Coping with Bad Creating Days

Thanks to Nicky (www.myspace.com/nickyclarkestudio) for inspiring my subject this week.

I know you will appreciate what I’m talking about when I tell you of days when the paint won’t work for me and the subject gets lost and the brain is in a state of frustration.

What is the best way to cope with these days where clear flowing creativity eludes us?

Well, here goes:

1. Step away from the area!! Take 3 deep breaths and go and make a cup of your favourite drink. Relax!
2. When you are in a state of calm, decide whether you want to go back to the project or take some time out.
3. If you decide to take time out, remember NOT to beat yourself up because you’ve had a bad session – creating is creating, and there are no mistakes, only experiments. You are still talented and deserve to be an artist. Your contribution is undiminished, even at rest.
4. If you decide to go back to the project, ask yourself 2 questions. Will you feel better if you carry on with that project, or is it time to move onto something else for now?
5. Whichever you decide, do the 6 phrase breathing exercise (from my previous blog, “Stopping Before We Work??”).
6. Next, remind yourself of your basic elements to your art. Are you following these? For example, colour theory, subject matter, personal statements…
7. If you are trying something new, do you have too many changes happening at once? Do you need to do some research?
8. Is the light good in your work space, and is the music right? Or do you need to turn it off? Is the room the right temperature?
9. Now I’m getting you to think about this process, is there anything else to consider?
10. Finally – keep your mind open to allow flow at all times. Allow yourself an extra break or two today where you get some fresh air.
    
    Oh yeah, and Nicky reminds me that sharing with a friend always helps to dispell the negative frame of mind :)
    

To finish I have a small challenge for you!

With your favourite music on, doodle with your 3 primary colour pencils. Remember, this is fun, not a test of your ability! After 5 minutes, swap hands and doodle with your other hand. Carry on for another 5 minutes.

What can you see?

How you feel?

Write it down beside your doodle and pin this up on your notice board.

Thanks for joining me this week, and I wish you fun and happiness in your creating.

It’s what you were born to do :)

Stopping Before We Work??

Most of us probably don't realise that to get 'present' ready to work at our next creative project, we need only take a minute to prepare. When I teach, I spend a minute or so taking my students through a breathing exercise which without fail brings my students to focus and in a relaxed state. Eric Maisel takes this one step further by adding some positive affirmations to the breathing process.
Try the following example - you can use a different phrase if you please whereever you like, except that it should be in the same theme.

Breathe in slowly on the first part of the phrase saying the words in your head. As you breathe out, mentally say the second part of the phrase.

1. I am completely....stopping
2. I expect....nothing
3. I am becoming....a real artist
4. I trust....my resources
5. I embrace....this moment
6. I return....with strength

This really works! Try it now! Do this exercise whenever you have a creative task ahead of you. I'm using it as I sit with the canvas in front of me at the start of my time in the studio.

Let the exercise make you stand out from the crowd like the brightly coloured nasturtium above - its really possible...

Keep shiny,
Debs

Seven Ways to Keep Joy in your Creative Life

How many times have we felt so clogged up with worries, negative thoughts and disillusionment? As creative people we are sensitive and often driven by emotional responses to even the smallest thing.
We need to guard against the negative spiral of these blocks to our creativity and treat ourselves like precious objects to keep us strong.
You may read this and dismiss the "psychobabble" as nonsense and a waste of your time. But trust me when I tell you that I teach singing, and one of the most powerful methods I use to get my students to improve their performance, is visualisation of being in their most favourite place in the world when they sing. The results are amazing. So if a small thing like that can make a difference, why not try the Seven Ways...
I found the following in a small book on my shelf called, "Your Psychic Pathway to Joy"by Sonia Choquette PhD :

1. When you wake up in the morning, give yourself three loving compliments.
2. Before you go to sleep, think of three good things that happened to you that day.
3. When you brush your teeth in the morning, look into your eyes and say, "I love you," and mean it.
4. During the day, pay attention to any subtle energy shifts, and ask your heart for guidance when anything is off balance.
5. Put a white loving light of protection around yourself every day.
6. Every three hours think of at least one thing that makes you laugh.
7. Appreciate yourself for making at least one creative choice a day.

