Creative Paralysis

Sometimes we embark on a path and we are able to follow along without detours and side trips.  For my journey into creativity, I have not been able to do that.  I started this blog with every intention of doing some good creative projects that I could share.  My expectations were that I would be able to put some discipline into my creative process since of course I would need to write about it every week.  Since it has been 6 weeks since I posted anything, I guess it's quite clear that didn't quite work out.


During the last few weeks, I learned all about winter again.  I thought since Texas appeared in my Southern Living magazine, that it was in the south.  I equate south with warm.  Well I was wrong, it has been really cold here. Have I mentioned lately how much I miss Florida?  Perhaps it has been the Texas cold that paralyzed my creativity.  OK it sounds plausible, but it wasn't that.  It was that little demon that I think sometimes affects all of us when we try to exercise our creative guns.  Yep, confidence, or perhaps better said the lack thereof of such a thing.

I signed up for an online art class the beginning of the year.  It is a really cool class called Soul Food with amazing teachers and lessons.  I have watched the lessons, but the first couple of were so far out of my comfort zone, that I didn't even attempt to try the lesson.  Of course I know that for my growth as an artist, that I should work on these, but  I just haven't been able to get over my fear, which is really funny since the first lesson was just about that.

Well as I often do, I strayed from the path and did my usual ADD thing.  You know, found someplace else to place my focus.  Learning to play marimbas, trying to see how many meals I could get out of a single roast chicken, 4 but we were pretty tired of chicken by then.  A rubber stamp convention came to town mid January and I took a Zentangle class from an amazing teacher;  Janice K Freiheit, CZT.  Here are a few of my first attempts,

Zentangle uses the premise that anything is possible 1 stoke at a time.  This has been an absolutely wonderful path for me to wander down.  I have figured out, that I can actually drawn.  They are very simple drawings, but I am practicing and learning and I will get there.  Not ready to post anything, but perhaps someday soon.  I seem to have a lot of doodled scratch paper at my cube, the result of some boring conference calls.  Oops.....

Then.....the cold caught up with me, I hunkered under the afghan drinking hot chocolate and watching you tube videos.  Always nice to see what other people are doing.  I found another class at The Crafty Scrapper using alcohol inks. I have tons of these and was thrilled to find a new way to use them.  It was taught by The Artful Maven, Anita Houston.  This was the best thing I could have done for myself, Anita is an amazing teacher and spending a few hours with her and my classmates has inspired me like never before.  Here is a picture of  the project we made in class.

Since class last week, I have been inspired and had a very productive time in my art space.  I have finished a couple of journal pages, a piece with art parts that I am going to upload for a contest using stencils and have started on a canvas.  Perhaps the road is starting to even out a bit. But you know me, a bumpy road just seems to be more fun.

We put off redoing my art space until the end of next month.  We have some company coming in a few weeks and want to make sure we don't have the house torn up when they get here and I am sure it will be a work in progress for a while.  I have committed to Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings in my space. Since my cat believes I get up at 4 am (I do during the week) even on Saturdays, that should give me some nice create time.  Figured out if I didn't set aside time, life gets in the way.  Oh and of course that work thing I have to do to eat seems to take up a large part of my life.  Oh well, I guess I will buy a couple of Powerball tickets and dream.   Art supplies..... Studio set up like I dream of.......  Time.......

Till next time, the path is crooked, but that's what makes it fun.