Hint: there’s a prize at the bottom of this post. I hope you’ll read to the bottom, rather than skipping the whole thing, but hey, it’s a free country. You’re on your own with that one.

–

Can I just say that I love Catherine Caine*?

If you haven’t been fortunate enough to encounter the Queen of Awesome Sauce yourself, I highly recommend a visit to her delightful site, Cash and Joy*. If you poke around a bit, you’ll find a sign up page, with an option to get a half hour consult with Catherine – gratis!

That’s exactly what I did today. I’d interviewed Catherine for the Thriving Artists Project some months back, and edited and posted the interview on the TAP site just this week. The great thing about editing interviews is that I get to remember the cool stuff I learned, and just how damn fun they were.

And Catherine’s was one of the most fun ever.

Since I already knew how smart and savvy and fun she is, it was a no-brainer to sign up for her gratis consulting. A half hour with someone I really enjoy, who will probably have some very insightful things to say about how to improve my marketing? I mean, come on!

The call with Catherine did not disappoint. After a year of what has often felt like flailing about, trying to get a clear bead on my direction (and which Catherine assured me didn’t look like that from the outside), I feel like the spiral I’ve been treading has finally narrowed enough to be able to see the core. But the Queen of Awesome Sauce honed it even further.

“What are your goals for your business?” she asked.

Three main prongs, I replied:

1. To make my art/creative things and share them with the world

2. To inspire, empower and help people directly with my services (coaching, consulting, mentoring, tutorials)

3. To create and sell “information products” that will also inspire, empower and help people

“And who are those people?” she asked.

Two general types, I replied:

1. People who’ve gotten disconnected from their creativity, who want to find/re-discover or deepen that connection. This includes artist types who’ve gotten blocked, as well as folks who feel like they’re not creative/artistic, but wish they were.

2. Creatives who want to share their gifts with the world, but are blocked around the business end of things. This includes artists and creatives who might be rockin’ their creativity, but are blocked around marketing themselves and earning real money.

“Hmmm…” she said. “It sounds like everything you’re doing really boils down to Creative Abundance.”

Bingo!

Is this woman good, or is she good? I spent five minutes trying to explain my purpose (that spiel would require one loooooong elevator ride), and she hones it down to two words.

Thriving – creative abundance – is more than just making money. But it’s also more than just creating your thing. It’s finding the intersection for you of tapping into your creative source, and sharing that flow with the world so the world can nourish you in return. It’s knowing who you are so deeply that you can vibrate at all times in total alignment with your true source.

It’s expressing your authentic creative self, and it’s allowing the world to receive it, and allowing your authentic creative self to receive right back.

I can feel myself getting pulled into a lengthy verbal investigation of exactly what creative abundance is, but I respect your time, dear reader, so let’s get back to the Skype call.

“Well,” Catherine went on, “you’ve clearly got a plan and are moving things forward. The one thing I would suggest is to make sure you talk about why you do what you do on a regular basis: the reason it’s important, the reason it matters.”

[Pause. Sound of eyelashes blinking. Twice.]

Heh. I started this blog to chart my journey to follow my evolving Blisses toward the life I really, really want, and somehow I’ve lost track of sharing why. It seems rather obvious coming from Catherine’s lips, but sometimes the most obvious things are the most overlooked.

So let’s start with this post.

Why do I want creative abundance for myself and others?

Because creative abundance is your right, your destiny. If you crave it, you can have it, and it’s important to me – it’s important for the world – that you do have it if you crave it.

Nobody, no thing, no idea or ideology or misguided notion should ever stop you from having total creative abundance!

But of course, we all get stopped. By people. By systems. By cultures. By ideas.

And if I were a superhero, I’d have the power to neutralize all of those stopping things. To unblock all blocks on creative abundance.

I’d have wings and armor and fiery swords to protect you from forces that seek to block you, and a magical ability to turn on taps and keep them on.

I’d also have a really cool costume (with a modicum of sex appeal, but not too much). Must ruminate on the details of that…

But I digress.

