I got a message on my facebook wall ( facebook is mylatest addiction, I confess!) the other day from a friend I met at business seminar in San Diego, specifically Sales Explosion by Frontier Trainings, several months back. He asked me how to get started painting....
It's a good question and something to consider is one that a child would never even think about, they just go for it. Somewhere along the way into adult hood we get all this beliefs and notions and fear and so on in our heads and even the smallest thing, like writing a few lines in a journal, let alone picking up a paint brush and pushing paint around become monumental, difficult, overwhelming....
I paint nearly every day and have been for years - 8+. I write in a journal almost daily. There is nothing special or different about me. Just that I went out of my way to find out how to overcome procrastination, overwhelm, artist's block and all the other things that stop us from pursuing our creative callings.
Here are my favourites that keep me charged up:
- Look what I've already done - I was just at Samy's Camera working with Troy and going over the digital photos he'd shot of the first 8 Patchwork Paper paintings and I kept commenting on how energized I felt seeing m y completed work. Well done, Deb I kept saying to myself. Troy & I were laughing but it really was a genuine feeling of pride. That feeling keeps me going.
- Bridging - Setting up the studio so that when I next come to it everything I need to start painting is in place ready to go, organized, water containers filled, paper towels available, counter space cleared to lay down a painting.
- Writing. See the photo above I am painting on a piece of paper in which I wrote using black india ink (I like Higgins Black Magic) just to release some feelings and thoughts. After I clear out mentally it makes room for creativity to flow. In this case I was thinking of incorporating this into another patchwork painting piece....but anyways I'm working on some other stuff...( so much to do, so little time)
- Evening ritual of writing down my successes. Every night before I go to bed I write out my successes. When I take the time to congratulate or honor myself for what I did today as a forward movement towards my long & short term goals - IE success - showed up at the studio, worked in Pure Abstraction paintings today! It makes me want to do more. Hence it gets easier and easier to come back and start because I've created a positive neuro association with the task at hand. Make sense?
- Looking at other artists work - this Friday my friend Lyza Loo and I are headed to the LA art convention in Santa Monica to look at other artist work! Do you know how jazzed I get when I see other artist making it happen and succeeding big time? Very. because I know if they can do it, so can I.
Keep feeding your well. Please feel free to share with us what keeps you going or gets you started. Best, Deb
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