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Melissa Dinwiddie | Create the Impossible™ | Innovation Keynote Speaker & Consultant

Empower your team to innovate on demand. Melissa Dinwiddie helps tech leaders Create the Impossible™ through playful, interactive workshops and keynotes. Unlock breakthrough creativity today.

Time, Expectations, Flights to Louisiana, How to Annoy the Hell Out of Your Customers, and Oh, Yeah, 15 Minutes a Day Art Check-in #5

Creative Sandbox paintings in process
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.

canvases in process
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.

canvas in process
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…

 

Weekly Review #48: Retreat!

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?

If you follow this blog, you know I’m not exactly Ms. Posts-Her-Posts-At-The-Same-Time-Like-Clockwork, but I am in the habit of posting my Weekly Review on Sundays.

Except when I’m not.

Sometimes a girl has other priorities. Like the Friends of Calligraphy Retreat. Where one of my self-imposed rules is no email, and no internet.

I broke the second half of that rule in order to write a blog post I’d committed to for Shenee’s Story Tour, and I was a very cranky camper indeed. Lesson learned. And new Commandment dutifully added to the list.

Retreat Commandments:

The Retreat shall be a space to feed one’s soul.

Thou shalt not do any work for clients; thou shalt engage in Creative Sandbox play only.

However, work created for the express purpose of selling is allowed, if and only if it is embarked upon out of internal excitement and inspiration.

Thou shalt not check email.

Thou shalt not check Twitter.

Thou shalt not check Facebook.

Thou shalt not even check one’s blog for comments. (Verily, thou shalt survive.)

Addendum (as of March 2011): Thou shalt not bring any kind of external deadline unto the Retreat. Even such deadlines as one happily chose to commit to.

Even Weekly Review blog posts. Thank you for your patience.

What I’ve learned about me and the Retreat

1. Finding the True Path requires much patience

It invariably takes a full day to settle in, and at least another full day to find my groove. Until then, I’m a) in sleep mode, as my body finally realizes “oh, I can actually rest!” and b) totally at a loss as to how I want to spend my (waking) time.

2. Feeling lost is part of the process

Should I spend the days drawing? Or writing? Or walking? Or..?

The lack of a clear direction for the Retreat leaves me feeling out of sorts and even a bit sunk. “What’s wrong with me?” I wonder. “Will I ever find my way?”

Can you say “microcosm of the rest of my life”?

Thankfully, after nine Retreats in ten years, I’m pretty familiar with this annual psychological journey I seem destined to take. It always throws me a bit at first, but I have (at least a fair amount of) trust that all will be well.

3. Mistakes are part of the process

As indeed it was well once again this year. After madly cranking out a blog post for Shenee’s Story Tour on Wednesday night, when I would much rather have been relaxing and connecting with old friends (see addendum to Retreat Commandments above), and then sleeping away much of Thursday, I did a bit of sketching.

4. The True Path requires much tweaking

Maybe I’ll spend the rest of my Retreat honing my drawing skills..?

flower sketches by Melissa Dinwiddie

But no, although I admired and envied the amazing sketches some of my fellow retreaters were creating, in art journals and artist books and on broadsides, drawing just didn’t compel me.

5. The only way to find the True Path is to do

So I pulled out my mini-canvases and started to play.

Eureka! By Thursday night I had finally started to find my groove.

Some early layers – including watercolor, linen thread, walnut ink on mini canvases:

walnut ink and watercolor on canvas - first layers

And after some more layers – water, more watercolor ground, more walnut ink and watercolor:

And yet more layers – a mosaic starts to come together:

a canvas mosaic starts to come together

And the final (pre-assembled and pre-sealed) mosaic (and oh, drat, the second-from-the-top canvas on the right is in the wrong orientation, but damned if I’m going to re-shoot this photo at 11:22pm at night…):

canvas mosaic by Melissa Dinwiddie

6. Small successes lead to confidence to try bigger challenges

I’d brought a couple of larger canvases with me – perhaps I had the courage to branch out to a single canvas work. A riskier prospect, missing the option of easily moving elements around or even replacing them, but hell, I could always gesso over the entire thing, so why not give it a shot?

Here’s the first layer of the 8″ x 8″ canvas:

layer one of an 8x8 inch canvas at the Retreat

And the final (sorry, in my enthusiasm to keep going with it, I forgot to take interim shots…) – multiple layers of walnut ink, water and watercolor ground:

8x8 canvas by Melissa Dinwiddie

I kinda like it!