The point is, creative abundance is your birthright, and my purpose is to help you claim it. Period.

Which brings me to…

15 Minutes a Day Art Check-In!

Here’s a truth: since I committed to spending at least 15 minutes a day making art in the Creative Sandbox, my entire energy has shifted.

Where once I longed desperately to be prolific, now I simply am.

Where once I’d look at other people’s work and wish I were creating stuff too, stuff as cool as theirs, now I simply am.

Where once I felt disconnected from my creative source – and rather cranky and complainy about it too – now I’m living in flow.

All from 15 minutes a day.

Okay, I grant you sometimes – frequently – it goes over 15 minutes. But that’s not the point. I’ve also had days (or late-late nights) when putting in a full 15 minutes felt like pulling teeth. A couple of times I woke up realizing that the previous day’s 15 minutes never happened at all.

And I’ll freely admit that the creative process is not always smooth and flowy. Much of the time I wonder what the hell I’m doing. I doubt myself. I honestly believe that nothing worth showing will come from my time in the Creative Sandbox.

The beautiful thing is that as long as I continue to show up, eventually the pieces always fall into place.

More on the Check-In part

Now that I’m finally building the growing body of work I’ve craved for so many years, I finally felt ready to share my work with the world. And not just the new stuff.

For years I’ve had art hiding on my hard disk, where nobody could see it and appreciate it. “Get a shopping cart. Make a way for people to see and buy your stuff” has been on my to-do list since an ill-fated site hack over at Ketubahworks liquidated dozens of pages of my work over two years ago. I spent hours researching carts, and looked into a plethora of other ways to just get my work online.

I mean, I’ve built several websites all by myself – this ain’t rocket science!

Somehow, though, it took a reconnection with my own creative abundance – powered in large part by my 15 minutes-a-day commitment – to get past my own blocks here. And let me tell you, dear reader, that something shifts when you put your stuff out there.

I could wax on about what that shift is, what it feels like, and perhaps I will in another post sometime. But this one’s already gotten longer than I wanted, so instead of telling you about it, I’m issuing a challenge to you to find out for yourself.

Have you put your work out there? Have you shared your gifts with the world? Have you noticed a shift yourself?

If you’re not giving yourself daily creative time yet, I dare you to take the 15 Minutes-a-Day creative challenge. Try it. See what happens. It may surprise you.

And let me know! I’d love to see what you create! Post it to the Living A Creative Life Facebook page. Let’s inspire each other! Let’s create a mass movement toward creative abundance!

Which brings me to…

The Prize

So here’s the actual Art Check-In part of this post. The art at the top is a work in progress. I want to add some words to it, but nothing I’ve come up with has felt entirely right. So…. I thought it would be fun to open it up to you for suggestions.

What does that piece say to you? What feelings does it evoke? If it were hanging on your wall, what words would you want it to say?

I don’t promise to use anything that’s suggested here – it’s my piece, after all – but if I do choose to use your words, I’ll send you a copy of the finished art. And I’ll give you a 30-minute Creative Abundance consulting session to boot. Just ’cause I can.

How’s that for creative abundance?

Leave your suggestions in the comments. And make sure include a real email address, so I can get in touch about getting you your prize!

And be sure to sign up for a session with the Queen of Awesome Sauce* while you’re at it. You can never get too much gratis coachsulting, after all.

*Note: I signed up for Catherine’s affiliate program, and the links to her site in this post are affiliate links, which means that if you click through them and end up buying something from her, like her super-cool DIY Magnificence, I’ll make a commission and will be eternally grateful. Of course, you can always find Catherine by looking her up on Google and I’ll never be the wiser. But I’m all about transparency so consider this your full disclosure notice.

I should also take this opportunity to tell you that if you’ve been wanting to put up your own WordPress website, but haven’t known where to start, Catherine has an amazing (FREE) tutorial called Website In A Weekend that will get you up and running right quick. For free. (And that’s not even an affiliate link either!)

