers. (I’ll put in a list of links at the end.)

So this week, I’m going to give myself time to play, and I’m going to try out some image transfer techniques in my art journal.  What are you going to give yourself time and space for this week?  Leave a note here, and we can all cheer each other on.  Have fun!

Art journal links:

• Journal Girl
• Dirty Footprints Studio
• iHannah
• Art Journaling on Ning
• Teesha Moore
• Karen Michel
• Traci Bunkers

I spent some more time with myself after Sunday’s post, thinking about my resistance, working to get to the bottom of it.  Then I tried to dodge around the answer I kept getting to, but I kept ending up back there.  Setting the goals, getting them down right now feels restrictive.  I’m not ready for this yet.

I feel a little bit like this flower–crushed and flattened.

On the one hand I feel like I completely blew it, like this was a complete bomb.  On the other hand, I think it’s important to show the failures, setbacks, wrong turns, etc.  The more of us who share *all* aspects of our creative journeys the better.  It helps those of us creating on our own to see that other creatives go through all of these phases, too.  Your favorite artists, authors, musicians and other creative people go through this, too.  It’s normal. It happens.  It’s part of the process.

This absolutely doesn’t mean the R.E.A.L. G.O.A.L.S.™ system doesn’t work.  Just means it isn’t working for me, at least not right now.  It may be something I’ll want to revisit in future when I’m more ready for it.  For now, though, I’m going to set aside this experiment and move on to other things.

This week, I’m feeling the need for some easy, soft activities.  I’m going to take this week off from experimenting to play in my art journal, think about where I am and where I might be going and generally let my brain loosen up a bit.  So I’m not going to do an experiment this week, but if I get to a finished stage on any of my art journal pages, I might post a pic or two.

I’d still love to hear about your experiences if you’re working with R.E.A.L. G.O.A.L.S.™  Please leave a comment or drop me a note and let me know how it’s going.

This week, I once again learned that I need to take my own advice.  I’m always telling people to take it easy on themselves, give themselves some slack, allow for the flow of their creativity and emotions and work with that flow.  And yet I repeatedly forget that this applies to me, too!  But it does.

Sometimes you meet with resistance when you’re working on something emotionally deep or intense–like goal setting, for example.  I hit a huge wall of resistance over this goal setting experiment, and no matter how much I tried to push through it, I was stuck.  Sometimes you can push through resistance, but it doesn’t always work.  Sometimes the resistance is deep, and it needs more finesse than force.  You might have to adjust your schedule to make room for dealing with the resistance and the emotions that crop up.

I think this is something important for creatives to keep in mind because what we do is deeply, strongly tied to our subconscious minds and our emotions, and those two things do not always follow the schedules and plans we set.  This week, I am reminding myself of this, and I am reminding you, too.

Back to the goal setting.  All week, I found myself putting off doing the work I had set for myself.  At first I told myself it was because I was busy, and I promised I would get to it soon.  But I didn’t.  I kept making excuses, and then it got really hot out, and that became another excuse (my studio is upstairs, and we don’t have air conditioning).  So here I am on Sunday night with only a start to this week’s project and only a vague idea of how I want to proceed.  But I thought it’s important to show others how all of the creative process looks, and that includes the rough times and the resistance.

Meanwhile, I do have the beginnings of my goal setting:

The beginning of goal setting is always to look at your dream.  What is it that you want when you are dreaming wild and free and not censoring?  That’s your starting point, and that will help you set goals that mean enough for you to keep pushing toward them even when the going gets tough.

That’s where I am right now.  At the beginning, still trying to figure it all out.  I’ll be back on Tuesday with more thoughts and the next step in this creative trip.  See you then!

This week, I’m going to look at the first three of the R.E.A.L. G.O.A.L.S.™:

I’ll be writing out some goals and examining them based on these criteria.

• Reasonable: can actually be done; the resources are available or can be gotten without breaking the bank; will work with the rest of my life
• Expectations: make sure I’m following my desires and expectations and no one else’s
• Authentic: Make sure the expectations are my own and from my heart and not coming from a desire for money, fame, popularity, or anything else besides following my own path

One last thing.  If you are following along with these posts and creating your own goals, don’t censor yourself because you’re worried about fitting your goals into these categories.  First, write down your goals and dreams no matter what they are.  Then, when you have it all down, go back and hone your goals.  You can edit them so they flow with the system and therefore become more “doable,” but first make sure you get them all down so you have something real to work with.

Let me know what you’re working on.  I’d love to hear about who’s planning along with me!

See you Sunday with my “raw” dreams and goals and the beginnings of honing them with the R.E.A.L. G.O.A.L.S.™ system.

I think about goals a lot, or at least I think about the things I want to do, and I make vague plans in my head about how I might go about doing them. I make lists and notes sometimes, and sometimes that even helps. But I have a deep desire to find a way to get myself organized, motivated, and moving forward. I know from talking with people in person and online that I’m not alone in feeling this way, so I’m going to start working on some goal setting and productivity systems, and I’ll do it here so you can follow along and maybe we can cheer each other on.

My art journal

I don’t know if my goals and productivity pieces will all fall into the “experiments” category, but I’m going to get started that way. We’ll see where things go from here.

To start out, I’m going to look at a goal system created by Jules at Big Girl Bombshell.  She went beyond the usual S.M.A.R.T. goals (Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic Timely) and created something a little deeper, broader, and maybe more accessible to some of us.  She created R.E.A.L. G.O.A.L.S.™ It stands for:

• Reasonable
• Expectations
• Authentic
• Living
• Good
• Orderly
• Actions
• Leading to
• Success

Some wishes for the year

I’m going to spend the next few weeks working with this in my art journal–I might add in some work with the S.M.A.R.T. goals, too–to see if by getting my goals more firmly settled in my mind I can find a way to start working on them more consistently.

I hope you’ll join me in this exploration.  If you’re going to experiment along with me, please leave a note in the comments and leave a link to your blog if that’s where you’re going to be examining these issues.  I’d love to have the company and would love to see what you’re up to!

I don’t normally split my experiment posts up, but this weekend gifted me with unexpected visits with family and friends.  I didn’t have as much time to work on my project as I’d hoped for, but I can’t say I regret the time spent visiting.

I didn’t want to leave everyone hanging, though, so here’s what I have finished so far on the recycled magazine project.

First, sewing the pages together.  I don’t have a sewing machine that will let me do the freestyle embroidery the instructions called for.  So, I sewed the pages by hand and went for a simple and less full pattern of loops and swirls.

Next, I added just a few colorful images and gessoed over the whole thing.  I used a damp paper towel to lighten the gesso in some areas.

I’ll admit it was really time consuming and a bit of a pain doing the sewing by hand, but I am really liking how this looks so far.  I also really like the feel of the magazine pages.  Even though there are seven of them, there’s a really flexible feeling to the pages that I think is going to lend itself beautifully to making journals.  I’m hoping I’ll be able to use a sewing machine to get the fuller (and faster) stitching effects for the next time I do this, but I definitely want to do more of these.

Did anyone else try this project?  If you did, let me know how it went–just leave a comment here.  And if you have photos, please leave a link. I love seeing your work!

I’ll be back tomorrow with the final, painted project.

And to go along with that easy summer living, I’m keeping this post short and sweet.  Here are images from my week of searching for summer.  The Portland weather even cooperated a bit and gave us some sunshine!

How’s your summer so far?  Any great images or adventure stories?  I’d love to hear what you’re up to.

And now, Summer:

See you tomorrow for the next art adventure!