My greyhound, Jaz, knows how to chill - maybe we should take a leaf out of her book!


Happy, relaxing, self protecting time to you :)

sketch above: Jaz 1 (c) 2007 Deborah Eileen Burrow

Maintaining Creative Mental Energy

Eric Maisel's book is an inspiration and helps you to develop a self-coaching mentality about you as a creative person.
One of his exercises is about maintaining creative mental energy. He tasks you to ask 3 questions of yourself:

1. What generates mental energy?
2. What saps mental energy?
3. What replenishes mental energy?

Because I felt so inspired by this exercise, I will share with you my answers from my journal:

1. What generates mental energy? For me its a good night's sleep. It's also being inspired by other artists' work. I spend time on the internet every day at the moment and I always see something I really like. I'm also inspired by nature - I look for abstract designs and colour combinations. Reading creative books. Good feedback gives me the energy to continue.
2. What saps mental energy? Being in demand. Or thinking I'm supposed to be doing something when I really don't want to. Being very tired. Feeling anxious or overwhelmed. Putting pressure on myself. Feeling confused. Overeating. Lack of exercise. Fear. Worrying about something. Distraction. People being wierd. Not being supported.
3. What replenishes mental energy? Reminding myself that I am talented and deserve to be an artist. That I can make my own destiny. Eating well and getting fresh air. Love. Support. Good feedback. Relaxation. Letting go of niggling voices that are negative. Allowing myself to heal. Resting. Reading. Looking at other's art work. Reading success stories - particularly of un-formally-educated people. Letting things "be". Turning up at the canvas.

Its a fab exercise and I encourage you to try it. Its particularly good when you feel stuck. Knowing what's going on in your head can help you solve the problem.

Good luck with your creativity, and remember that trees start as saplings :)

painting above: Majestic Wood (c) 2008 Deborah Eileen Burrow

Quotes to Keep You Creative

Here are some of my favourite quotes that keep me sane when I am creating:

• Beatrix Potter: Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.
• Buckminster Fuller:There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.
• Eric Fromm:Conditions for creativity are to be puzzled; to concentrate; to accept conflict and tension; to be born everyday; to feel a sense of self.
• Franklin D Roosevelt: Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.
• Pablo Picasso:All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.
• Scott Adams: Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
• Sharon Welch: Injustice can be eliminated, but human conflicts and natural limitations cannot be removed. The conflicts of social life and the limitations of nature cannot be controlled or transcended. They can, however, be endured and survived. It is possible for there to be a dance with life, a creative response to its intrinsic limits and challenges ...
• Virginia Woolf:Odd how the creative power at once brings the whole universe to order.

People who have had a very restricted vision, with hindsight their comments can be used as powerful examples of what can happen if you don't allow creative thoughts to flourish:

• "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." --Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
• "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." --Western Union internal memo, 1876
• "The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?" --David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.
• "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." --Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
• "Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy." --Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

People who have had a much more creative, open view of life:

• "There is no such thing as a failed experiment, only experiments with unexpected outcomes." -- Buckminster Fuller
• "Standing still is the fastest way of moving backwards in a rapidly changing world. Imagination is the highest kite one can fly" -- Lauren Bacall.
• "Instead of pouring knowledge into people's heads, we need to help them grind a new set of eyeglasses so that we can see the world in a new way." -- J S Brown.
• The opposite of creativity is cynicism. -- Esa Saarinen
• "Problems cannot be solved by thinking within the framework in which the problems were created." --Albert Einstein.
• "Go some distance away because the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance, and a lack of harmony of proportion is rapidly seen." -- Leonardo da Vinci.
• "Creativity is the ability to see relationships where none exist." -- Thomas Disch
• "If you can dream it, you can do it." -- Walt Disney.
• "Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream." -- Malcolm Muggeridge.