7. When on the True Path, the Flow takes over, so much so that the rest of the world sometimes gets forgotten

The 6″ x 8″ canvas (which I somehow managed not to get any process shots of…):

6" x 8" canvas by Melissa Dinwiddie

I kinda like this one too!

8. When on the True Path, the Universe will reward you

Inspired by a fun coffee saying I found in my Quotationary, I whipped out the piece below…

…which a fellow retreater promptly bought!

Always a good sign when someone wants to pay money for stuff you do out of love.

(Kinda wish I’d gotten a hi-res scan first, but ah, well, I can make another one.)

coffee saying artwork by Melissa Dinwiddie

9. Much as I long for the Scriptorium during the rest of my year, I get to play in the Creative Sandbox at home, too

True, there’s nothing like creating in silence, surrounded by others doing the same. The air is absolutely charged with creativity.

Here’s my vantage point from the last table at the back of the room:

The Scriptorium

The difference this year is that I know I get to keep playing even after the Retreat ends. No, not as many hours as I want, every day (with three amazing gourmet meals waiting for me down the hall), but I’ve made my 15 Minutes A Day commitment to play in the Creative Sandbox, so at least I’ll keep my toe in the stream.

Speaking of which, after trying in vain to catch up on 5 days of emails and work backlogs, if I’m going to get my 15 minutes in, I’ve got to do it now.

Playtime! Then bedtime.

Only 360 days til the next Retreat…

How My Internet Empire is Like My Dating Life (plus a little Dr. Seuss for good measure)

One of my recent consulting clients, the phenomenally talented Shenee of Eight Thirty Five, invited me to be a stop on her story tour. Enjoy, then be sure to click through to the rest of the tour stops.

The other day I read yet another story of yet another blogger whose blog struck a chord, took off and earned her a handsome full-time income in under a year.

In a flash, I felt the jaws of the Comparison Trap start to close around my psyche once again.

Doubts

Why hadn’t I managed to make such a success out of my online efforts? What was wrong with me? Was I simply a failure, destined to spend my life working at building an internet empire that never quite makes it?  Should I throw in the towel and just give up altogether?

I recognized this feeling. Something about this was familiar…

Then it hit me that I’d felt this way not so long ago, back when I was single and looking, on the quest to find a life partner.

Persistence

While other single women I knew found “The One” on their first or second internet date, I persevered for years, through dozens of dates (57 in one 2 1/2 year period alone).

There were times when I wondered if I’d still be single and looking in my 80s.

How I envied those other women! It seemed to come so easily for them. Where was my special guy?

It may not be love at first sight, but it’s my story and I’m sticking with it

From my present time perspective, I understand that my story is just different. No less romantic (in fact, I would argue even more so, though I’ll admit I’m a little biased). No less special, just different.

Where others have stories of love at first sight, my story is of persistence and patience, of a slow boil, of taking the time to really get to know myself and to discover that the person I’d never seen as a “contender” was, in fact, the best of the bunch.

Instead of love at first sight, my story is of gradually wandering into love.

Perhaps, I realized, the story of my business isn’t a story of failure, but of gradual evolution, just like the story of my relationship. It seems I’m not one of the blessed destined for overnight success, but that’s not the only valid route.

One more story of persistence

Stories are powerful. Stories can offer hope, a vision of possibility. The simple act of retelling myself my story of slow success in my dating life shored me up for the path ahead in my business life.

As I write this, it’s Theodor Geisel’s birthday. You know Theodor Geisel? He’s better known as much-loved children’s book author Dr. Seuss.

How’s this for a story of persistence: Dr. Seuss’s first children’s book was rejected by at least 27 publishers. Geisel almost burned the manuscript after so many rejections, but it finally did get published, and sold 6 million copies.

Stories of success come with lots of different plot lines. Pick the ones that work for you.

15 Minutes-a-Day Art Check-in #4

1 1/2" square walnut ink pieces by Melissa Dinwiddie

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.

Tiny walnut ink paintings

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!

 

 

Weekly Review #47: The Power of Inspiration

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?

One of the most beautiful things about creating the Thriving Artists Project is the serendipitous gifts I get from doing the interviews. Every interview I do seems to magically shine a light on an area in my own life I’ve been thinking about, wanting to work on… and frequently tip-toeing around.