How does anything get done? Step by step, that’s how.

Whether you’re talking about overhauling a website, growing a business, healing from major knee surgery, learning to play the ukulele (hmm… does this sound like someone you know?) – anything, really, it’s always step by step.

Or as I like to say, baby step by baby step.

Sometimes it feels painfully slow, or even as if you’re moving backwards, not forwards. (That’s certainly how my knee feels right about now!) But really, with enough baby steps you can climb mountains.

One of my current mountains, now that I’m making art on a regular basis again, is getting my art out into the world where people can see it and buy it. This weekend I made a great start, installing a new shopping cart and getting the beginnings of an actual store up. The Universe gave me a nod that I was moving in the right direction when I sold my first print less than 24 hours later! (Thanks Dianne!)

Always a good sign.

The “Daily Art” Fix/The “Daily” ArtFix

Today I added something else: a brand new newsletter! I’ll be adding new art to the gallery as I create it, but I wanted to give my fans the opportunity to see my work as soon as it’s done, without having to check in on the shop.

Hence the new newsletter, the “Daily” ArtFix. Or the “Daily Art” Fix.

Technically, it’s not going to be a daily newsletter, but it will be showcasing the art that emerges from my daily Creative Sandbox time. Just new art, as soon as it’s created. With a minimim of words. Or maybe a modicum of words. Whatever – fewer words than I usually use here (which, if you think about it, really isn’t saying much… But you catch my drift I hope.)

Just new art, like the piece shown at the top of this post, which started as a section of a big sheet of watercolor paper. You can see its beginnings on the lower right in the picture below:

I got three more finished pieces out of that sheet, plus some possible pieces that are still in the brewing stage. I’ll send those out in the newsletter one at a time, so sign up if you want to be the first to see them!

Meanwhile, I’ve still got a mountain of art on my hard disk to load into the shopping cart, but step by step I’ll get it done.

PS – In case you didn’t notice the snazzy new button in the sidebar, I’m now hosting free monthly calls to help you chart your own course to the creative life of your dreams. Click here for more info and to register to get reminder emails the day before each month’s call.

Walnut ink and Ziller blue ink on a stretched, wet watercolor sheet

Here’s how it works:

1) You muck around in the Creative Sandbox, feeling like you’re making no more productive progress than you would be in an actual sandbox, moving sand from point A to point B.

Yet you persist.

...and more mucking around with water and ink...

2) With enough mucking (over a period of minutes, hours, days or even weeks), eventually something “catches,” and you feel that inner switch flick on. Your pulse speeds up a bit, your breathing speeds up (or maybe slows down?) perhaps your pupils even dilate.

You achieve a state of Flow.

All very well and good, but the piece that is emerging is not fully baked yet. Now what?

You’ve reached that spot in the process when the next move you make could make or break the piece. Sure, a mess-up can be altered, and the end result can be even better than your original intention – you know this – but still you’re momentarily paralyzed.

You want it to work. Now.

3) Alas, the brilliant, “right” solution is not forthcoming. So you stew. Maybe you go back to step 1 above and muck around some more on something different altogether.

4) You try stuff. Maybe pulling the same old tools out of the same old hats. But nothing works.

5) Then, maybe even without thinking, you randomly try something else – and YES! That’s IT! It’s nothing like you were expecting or planning, but it works, and you can tell by the look of inevitability that it’s right.

Or maybe the whole thing is totally ruined and you’re back to the drawing board.

The thing is, the mucking about is always part of the process. There may be more of it, there may be less of it, but it simply cannot be avoided. It’s a natural law, so the key is to get used to it, and don’t let it stop you.

And the winner(s) is (are)…

Hooray, hooray! I’ve hit the triple digits with my email subscriptions! Big thanks to Skaja Wills (@skajaw) for pushing me over the top, and to the flurry of subscribers who’ve signed up since then. You make my day!

My original thought was to give the art giftie just to members of the official “100 Club,” as I’ve taken to calling it – just the first 100 subscribers.

