In addition to making things here and there this week, I'm working on collecting footage for a vlog! So far today, I've caught myself doing today's morning pages and my first painting in ages. I tried painting my fish, Foucault - I don't like this piece as it is, but I enjoyed doing it and I learned and that's what matters. I'm posting it as reference for myself as I keep going of where I "started" this go-around.
PS: If anyone is interested, I do still have my very first sketchbook, from when I was 5-6 years old, if anyone wants to see the "true" beginning for me.
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Oh my goodness... What a busy two weeks. I'm very grateful I got to go visit my girlfriend, though! Here's how my plan went these last two weeks:
Inspiration Notebook, Make Something, Support Your Artist, Daily Reading/Daydream/Writing Time, Creative Challenge: To be completely honest, none of this happened the past two weeks. I've been so busy trying to keep my head above water that it all slipped by. I think I'm going to pare things down to try to make this easier to tackle again...
Changes: Instead of what I'd been trying to do, I'm going to do the following: a) inspiration notebook (write down one thing per day), b) support your artist (do one thing per week), c) five minutes of creative time per day
Here's my plans for this week:
Support Your Artist: lie down in the grass on a sunny day
Creative Time: spend five minutes per day doodling
Hi all! This has been a busy week. It was the last week of the semester at the university I work at, so in addition to my home life, work has been quite busy. At home, I changed my furniture and did a thorough clean of the apartment, so there's been lots going on. Here's how my plan went this past week:
Inspiration Notebook: 5/7 days. It was nice to have the space to include more in my inspiration notebook per day, but I still mostly stuck to one item per day out of exhaustion from how busy I was.
Make Something: Forgot to keep track of how many days I did this. I did draw a bit this week and was experimenting with getting used to markers again!
Support Your Artist: .5/1 activities! I started my summer letters to my loved ones. I'll have them in the mail by the end of this week.
Daily Reading/Daydream/Writing Time: I wasn't perfect about this, but I did keep it up all week, at least doing a little a day. It's been nice to sit down and really engage with my own creativity.
Creative Challenge: I didn't finish the piece I started, but I did work on it throughout the week - I was working on a place-based sensory essay that had to focus on senses other than sight.
Changes: This has been a good challenge! I think it's right at the level I'd like it to be at. I don't think I'd like to make any changes yet.
Here's my plans for supporting my artist and doing a creative challenge:
Support Your Artist: buy (and read!) some magazines that look interesting
Creative Challenge: a braided essay which weaves personal experiences about a food with experiences of a person/specific group of people, and experiences of a habit.
Thank you all for reading! I hope your creative life is going well. Talk to me! What have you been up to?
I'm sorry I haven't been more actively posting my art recently - it's been all I can do to sketch or jot down a few lines and I don't really feel up to sharing any of that work. However, I have good news! The new plan seems to be working well. I also started reading Twyla Tharp's The Creative Habit and, while I'm not following it to the letter either, the ideas are resonating with me more. Here's how my plan went this past week:
Inspiration Notebook: 7/7 days! This has been great fun. I'm thinking about expanding this from once per day to up to one page per day to engage with it more.
Make Something: 7/7 days! It's been small, but I've either plotted out some writing ideas or sketched out something small every day. I'm hoping, if I hit a good week, I'm able to do more.
Support Your Artist: 1/1 activities! I built a little flower LEGO set and placed them in a mason jar.
Changes: This has been nice, but I think I can step things up just a tad. My goal is to more thoroughly engage my artist regularly, not just to accomplish tasks. As such, I'm planning to do the following:
Inspiration Notebook: Increase to one page per day maximum.
Make Something: In addition to the below changes, I need to do something small in another medium.
Support Your Artist: No change.
Daily Reading Hour: I might consider adding time for other forms of media, but I want to start with this.
Daily Daydream Time: I might up this from ten minutes per day depending on how it goes, but the goal is to not do anything other than write down/doodle ideas.
Weekly Creative Challenge: This is to force myself to be more creative in how I accomplish things.
This week, my creative challenge will be to finish a first draft for a location-based creative nonfiction piece that must express sensory detail through every sense other than sight and be at minimum 1500 words.
Let me know what you think of this plan! How's your creative life going?
Over the past several weeks of our disability becoming heavier to cope with and the demands of The Artist's Way remaining uncompromising, we've come to a conclusion that many have probably already come to:
This book, this path, was not designed with disabled artists in mind.
Not only that, but there's little, if any, resources for disabled artists that are similar in function (a way to explore reconnecting with creativity without exacerbating our symptoms).
Instead of continuing on The Artist's Way as intended, we've decided to make a detour. We will be continuing to attempt to infuse creativity into our everyday life, but in a more accessible format. Our new goals are the following:
Once per day, in a new journal, take note of something in our living space, our work space, or the outside world that inspires us.
Once per day, in whatever way we can, create something. It can be as small as a single line, or it can be work towards a major project. The point is to try.
Once per week, attend to our artistic selves in a way that comforts and supports continued growth and inspiration (ie: a more accessible artist's date).
Once per week, reflect on any changes we've noticed.
Each week, I will revisit this plan and see if there's anything which should be changed to make it more accessible to me.
Also, please let me know if you've run across any books that fit the description above (reconnecting with creativity without exacerbating disability symptoms). I'd adore the chance to give them a read.
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So... I basically had to cancel this week after my health took a dip. I'm going to re-do it this coming week instead. Hopefully, I'll have some new art for you all in the next few days! Things are looking up, luckily, I just have to be more careful.
This was a rough week fatigue-wise. I had to futz with my schedule due to work and it made everything much more difficult for me. I won't lie, I definitely had the thought of giving up again. But instead, I want to readjust my expectations and keep trying. It's so hard. So, SO hard. But I want to be able to live the kind of life that makes the struggle worth it. Maybe I'm naive and this will backfire, but I want to try.
Artist's Way Check-In:
Morning Pages (adjusted to one page per day, with a second page for affirmation writing): 6 out of 7 days completed
Artist's Date: checked out a book from the local library that I wouldn't typically check out
Week Two Tasks: all complete except for the inner compass activity - I ran out of time and energy
Synchronicity: Didn't notice any. I could have just been distracted by my health though.
Issues: My fatigue made everything incredibly difficult this week. I had plenty of energy at the beginning of the week, but as I continued, everything got to be too much. I'm pivoting to track more of my symptoms and letting go of some goals so I can focus on getting better.
Hoo boy, that was a busy week. I didn't end up having much time to create new things towards the end of the week, but I hope you enjoyed my couple of paintings and photos. I'll keep posting those, but please let me know if and when you'd like to see anything else!
Artist's Way Check-In:
Morning Pages (adjusted to one page per day, with a second page for affirmation writing): 7 out of 7 days completed (I didn't always hit my page goal, but I made the effort and that's what matters)
Artist's Date: made fused glass pendants at the local pottery/glass studio
Week Two Tasks: all complete, but I'm probably not going to do the Week One Artist's Walk due to some health complications and time management issues
Issues: As I added more goals, I struggled to meet the ones I'd set because, by the time work and self-care tasks and basic Artist's Way tasks were done, I was out of energy. I'm going to re-evaluate my goals and make them more realistic for my current situation so I'm more likely to meet them on a daily basis.