My original reason for doing the interviews — for the entire project, actually — was to inspire myself to keep going after what I want. To follow my evolving Bliss(es), to get clearer about what the life I really, really want looks like, and to go for it.

Of course my hope was that the project would inspire others too, and yes, ideally enough to want to pay me for my efforts. But I make no bones about the fact that the initial impetus was to inspire me, pure and simple.

And what a resounding success that has been!

The power of inspiration

When I spoke with artist Michele Théberge on February 1, I was feeling frustrated that I wasn’t making art.

For a few months, tTAP was my art, and the fact that I wasn’t painting was okay. I’d made a conscious choice to spend my time working on tTAP and my new site, 365 Days of Genius. Now, though, I was itching to get back to painting, yet not quite able to give myself permission to take the time.

Then I interviewed Michele, and what did she spontaneously bring up? The importance of a regular practice, and how little time it actually takes to keep yourself connected to your creativity.

That one-hour conversation with Michele inspired me to take on my 15 Minutes a Day challenge, which has totally changed my life.

How?

I’ll tell you how. On Tuesday I leave for a 5-day retreat with the Friends of Calligraphy, which for 8 out of the past 9 years has been my one island of time during the year in which I actually play in the Creative Sandbox.

Every year I’ve had plans to set my life up so that I’m actually creating during the rest of the year, so that at the opening circle the next year I can say, “I made art for me this year!” And every year I’ve failed.

Until now!

Thanks to my discovery over the summer that what I really wanted out of my art-making time was not to create a new work project for myself, but rather just to mess around in the Creative Sandbox…

And thanks to Michele’s reminder that 15 minutes a day is all that’s really required to at least keep my toe in the creative stream…

At the opening circle on Wednesday night, I’ll get to report back that:

I’ve made more art in the past almost-four-weeks than in the previous several years combined!

This is huge, people!

And instead of the Retreat being my single chance during the year to try and reconnect with that creative stream, this year I get to just keep swimming with the current.

All of the above thanks to a kick-start from that TAP interview with Michele.

The power of inspiration

This week I had the great good fortune to be able to interview Goddess Leonie, of the Goddess Guidebook, and the jolt of inspiration was entirely different, but just as energizing.

What did I learn?

For one thing, I was inspired by the fact that Leonie makes art these days not so much to sell directly — as pictures to hang on the wall, say — but as an integral part of her e-courses and e-books. Her art is a huge part of what she does — just take a spin around her website and you’ll see her art all over it — but she provided me with a much-needed reminder that I get to use my art to inspire myself and make the other stuff that I do even more fun!

This may be rather obvious, I know, but I tend to get so easily caught up in creating “valuable content” for my members that apparently I needed the reminder that my visual creations can be part of that value.

The power of inspiration.

Perhaps it was also the interview with Leonie that inspired me to finally do something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, but have been afraid of trying: offering free Skype or phone consultations, both here on my blog, and in periodic random “first person to respond gets a free consult” tweets. (Follow me on Twitter and you could snag one of these spots for yourself.)

What took me so long to put myself out there? What was I afraid of?

  • Not doing a good enough job
  • Being flooded with too many takers to be able to handle it
  • Not getting any takers — the proverbial “I threw a party and nobody came”

Well, not only did I bust through those fears and post the offer, but I surprised myself by mentioning that, hell, I’d even read your aura if you want, effectively “outing” myself as a psychic. (In a jokey-toned aside, but still.)

I’m not sure what came over me, but I like it.

The power of inspiration.

The upshot?

People did indeed come to the party, and the flood I was afraid of never materialized. (Kinda easy solution to that one: set a limit. Duh.)

The best part?

Doing the consults has boosted my confidence in my ability to help people, and helping people has made me really, really happy!

Note to self: another antidote to feeling sunk: connecting over the phone or in person and helping people!

The power of inspiration.

And perhaps the best part of my week?

My first consult was with someone who wanted to get back to creating after being totally blocked for close to two years. Since her 30 minutes with me she has been creating every day, is absolutely vibrating with ideas and can’t wait to get back to her project each day!

Granted, this was someone who was clearly ready to take this step and just needed a little push off the diving board. But the fact that I was able to offer her that help was a shining highlight for me.

The power of inspiration.

Don’t underestimate it.

Spend 5 Days Creating with Me, and Walk Away Transformed - Come to Creative Sandbox Retreat

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