But then I thought, why limit it? Why not share the love?

And because I’m dictator around here, I get to make the rules, and the rules are these: Anyone in my subscriber database when I send out the link gets the giftie. So be it.

But, you ask, what exactly is the giftie?

Ah yes, well, that’s where I could use some help.

I mucked around all weekend, and for the past few days (in the wee hours of a few insomniac mornings, as it happens), trying to come up with a piece worthy of gifting to you, and I spent more time in step 1 above than I would care to admit. (Can you say “pressure”? Oy!)

It wasn’t until this morning that I finally hit paydirt (insomnia seems to play a disturbingly positive role in my art production). Four pieces, not just one, emerged, and I need your help determining which one to convert into a hi-res printable download for the 100 Club (or, more accurately, since I’m a generous and benevolent dictator, the 100+ Club).

I know which is my favorite (actually, two of them), but I’m not going to tell you – I want to hear from you which one you would like as your very own.

Keep in mind that I have no control over how these will print out over in your part of the world. (But if you really like a piece you can always buy a print or the original – until I get them posted for sale just email me for details.)

So, without further adieu, here they are, in no particular order (and yes, all but the top one were torn from the full sheet shown in the pics above). Vote for your favorite in the comments:

Contestant #1

Contestant #2

Contestant #3

Contestant #4

Okay peeps, I’ve been working for 12 hours straight and I’m beat, so I’m keeping this short. (Apparently that is possible for me. Difficult, but possible.)

Today’s #15minutesaday #artcheckin is nothing more than the simple little banner graphic to the left. Written with walnut ink (the dry powder, NOT the wet stuff that comes in a jar — click here and search for “walnut ink”) and a size 3 Automatic pen. Then scanned and fiddled with in Photoshop to add the type, of course.

I’ve got a lot more than that to show for this past week’s challenge time, but honestly I’m just too tired to upload pics.

So for today it’s just this banner/button/whatever – clean and simple. Feel free to post it on your own site or blog if you like. Let’s show the world what you can do with just a 15 minutes a day commitment!

And what have I been working on so hard, you ask (when not engaged in my 15 minutes a day)? Several things. (Of course, me being the ultimate juggler, though I’ll confess I’m trying hard to get away from that, like the brilliant Tori Deaux.)

The big one being editing the Thriving Artists Project home page, writing a new “join” page, and writing invite emails to my TAP advance notice list, which I just sent off.

Yep, I’m opening the TAP doors again, and offering Spring Special pricing.

But only to advance list subscribers for now. (You can sign up here if you want in.)

And for the everything else that’s going on, you’ll just have to wait til the Weekly Review.

Have a great rest of your week!

xo,
Melissa

PS – (‘Cause of course I can’t keep it that short… Even my short posts are long.) The lovely and talented Sandi suggested that I create a special piece of downloadable art, just for my loyal followers, to celebrate when I reach 100 subscribers. I think this is a fabulous idea, and I wanted to poll you to see what kind of art you would want. If you’re subscribed to my blog, let me know below in the comments.

One of my walnut ink creations? Something calligraphic? Something wild and abstract?

Naturally, as this is a benign dictatorship I reserve the right of veto, but heck, Sandi got me curious!

But you’d better act fast, because I’m only 2 people away from the 100 mark, and when I get a hankering to make the piece, I’m gonna make it, whether I’ve gotten feedback from you or not. So here’s your chance to have some input. ‘Nuff said.

All righty then. LACL Diva now officially signing off.

I spent all day yesterday bookkeeping in preparation for today’s meeting with my CPA.

Except for about a half hour or so in the morning, when I got my paint on.

Yep, even with an under-the-gun deadline, I stuck with my commitment. My latest experiments involve odd-shaped assemblages of canvases of different sizes and depths, as the photo above.

Next up: combining paper (my more familiar medium) with canvases.

I’ve experimented with sewing and collaging translucent vellum (see example at right), but I’m curious what will happen when I use acrylic mediums on heavier stocks, the kinds of papers I’m used to working on for calligraphic broadsides.

