Cinnamon Pink

Make 2016 the Best for Your Art from Nicholas Wilton

I came across this inspiring post, Make 2016 the Best for Your Art written by Nicholas Wilton. He suggests that artists ask themselves the following question, “What is the best situation, the best conditions for me to make Art?"

Here are a few of the conditions that Wilton has integrated into his art practice that has helped him significantly:

• Schedule Your Studio Time Every Week -  "Treat your art practice as important as self care, because actually it is. We all know that when our art is going well we feel fantastic?"

• Show Up Little but Often - "Don’t worry about not having enough time to spend 5 hours making art every day or even one day....Come in for 30 minutes if that is all you have."

• Allow More, Not Less, to Come In - "In your life, gather anything that you see or find that resonates with you and bring that, in some form or another, into your studio. It could be a photo you have seen or a print from something online or just an object found....Inspiration comes from experiencing change and newness."

Make sure that you read the complete post for more details.

 

 

 

 

Make Room for Play

Today I was cleaning out my files when I came across an interesting article written by Norman Lobsenz on Making Room for Play. Basically the article’s premise was that Americans believe they must always be doing something productive. And that we do not leave much time for our brains and bodies to recuperate.

To make leisure time more fun, the experts suggest the following:

• Find New Playmates – Spending most of our leisure time with the same group of friends usually results in doing the same routine things. Break that pattern by reaching out to new acquaintances and fresh activities.
• Don’t Turn Play into Work – Instead of turning hobbies and sports into serious tasks, look at these activities as something to be enjoyed. The key is to stay in the moment and nurture your childlike wonder.
• Expand Your Leisure Horizons – Set aside one day each month to try something different. If you usually work with watercolor paints, try sculpting with Creative Paper Clay instead. If you don’t enjoy it then you only risked a bit of time and the cost of the clay. But if you do enjoy it, you’ve opened up new avenues of creativity.
• Do What You Really Like Doing - Play time should not be focused on "what you should do.” Enhance your leisure time with pleasant pursuits.
• Don’t Rule Out an Activity because You’re a Novice. Pursuing new activities can refresh your spirit and be just as pleasurable at the beginner level.

How will you make room for Play?

Finding Inspiration for Your Art

Vintage Books 

Need a little jolt of artistic inspiration? Then take a look at these ideas – and challenge yourself to start making marvelous and magnificent art today.

• Search the Web and Google Images for historical and contemporary fashion styles. Study color combinations, patterns, fabric textures and costume style. Attempt to incorporate some of the ideas you find into your own mixed-media art projects. The Fashion-Era site contains 885 content rich, illustrated pages of Fashion History, Costume History, Clothing, Fashions and Social History.

•  Check out Style and Design blogs to keep up with the newest trends, leading edge ideas and upcoming fashions and interior design. These trends usually eventually trickle down to the art world. As you study these different styles and designs, try to adapt them to your own art work.

• Take a trip to the downtown area of your nearest city. Study the architecture of historical buildings – and make some quick sketches or take photographs. No time for a trip downtown?  Check out books on architecture in your town library – or your own personal library. Pay attention to the shapes, forms and decorative details of the buildings. Can you make an  assemblage art piece based on the buildings that you admire?

• Poke around in Flea Markets and Thrift Shops looking for vintage fabrics, old photographs, retro jewelry, metal findings, unique china, old board games, puzzles and ephemera. Later, decide how you can incorporate these finds into a new art piece. 

• The next time that you reach for your breakfast cereal, check out the packaging design on the box. Seriously, you can learn a lot from studying the package design on the food products, or other items, that you purchase. Rummage through your refrigerator or cupboards and see what ideas you can come up with. Create a collage with the designs that call your name. 

• Traveling to new destinations can jumpstart your creative juices. Plan a day trip, a long weekend or a vacation if you can fit it in. Tourist spots near your home can offer inspiration if you visit them as if you were seeing the attractions for the first time. For example, I live near Colonial Williamsburg. Simply walking around the manicured grounds helps me gain new insights and a heightened sense of awareness. Revisiting areas that you haven’t been to in years may offer you a fresh perspective too. Snap some photos, purchase a bunch of local area postcards for later review - or make a few quick sketches. These tactics may help fuel some innovative artistic ideas for your next art studio session. 

• Vintage children’s picture books are often filled with amazing visual art that can inspire your own work. Do study the illustrations but also check out unusual typography; use of color and fonts. Find these old books at used book stores, thrift shops, antique stores, your local library, Google Books or online stores (e.g., Abe Books). I especially like collecting children’s picture books from the 1920's and 1930's. 

Make sure you capture all of the inspiring sources that you do find during these exercises in your Art Journal, sketchbook, hard drive or on Pinterest. Then begin to create inspiring art today.

 

 

Check Out Tara Sophia Mohr's site

Via Lesley Riley, host of Artist Success, I found Tara Sophia Mohr's site. Take a few moments to read her thought-provoking articles, such as Ten Rules for Brilliant Women.

On her site, you can also sign up to receive her free Ten Rules for Brilliant Women Workbook as well as articles, inspiration and updates.

Taking Forward Steps from Lesley Riley

In case you didn't read Lesley Riley's recent, feature article in her newsletter, take a coffee break and check it out. Lesley writes wonderful, inspirational articles for artists.

I could relate to her analogy of sidesteps in this artcle, entitled, The One Step You Must Take. Read it today and Turn Your SideSteps into ForwardSteps.

On Making Mistakes from Neil Gaiman

Via the liveinspired blog, I came across this inspirational quote by Neil Gaiman:

"I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something."

What a liberating and motivational quote! So here's to a year of marvelous mistakes. Go forth and make mistakes today and see what you come up with.

And keep this quote in your back pocket for those days when you need to turn your mistakes into positive adventures.

Decide to Move in 2012 from Tara Reed

I saw this inspiring quote on Tara Reed's Art Licensing Blog and I just had to share it:

"The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you’re not going to stay where you are. Analyze your life in terms of your environment. Are the things around you helping you towards success or are they holding you back? You are not planted in the ground like a tree… you can change. What part of your environment needs to change?”

 – Keith J. Cunningham

To encourage even more of a positive push to your day, read the rest of Tara's blog post on Decide to Move in 2012 - and check out her other motivating articles too.

Then Decide on Your Next Affirmative Career Move in 2012!

SOAR Over-Sized Postcard

As you probably know from reading my blog, I like to surround myself with motivational postcards, posters - and quotations. I recently had the (above) mixed-media, collage art work made into professionally-printed postcards. The postcards are 8 1/2" wide x 5 1/2" tall. 

Do you hang up motivational quotations in your Studio or Work Place?

Open Road or Closed?

Today I was taking my usual walk and enjoying the scenery.  I began thinking about some creative project ideas when some negative chatter started to occupy my mind.

Just then, serendipitously, I came across a street sign labeled: Road Closed. That encounter taught me something.

I could continue to dwell on the closed road, ie, my negative thoughts. Or, I could turn my thoughts around and concentrate on an open road instead. I chose the open road analogy.

How about you? What is the road ahead - that we all travel - telling you?