Then if that all makes you feel tired and needing a break then the following is for you:

"My contribution is undiminished, even when I need to rest."

Happy Creative Days to you :)

painting in a personal manner

I've been reading this fab book by the artist Mary Todd Beam. I'm finding it really inspiring. When I bought it last year my first creation from her wisdom and creative exercises was the piece of abstract art, "Sunset over the Estuary".



I've picked the book up again to read as I'm feeling like I'm treading water sometimes with my paintings. I feel like I get stuck, bored, irritated and feel like I've got cotton wool in my head, and I stand back from the canvas and think, "You've got to be kidding...it looks like I did it at school 30 years ago!!"
She has a brilliant list of things for painting in a personal manner (that means in your own style and not what you think people expect of you):

1. Paint flows freely from your brush in a relaxed manner
2. The subject matter comes from your everyday life experiences
3. Each painting grows from your previous work
4. Each painting contains a measure of personal symbols
5. You are sensitive and responsive to developments in your work
6. You are willing to change preconceived plans when changes are offered

Now, when I read that tonight, I though, "Yes...I can do that. That's what happens on good days." So now the answer is to remember to be relaxed and incorporate something personal and let the creativity flow.
Julia Cameron, author of "The Artist's Way", takes this one step further and suggests asking the universe to provide, and if we remain receptive, we will be answered.

So with that all in mind, its Monday tomorrow, so I can paint to my hearts content ( I have to paint Sat-Tues cos I teach singing on Wed-Fri in the same room - gotta clear up the clutter).
I will go to the studio armed with Mary Todd Beam's list and see what happens :)

Toodle-do

Debs

painting above: Sunset over the Estuary (c) 2007 Deborah Eileen Burrow

New Chapter

Hi Everyone
I decided it was time to blog in a more structured way. Quite a few of my friends have blogspots and I thought I'd give it a go too.My intention with this blogsite is to share some creativity coaching and some significant events from my own creative journey.
Hope you enjoy the read, and continue to log in to read my regular postings.

I've just read, "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron, and it has got me back into writing more. I keep a daily journal, and its very effective at highlighting the positive changes that come about in my life. I've moved from being unconfident about my ability as an visual artist, (with periods of real creative sabotage), through to a clear mind with amazing creative flow.
I am now comfortable with turning up at the easel in my studio and seeing what happens. The results are really showing the shift in my state of mind.


A few other things have helped. Julia Cameron helps you explore what makes your inner artist child happy. It involves switching off the little voice that goes, "That's not how you do it....thats not very professional....nobody does it like that....you don't need one of those...." and so on. I got my hubby to treat me to a full length large wrap-around, thick cotton apron (handmade in Norfolk UK). When I put that on I am ready. The second thing that helps is my favourite music. I listen to Peter Gabriel, Incubus, Radiohead and Foo Fighters mostly. The music is emotive and this helps with my creation on the canvas.
Being a singer/songwriter myself I am in love with music as much as art. Now I can combine the two and I am a happy little soul. Find my music at BlueCat Records
People on my art myspace have been really supportive too. Particularly Megan, Nicky, Debra, Bill, Sue, Quincy, Steve, and others who leave such encouraging comments.
The support I've received from my special family and friends, and myspace friends, has been really important, amazing and inspiring. I have just completed my PearTree Gallery site and it has really made my thoughts and desires concrete at last.


I am also planning a "Best Of" type album to celebrate my 5 CD releases over the last 7 years. I am going to choose 10 songs and have them remixed as chill-out songs. I am quite excited about this idea. Al is going to help me with this - he is a very talented musician and producer.



Well thats it for now,
Peace and Creativity
Debs

abstract painting above: More in the Reflection (c) 2008 Deborah Eileen Burrow