The goal: no framing!

Will I be forced to use toxic sprays to fix the surface? Or will I find the results satisfying if I cover the assemblages with liquid mediums?

These are the questions that keep me up at night, though so far I’ve yet to conduct the actual experiments.

Stay tuned!

Yes, I know – it’s enough to keep one on the edge of one’s seat!

Meanwhile, tomorrow I’m going to have to stack up all the partially-done mini-canvases scattered across my drafting table so I can package up the ketubot waiting to ship to their eagerly-waiting brides and grooms. Fantasies of a studio with a large, dedicated “play surface” are making me drool, but I’ll need a much larger internet empire before I can make that a reality.

Ah, well. Back to work.

PS – Walnut Ink Info

A pingback from Marie at Through Purgatory about my Walnut Ink made me realize that some of my invisible audience may be interested in where they can get some of their own.

Walnut Ink is especially wonderful because it’s extremely water soluble, which also adds certain challenges, but allows for amazing effects not available with other media.

Although you can get it pre-mixed in a jar, I prefer the dry crystals. The color is richer, and depending on how much water you use you can achieve anything from a very dark brown to the palest of washes.

I’ve only ever seen Walnut Ink at calligraphy supply stores. Here’s a link to one of my favorite shops, Paper & Ink Arts, which carries Walnut Ink.

Creative Sandbox canvases in progress

Considering that I’ve been on this planet a respectable number of decades by this point, it’s rather surprising that I seem to be in such utter denial about how long it takes to get stuff done.

I mean seriously, it’s not like this is news. You’d think I’d get it by now. Yet I’m continually surprised at how little I’m able to accomplish compared to how much I intend to.

Do I modify my expectations accordingly?

No. That would be what a smart person would do. Instead I stuff my “today” list with more than any one person could possibly achieve in any single 24-hour period, then shake my head in wonderment when, once again, I fall short of my ridiculous goals.

I'm especially liking the walnut ink "Yes" on the square canvas at the lower left

Take last night.

The goal: get two tickets to Louisiana, different outbound flights (my sweetie’s going to a wedding, but I’ve got a gig in Oakland that same night so will meet up with him afterwards) and into and out of different cities, but with seats together on the return.

Four hours later we were both utterly exhausted, and I was about ready to boycott Continental Airlines for the rest of my life.

(Note to self: if you want to really annoy customers, make them walk through a multi-stepped ordering process all the way to the end, and when they click the final confirm button make them wait several moments then show them a cryptic message that only indicates that the order could not be processed, without any explanation of why, so they try the entire exercise several more times. Then make them place a phone call to complete the order, and charge them extra for the pleasure. This does not make for a happy, loyal customer base. Just sayin’.)

Notice how my rhythm doesn't really pick up until about half way down the canvas.

On the other hand, sometimes I’m equally astonished at how little time things take.

Yes, I confess I’m missing terribly the luxury of spending all day on my art (why, oh why can’t the Retreat go on all year long?) But even just a little bit keeps me in contact with my creativity. And that, my friends, is golden.

What I’ve also discovered is that editing an interview for the Thriving Artists Project while playing with paints is a lovely way to multi-task!

Today I listened to my recent conversation with Michele Théberge during my Creative Sandbox time, stopping every so often to jot down some notes for the page on the TAP website. I got to be inspired all over again by Michele’s wonderful spirit and story, while I messed around and got my hands dirty making art.

And ooh! Look what magic happens when I "ruin" my lettering with a swipe of water! Now the inconsistent rhythm is less of a problem, and we have a VERY interesting start...

Did I get anything finished? No. I don’t even know where these pieces are going.

But that’s okay, because I trust the process. Put in the time, a little bit every day, and my voice will reveal itself eventually.

If only I could say the same thing about purchasing airplane tickets…

It now being March (how did that happen?), today’s check-in is the official start of the 15 Minutes for March creative challenge!

