Art Teaches Us That Mistakes Happen

Sunday, February 17th, 2008 by Alyice

I’m doing art again and I am loving it! Once I get passed the negative self-talk, it’s rather refreshing and fun. I find that I am enjoying the process and if something doesn’t work out the way I want it to, I can just redo it. I like that. I like the idea of being able to fix my mistakes and I like how it reminds me that not everything is set in stone—that mistakes happen, and changes can be made, and that sometimes, the changes we make because of those mistakes actually makes things turn out better than they would have in the first place.

I am going to try to create something every single day. Whether it’s creating a canvas, painting patterns on paper, altering jars, taking photographs for future projects, crocheting, or scrapbooking, I am going to commit to a minimum of one hour a day to actually “creating” something.

In fact, today I just finished a project for a teenager who lost his dog. I’ll tell you more about that tomorrow when I upload the photo…

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What Steals Creativity?

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 by Alyice

In December of 2007 I discovered that I was ready for a new adventure and that I no longer had the desire to spend my days hidden behind a computer screen with no social contact and no creative outlet. Writing had been good to me, but it was all I knew—that, and running the business side of things. I had spent so much time chasing after the next pay day that I had very little time to be creative for the sake of being creative.

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I wanted to finally grab hold of my creative side and make things happen with my photography and my art. But I soon discovered that I had pushed my creativity aside for so long that it had become stifled—smothered under the pressures of life and hidden even from me. Too afraid to venture out into a world of the unknown, too afraid to try and fail, to afraid to give myself creative license, too afraid to start over again—so afraid that I withdrew back into a familiar place; a place I spent years building.

Would I ever find the courage and determination to move forward with my plan? Or would I continue to allow life’s little obstacles to stifle my creativity? Those are questions that have plagued me over the last month and a half.

Every once in a while I would pop my head out from behind the computer screen to read an article, to study a technique, to try my hand at being creative, to dream about starting a new adventure. But those doubts and fears would creep right back in and I’d find myself withdrawing once again to that familiar place behind the computer screen.

What’s stopping me? I’d wondered. What’s preventing me from allowing the creativity to flow again?

I had every reason to believe that stress was the culprit; after all, I’d had nine years of very intense situations manifest themselves one after the other. And with a recent bout of Bell’s Palsy, stress had finally brought me to my breaking point.

But then I read a very interesting article by Douglas Eby about the psychological affects depression has on our creativity and it all clicked. So many deaths in such a short period of time, so many losses with each state-to-state move, so many life and business adjustments, it was more than stress. It was depression.

Life had taken its toll on my creativity and it is time I fight to get it back.

Today I resolve to get back in touch with my creative side by releasing myself from the bondage of stress and depression and committing to a minimum of one hour a day to being creative—or at least making an effort to be creative.

And who knows, maybe by making time to be creative with no expectations of selling the piece, no expectations of receiving rave reviews, and no expectations of liking the piece, I’ll find myself again. And in finding myself, I should be able to let go of the stress, the anxiety, and the depression that linger from time to time.

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Altered Jars, Part 2

Monday, February 11th, 2008 by Alyice

I know I still owe you a photo of my daughter’s vase but I can’t seem to get the lighting right. I don’t own studio lights and the house we’re renting is rather dark. I can’t even open the windows to let in natural light because they’re covered in plastic to keep the winter drafts out. So I thought I’d show you the progress I’m making with the jars I started last week.

Now, if the photo is a little blurred you’ll have to forgive me. My Bell’s Palsy is really affecting my eyesight today and I am seeing lots of blurred images—even with the eye drops. But I wanted to get something up today.

You’d think I’d be done already; after all, it’s been an entire week but I had a few setbacks.

There’s nothing like smearing the design you spent two hours painting because you picked up the jar while it was still wet! Yes, I actually forgot just five short minutes later. I had set down the jar to begin work on another jar when an idea popped into my head so I went back to grab the first jar to work on my “idea”. And that’s when it happened—a fist full of black paint.

It was so disappointing. I was so mad at myself that I put the jar down, rinsed out my paintbrushes, and walked away for the day. But to be honest, I’m kind of glad I did because the second draft is far better than the first. (It’s the gold jar with squares and flowers.) Now all I need to do is find a nice ribbon for the top and it’s ready to go.

Remember the orange canister? It really did look ugly. But thanks to several coats of acrylic paint and alcohol inks it’s been transformed into a cute “catch all jar”. I can’t decide if I want to give it away as the Valentine’s gift it was intended for, or keep it for myself. On the blocks, I wrote, “Live. Love. Laugh”

Then there’s the medieval times jar I am working on—it has the lightning and the green stones. I can’t quite figure out what to do with the top yet. And the floral jar is still lacking uniformity. I like the flowers covering the top of the jar. But it’s not coming together as expected. I don’t know if I should use the same flowers on the body of the jar or continue to paint on more flowers. And finally there’s the ocean jar. My original idea was to leave it as is and top it off with a nice ribbon, but the more I look at it, the more I think, “How can I adhere a few dolphins? And where can I find them?”

So many decisions…

Keep Creating

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