Growth…The New Frontier

I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts over the past year.  My library is mostly comprised of podcasts related to art, art and business, and spirituality/meditation.  I find myself listening to particular categories of podcasts depending on my activities. I listen to spiritual/meditation podcasts when I’m creating my daily collage (see my Instagram page @drfiber).  I listen to business-oriented podcasts when I’m organizing my office, setting up meetings and virtual retreats, and I listen to art podcasts when I’m working on an artistic endeavor.

When I find a new podcast for my library, I go back to the very beginning of the podcast and listen to the work in order.  I do this for two reasons, earlier work may represent foundation principles and newer work may be more evolved thoughts.  The other reason is the more we do something we develop mastery.  Interviewers get better, the questions get better, the impact of the podcast becomes stronger.

For me, podcasts have allowed me to mature in how I run my business and upped my confidence level in the art I create.  I’m a mental health/health humanities practitioner.  I’m continually looking for new and inventive ways for health professional both practicing and students to stretch their wings.  It doesn’t matter what field you’re in, learning new coping skills, increasing your joie de vivre, aligning your values with your work is important for survival.

During these uncertain times, how will you creatively protect your physical, emotional, and spiritual wellness?  What do you want to say but you haven’t been able to thus far?  If you could create anything knowing no one would see it or hear it what would it look like, feel like, sound like, taste like?  We all have creativity residing in our bodies and minds so let’s use it to capture and expand our resilient nature.

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Reboot, Renew, Revitalize

Have you noticed the growing number of entertainment reboots currently making it to the big and small screen?  If you listen to the radio, you’ve not doubt heard Weezer’s remake of Toto’s Africa.  Broadway is always reviving musicals and plays with new spins.  I figured I would join the crowd and I’ve just become the president of Front Range Contemporary Quilters (www.artquilters.org) for the second time.   I was president ten years ago, and now it’s time for a reboot.

What is it about a reboot, or in my case, a new term that’s so appealing?  First and foremost, I’m familiar with the job.  There is a minimal learning curve.  I know when the newsletter article is due.  I’m familiar with the recruitment practices for membership. I understand the selection process for speakers.  On the flip side, over the past ten years, the membership has changed.  The use of technology has skyrocketed.  I’ve gotten older.

I believe any organization, business, even our own lives need revitalization on a regular basis. Boredom is one of the key components to sadness, lowered productivity, and the numbing of our emotional lives. It dulls our creativity, and as artists, creativity is our lifeline.  I’m not suggesting throwing the baby out with the bath water.  What we know has been working we keep.  Those ideas, practices, and themes not bringing joy to your life gets sent to the trash, literally and figuratively.

I’ve spent the last year regrouping and revitalizing my educational goals and my art practices. I recently completed a graduate certificate program in Health Humanities and Ethics.  This program gave me the energy and impetus to get focused about the art I want to create.  I’ve been in health and healing for thirty years.  Now, with further study I’ve become entrenched, engaged, and energized by the possibilities of the stories I want to tell.  I’m more focused.  My art has a sharper narrative.  My studio time is about storytelling and spiritual practice.  The two combined allow me to serve my community by speaking my truth about the gaps I witness in the world.

My creativity is a way for me to stay connected to my heart and soul.  If I hadn’t delved deeper into my interests, my passion, my purpose, I wouldn’t have achieved this new direction in art.  I feel renewed, I feel revitalized, and I feel reinvigorated.  I believe you will too!  Give it a try and let me know if I can help.  Renewing your vows to yourself improves your creative process!

Remove Your Obstacles and Do What You Do Best!

I admit my studio has been a source of pain and confusion.  At the end of last semester, I took on a huge project and created four pieces of art in 9 days.  I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, as a creative, creating under a tight schedule can lead to overwhelm and anxiety.

When I finished my project, and left the studio and didn’t return for a couple of days as I recovered from the frenzy of creating.  It was an exhilarating time, but now the aftermath of the creativity was chaos.  It has looked like a tornado went through my studio, dislodging and displacing supplies, fabric, and tools.  Unfortunately, that chaos had a lot of negative energy and delayed my return.

Organizing in the house I decided to buy a new piece of furniture.  Previously I had my tools like scissors and rotary cutters hanging from hooks.  It worked for a while until I didn’t return things to their rightful place and scissors disappeared into the abyss.  I was on the hunt for something that would appeal to both my sense of style and function.  Lo and Behold, I found it!

The piece works because it has drawers that are like trays.  I can lay things out and see them all at once.  I’m not digging through drawers hoping to find the needle in the haystack, sometimes I mean that literally.  It has also allowed me to take an inventory of what I have and what I need to continue on my creative path.

It doesn’t matter how you create, finding ways to make creating easier will be a catalyst for your inspiration.  How many of you musicians have sheet music in boxes, in the piano bench, in boxes on the floor?  Painters and colored pencil artists have an abundance of raw materials, canvases, pads of paper, often stacked up in the corner of a room or under the bed.

Your organization levels will free your energy to be directed where it needs to be, focused on your art.  I find this important because telling your story is crucial to our ongoing need to contribute to the world in which we live.  We all have a piece of the “quilt of humanity” and if you’re piece isn’t there our world will be incomplete.

I watched the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards last night and the message was clear, “everyone’s story deserves to be told.”  How will you tell your story?  What can you do to free up your energy from clutter and disorganization to free flowing creative ventures?  I’d love to see what you’ve created to release the chaos and engage your creative energy in an open and fierce way.

Is Not Succeeding the Same as Failing?

I recently organized by studio and believe it or not I threw away some pieces that I didn’t feel were worthy of salvaging.  These works were lackluster and weren’t worth the investment of time and effort to save.  As I watched them disappear into the bin I didn’t have any sense of loss or disenchantment because although these pieces weren’t masterpieces.  I learned something about myself and my creative voice by attempting them.

The piece I’m posting was my most recent attempt at creating small works for experimentation and education (education of my soul and artistic ability).  I had created some works in the past that were simply cut outs of fabric placed on a batting and a backing.  I followed the old recipe and as I began quilting the piece, but the components started to shift and fall off the quilt.  I became increasingly frustrated by this less than perfect creation, and finally decided to stop.

I took the piece out from under the needle and assessed the errors of my ways.  What I came to realize is that I needed to secure the small pieces of fabric down on the base so I would have a sturdy foundation when it what time to quilt.  I made a commitment to taking a little more time in the preparation so I would have success when I went to finish the art.

This small adjustment made a huge difference in my attitude toward making small works as well as the increased completion rate of the work.  I don’t feel that the piece was a failure.  I made some wrong decisions and what’s most important is I learned.  The learning process is what propels me forward in my creative endeavors.  It also gives me the motivation whenever I reach an impasse in life to see what I could do better next time the situation arises using this information.

I think this is especially important when discovering ways of easing our anxiety, lifting depression, or reducing physical pain.  If we only try one avenue of healing and it doesn’t work we think we’ve failed instead of it failing.  If we assess what didn’t work with this method, then we can look at the alternatives, make new selections, and discover better options that fit our life and our situation.

We’re resilient beings!  I hope you’ll look at what’s not working for you today and then ask yourself what else is available that will improve your quality of life!