Didja see how I did that? Didja? Snuck it right in there – an extension of the one-month challenge I started in February. Pretty clever of me, huh?

The thing is, putting in 15 minutes a day in the Creative Sandbox has been so transforming that I’m continuing it into this month. And yes, I confess my goal is to keep it up in perpetuity, but to maintain a sense of low-pressure “achievability,” I’m keeping the official commitment to one month. Join me if you like!

By the time you read this, I’ll actually be at my annual retreat with the Friends of Calligraphy – five days of unmediated bliss: making art, reading, sleeping, walking, eating yummy food, and re-connecting with my fellow retreaters, many of whom I only see at the retreat each year.

Did I mention it’s wonderful?

The image below is of the tiny “inspirational gifts” I created to give to my fellow retreaters. See a close-up view of 6 of them at the top of the post.

One of the special aspects of the retreat is the generosity of spirit that shows up. The space is a former convent in Marin County, California, now a sacred space used for mostly silent and other spiritual retreats throughout the year. 30 or so of us convene to work on our own projects, sharing a big room that we call the Scriptorium. If you forgot to pack something in your supply box, never fear – at least three people probably have one you can use, be it paper, paint, pens or even a lamp for your work station.

Every day, little gifts will appear on each person’s table, frequently anonymously. I’ve never been a big giver of ephemera, but this year I was inspired by my 15 Minutes-a-Day challenge to create tiny little abstract artworks, in walnut ink and watercolor, each inscribed with a fellow retreater’s name.

What a wonderful feeling each one was to create, knowing this little piece would brighten somebody’s day.

I’ll be putting in much more than 15 minutes a day this week, but the really special thing about this year is that it’s the first time ever that I’ll be able to report during Wednesday night’s opening circle that I’ve actually been making art at home!

Sad, but true, that I spent so many years not creating, unless paid to by a client. How easy it is to get separated from your creative spirit.

We’re reunited now, and about to immerse for 5 days.

See you when I get back!

Yes, it’s that time again – time for the #15minutesaday creative challenge art check-in!

Above (and the next two images below as well) we have a 4″ x 6″ x 1.5″ canvas, on which I painted Daniel Smith watercolor ground, then, not knowing what else to do, I resorted to ye olde calligrapher’s standby, the alphabet. In Neuland, my “signature” hand, inspired by the typeface designed by Rudolf Koch.

And in brush lettering ’round the edges.

Is it done? Not sure.. It feels a little naked to me, but I haven’t figured out what else it’s calling for.

Meanwhile, its brethren, in blue and yellow watercolor, also probably not finished:

And to finish up, a few random pieces in various stages of process. At the lower left, two 2″ x 2″ and a 2″ x 3″ canvas, painted with watercolor (on top of watercolor ground).

I’m intrigued by the 1″ x 1″ paper tiles, and am contemplating a larger “mosaic” out of these. We’ll see.

That’s it from my end. I’ve spent at least 15 minutes making art every day for the past 23 days.

And you? Are you doing the challenge? How’s it going?

So how’m I doing in my quest to re-invent my life, follow my evolving Blisses and create the life I really, really want?

Perhaps it’s the fact that I’m approaching a year since starting this blog – a year in which other people seem to have achieved the kind of success that still eludes me (damn you, Comparison Trap!) – that led to Friday-and-Saturday’s surprising feeling of sunkness.

Perhaps it was the migraine, that hooked its claws into me Friday afternoon and was still clinging when I woke up.

Perhaps it’s missing my sweetie, who’s out of town this weekend.

Perhaps it’s the frustration that my right leg is still deformed and frustratingly atrophied, 3 months post-knee-surgery.

Perhaps it was all of those things, combined with general overwork and under-rest.

Whatever it was, it caught me off guard. I’ve never been a flatliner, but so many lovely things have happened this week! How could I be anything but happy and cheerful?

