These are dry times. Summer slips away faster than you can catch it – a dime down the drain. The sky hangs damp and icy today. Across the globe, powerful little men toy with the world’s future like it’s a game of chicken. Hurricanes have ravaged large parts of our earth. Families will suffer the effects for years to come. Terrorists won’t let London sleep.
This planet can get so ugly. So broken. So disordered. So many of our mirrors are shattered.
There is order in beauty. A divine order, I believe, but whatever your theology you can feel it. The affirmation of disparate parts falling into place.
Jennifer Berkenbosch’s Cultivar matters because the world needs beauty today. We need to be reminded that there is goodness. There is a solid bed beneath this wild river.
What is the best thing you’ve ever made?
I put this question, or some version of it, to friends sitting in my cold basement. We are sipping wine and turning philosophical.
Our answers turn us backward, pulling out relics for show and tell. We are older now. I wonder if we’ll always see our best moments in the rear view mirror, glazed over with the false fondness of memory?
Are your greatest achievements in the past or in the future?
You have something to say–why not say it here? Email your blog post idea to dave@bleedingheartart.space and let's chat.
Cirque Du NOA poster from Night of Artists website here.
Art Scene 13: Night of Artists, Mornings in Sweatpants and Art in Between
You have something to say–why not say it here? Email your blog post idea to dave@bleedingheartart.space and let's chat.
As more of you sign on for our Grow Your Art Challenge this year, I’m keenly aware of the ‘challenge’ part of the project. For me, setting a goal is the fun part. The real challenge begins the morning after. It is now up to us to drag ourselves out of bed, get into the studio, or in front of the computer, and do the work.
And there is no magic in that. Or is there?
This week I’ve found great encouragement and tips from the shared struggle of others online, working towards some creative goal and overcoming obstacles to do it. Perhaps you’ll find inspiration in their stories as well. Perhaps you’ll even find some tools for the journey.
Michael Nobbs produces the One Thing Today podcast. Michael Nobbs would tell you that much can be accomplished, over time, by doing just one thing today. He is incredibly right.
Michael Nobbs suffers from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. This means he has very little energy. This means that he rarely ‘feels like’ engaging in creative work (or even play). His website, Sustainably Creative is an inspiration to me, as I often face free time without the energy or drive to use it well.
Here are some tips Nobbs has learned to get push through and build a creative life, regardless of his challenges.
"Slowly, over the past decade or so, as I have built up a creative career I’ve learnt that the way to have a sustainably creative life takes three basic things:
1. Working little and often (perhaps for just 20 minutes or less a day). 2. Focus. 3. Recognising what has been achieved."
You can view an introductory video by Michael Nobbs, read more, buy books and subscribe to resources on his website, http://www.sustainablycreative.com
(I discovered this site thanks to the good folks at 99u.com - you'll notice that's a theme this week)
In this 99u Conference talk from one of the founders of AirBnB (the best way to travel, in my opinion), you’ll move through an exercise that helps you visualize your desired future, and then take one small step towards that future. Not a bad way to spend 20 minutes.
Edmonton is so full of innovative, positive ideas (just consider makesomethingedmonton.ca). It’s one of the reasons I love it here.
Brad is a small business owner in Edmonton. Brad is 25 and has autism. This is a challenge. But Brad is very good at building things. This is a strength. Brad put his strengths to work to start a business assembling furniture. Brad can make your IKEA visits stress free. Something about this whole idea just makes my heart smile.
http://youtu.be/Z7ottPhn0QU
Find Brad’s business at madebybrad.com
Another wonderful piece from 99u.com encourages us to find a ‘Creative Support Group’, by reminding us of the Inklings, that magical fellowship including CS Lewis, JRR Tolkein and others.
In How Your Friends Affect Your Creative Work, David Burkus distinguishes between online sharing of work, and face to face sessions with trusted friends. He counsels,
"While we can broadcast our work to the entire world, perhaps we all need to first carve out a space in our life to broadcast on a much smaller scale to a trusted group of folks we respect.”
His brief piece, encouraging us to find valuable critique for our work, is well worth the read here - http://99u.com/articles/21521/in-praise-of-the-creative-support-group
While we’re talking about sharing your work with friends, you are coming to our next Arts Potluck on February 7, right?
Sometimes it is helpful to look in the mirror of the past and recognize what you have accomplished. We can so easily forget where we’ve been, like the ancient Israelites feeling abandoned by God after he’d parted the sea for their safe passage.
As I’ve been looking ahead to a year of making music and meeting my creative goals, I’ve been reminded of my Tiny Gold Squares. A few years ago, I wanted to paint my bedroom wall gold. It was covered in wallpaper, and that wallpaper was full of a pattern of raised squares, about 2 inches across. I couldn’t find gold wall paint, but I did have gold craft paint, and I thought it’d look pretty cool to paint each of these tiny squares gold, leaving the muted sandy hue behind. I was right, but painting those squares, by hand, took hours. And hours.
The whole project of my wall was overwhelming. Unless I painted it one square at a time. Several squares a day. Over days and weeks. I had to work little bits at a time. I had to be content with that. I had to be patient. And in the end, I finished.
Here is the piece I wrote about the experience upon completion, back in 2011.
http://www.vonbieker.com/2014/01/24/tiny-gold-squares-a-post-from-2011/
So, if you haven’t taken the Grow Your Art Challenge yet, please sign up and join us. And when you do, remember to break things down into small steps, work your strengths and paint at least one Tiny Gold Square today.
You have something to say–why not say it here? Email your blog post idea to dave@bleedingheartart.space and let's chat.