Sweetness this week:

• The nicest fan letter ever arrived in my inbox on Monday (I challenge anyone to write a nicer one!):

Melissa Dinwiddie, I love you. Not in a sappy, soppy, sloppy kind of way, but in a girl crush kind of way; in an “I-so-want-to-be-like-her” way. Your voice, when you write, is so authentic, that I hear your lyrical voice…as a matter of fact, you’re across the table from me taking about life and love and your success and impatience over coffee and and some amazing cookies that I just baked with milk chocolate chips, toffee bits and cashews with a sprinkle of ground french roast coffee (and a touch of cayenne just to brighten the taste).

You don’t know it, but we have conversations together at times like these. I share my empathy, my stories and give you my encouragement.

By the way, my cats believe that I’m talking to them, but they are narcissistic beasts. They have no idea that I’m talking with you.

Just thought you should know on this Valentine’s day that you have a girl crush.

Sandi

(Thanks Sandi! Still buzzing on that one. :))

• My Uke Diva gig at the JCC senior lunch on Tuesday brought raves and accolades. 87-year-old Joyce insisted that what I need is an agent, who would surely get me the fame and fortune I deserve in Hollywood. While 84-year-old Sam declared:

I have one word for you… no, [counting fingers] three words for you: You. Are. Good. And I’m a litmus test. I’ve been around 84 years, I’ve seen more performances than you can imagine. I can tell good when I see it, and you’re it!

• Thursday I got further confirmation of my appeal as a performer when the music booker for Hog Island Oyster Bar in Napa emailed to see if I’d be interested in playing a couple of (paid) gigs on their outdoor patio this summer. (Mark your calendars for July 31 and September 11!) She said:

I came across your video “Uke” and I LOVE your style.

All very sweet, and made me feel very good, indeed. Nonetheless, despite all this validation, Friday and Saturday saw me feeling blue. Proof that the “happiness” that external validation offers is fleeting.

The Antidote to Blue

So what does a girl do, when the blues descend? Well, first of all, a smart girl reminds herself of this undisputed reality:

All feelings are transitory.

Next, she reminds herself of another undisputed reality:

Nothing good ever comes from comparing your insides to someone else’s outsides.

Yes, my path might seem overly long and winding, but it is what it is. I know getting caught in the Comparison Trap is just that – a trap.

And then she does the one thing guaranteed to lift the spirit:

She takes action.

For a Creative, that means getting into the Creative Sandbox.

Which is exactly what I did. Deadlines be damned – the blues call for taking critical measures. Now.

So I played

And since I’m still waiting for the delivery of my 200+ mini canvases, I turned to my more comfortable substrate, watercolor paper, and my old friend, walnut ink.

Here’s what came out of my playtime (shown here close to actual size):

2 3/4″ x 5″ walnut ink with ruling pen & brush, Pigma micron, water with steel nib, watercolor pencil

2 3/4″ x 7 1/4″ walnut ink, sumi ink with ruling pen and modified crowquill

3″ x 4″ walnut ink with ruling pen, watercolor, modified crowquill nib

And although I didn’t actually mat these, I matted them digitally, in Photoshop. See the image at the top of this post, and these two:

New toys!

Meanwhile, my order with Daniel Smith arrived, bringing ten new 4″ x 6″ x 1.5″ canvases and – most exciting! – a jar of watercolor ground!

Which I painted on a few canvases on Friday night, to allow the required 24 hours of curing.

And then didn’t let the full 24 hours to go by before pulling out my watercolors. (Patience? Feh!)

At a loss for what else to do, I reverted to the calligrapher’s standby, the alphabet. In my signature hand, Neuland.

Watch for these to evolve in the coming days…

And now?

Well, I’m still wishing my debt were down to zero and my internet empire fully grown and thriving. But I must admit I’m feeling a helluva lot better.

When in doubt, create.

Saturday Night Epilogue: Serendipity & Progress

While doing my prescribed knee rehab exercises and stretching late last night, a row of old journals on the bottom shelf of the glass doored bookcase in the living room (being at eye level as I stretched) caught my eye. Hmmm (thought I), I wonder what I was thinking and writing about back then?

From among the mostly identical, 8 1/2 x 11 hard cover sketchbooks, I pulled out the Morning Pages Journal (affiliate link). My thoughts traveled backwards to that year, in the middle of my marriage, the house I lived in, the small bedroom crammed with my drafting table and supplies.

December 1996. Six months after my first calligraphy conference. Just two years into this new Bliss of letter love. The amazing response to my work by respected authorities at the conference that summer. The sudden expectations I felt to be amazing, to fulfill my potential.

And the resulting block that descended.

Julia Cameron’s The Artists Way (affiliate link) had a profound effect on me, helped me bust through some of that block.

No wonder I splurged on the matching journal. It honored the importance of that book in my life.

Back in present time

(Or shall we say, much more recent past time.) As I stretched out my atrophied quads on the living room carpet, I skimmed over the first couple of journal entries. The repeating theme: my wish to be prolific.

To make work for me, not just for clients (already, just two years in and in a marriage that paid all my bills for me, I was allowing client work to intrude on my relationship to my Bliss.)

How I wish I could go back and tell that younger self that the secret is just to do it. Every day. In 15 minute chunks.

It only took me 14 years to figure this out. (Yes, that’s a note of sarcasm you detect.)

Ah, well. Could’ve been worse.

Progress.

]]> http://melissadinwiddie.com/2011/02/20/weekly-review-46-antidote-feeling-sunk/feed/ 4 http://melissadinwiddie.com/2011/02/17/15-minutes-for-february-art-checkin-2/ http://melissadinwiddie.com/2011/02/17/15-minutes-for-february-art-checkin-2/#comments Thu, 17 Feb 2011 09:51:29 +0000 Melissa Dinwiddie http://melissadinwiddie.com/?p=4954

Technically, it’s not Wednesday anymore, so I’m late for my weekly Wednesday art check-in, but I’m just going to pretend I’m on Hawaii time. (I do play the ukulele, so that should count, right?)

Seriously though, I’ve been having a blast with my 15-minutes-a-day commitment. Most days I spend much longer than 15 minutes in the Creative Sandbox. And in fact, most days it’s not day at all, but late-late at night, but whatever. I’m getting my daily paint on, and that’s what counts!

So, without further ado, here are the works-in-progress that have emerged in the past week! I’m not sure what they’re about or where they came from, and they’re nothing like anything I’ve ever made (well, maybe paintings I did in nursery school…) but I must say I rather like them.

The little triptych from last week has been turned 90 degrees and added to:

6″ x 9″, acrylic inks, paint and mediums; linen thread; translucent vellum on canvas

It feels ocean-like to me, and made me think of the e.e. cummings line, “It’s always our self we find in the sea.” In fact, though you can’t see it in this pic, I debossed those words into two layers of translucent vellum, that you may be able to make out collaged on the lower right brown-and-dark-blue-ish section above.

The square composite (canvas mosaic?) below is the one that got me most excited about combining tiny little canvases in larger composites. (I went a bit hog-wild and actually ordered a few – ahem – hundred 2×2′s and 2×3′s at a bargain price, plus some dozens 4×4′s and 4×5′s. Yes, I’m serious. And yes, I fully intend to paint all of them!)

6″ x 6″, acrylic inks, paints and mediums on canvas

More ocean-y feeling, and I especially love the 4×4 section in the upper left, which absolutely glows in person.

Below are some more works-in-progress from this week’s sessions. Some of these composites are starting to tell me what they want to be when they grow up, and are in fact into their adolescence in the shots below. (Which, of course, means they may throw a random snit fit and decide to take on a totally different persona at any minute.) Watch for more mature versions in future dispatches…

That’s it for today! Enjoy, and if you have any ideas for titles, I’d love to hear ‘em.

Oh, and let me know if you’ve been taking on the #15minutesaday challenge and what you’ve been up to!

All art and images ©2011 Melissa Dinwiddie