Yoga, Ayurveda, and Creativity
/Turning your painting practice pieces into sellable art
/- Art cards ( buy the blank ones at a craft store such as Michael's and then glue on covers from your practice piece. Ahhh yes, now you know why I had the paper cutter at the back of the workshop room! I was cutting up my practice pieces and making gift cards while you were painting yours!!!)
- Book marks ( cut the art piece in a long rectangle and get it laminited)
- Artist trading cards ( I wrote a blog about that last year or the year before, check it out for all the details)
- Blank notepads with your art on the cover ( Last year I took all the old programs from the Culture Crawl and had them bound at a printer into little blank recycled paper note pads and then used my old art canvas pieces make excellent covers - especially when you use Kroma Crackle Paste, it looks like leather!!! Use a view finder on the art piece you're done with and find the sweet spot for the art on the cover of your card. People Love to buy these that want a piece of art but are not ready to commit to a big piece)
- Collage - cut up the old art and collage it into other new paintings (recycle!)
- Magnets (cut the canvas pad piece into any shape. Re-in force it with cardboard. Glue a magnet to the back of it. Optional: Pour resin over it to give it gloss and depth!! On a personal note I was soooo wanting to do this and make a bunch of magnets for the upcoming culture crawl open studio show but at this point I just don't think I"ll have time :-( )
- Homemade journals (cut out the best picture from the practice art piece on loose canvas and glue it to a blank journal. I like to put a sticker or my biz card on the back to give it a signature feel.)
Creating with interruptions
/If you are living in the modern world and attempting to create art of any kind – music, painting, pottery, writing, etc .- you are faced with interruptions. My opinion, one of the most interrupted people in the world are mothers.
Its like there is this unwritten code that once you’ve given birth your body, life, breasts, time, solitude, and mind space now belong now to that which came from you and surrounding people who call themselves ‘family’ and take every ounce unless you set firm boundaries and decree otherwise. Yeah, Ok, some of my personal shite is coming up here but we’re all connected so I know I’m not alone here. Hello, I am an artist, I
have ideas and passions and these require time so I can dwell on them, research them, expand them, create them, edit them, and bring them into the world just as I did you. You are born now, let me birth others.
“mama, I need….” ( seriously as I write this maybe 4 – 5 interuptions with request, demands, questions….)
Don't be fooled by how cute she is. Here is she is, my girl Ruthie, thinking about her next move to distract and interupt me. (:o)Look at that, she even has the gull to sit on my studio painting table and plan her next move!
So, how do we stay on track, keep the momentum going, gestate and birth our creative creations, even despite and within the interruptions?
I do a few things that work for me, but really I’m just dying to hear from you. So if you are super successful and have a private office/studio and a nanny taking care of your shopping, laundry, dinner, and kids you can refrain from commenting. Sit back, grin, remember the good old times when things were otherwise, but please don’t’ torture us folks here on the other side. I’m speaking to those of us who are on our way but not quite there yet and still mainly doing all of the above on our own plus making an effort to carve out some time for our own creative pursuits.
“ Hey Deb, will you….” (ever notice how every one wants something exactly the minute you begin to get really into your project)
For one, to stay focused and so I don’t forget, I post a sticky note right above where I am working. It’s got two words on it.
- Focus
- On writing this blog (what you are working on)
That way, every time “ mama!mama!...” I can answer it, and remember what the heck I was doing. Really, I know mothers would understand this but really all parents in general.
This one I don’t recommend but quite frankly I become like a caged animal and that would be in simple speak pretty nasty to be around because as Jill Badonsky puts in her book 9 Modern Day Muses and a Body guard, we mortals get cranky when we don’t create. So I either piss everyone off or scare them away but honestly I hate getting to this point and I had a ‘friend’ recommend a hypnosis program for anger management which I’m gladly looking into.
I’m also wishing the next man I date realizes that when I'm crabby its more than likely because I haven’t painted and that he puts a paint brush in my hand and takes my kid for a drive. Thank you God in advance.
Bring! Bring! ( this is supposed to be a telephone)
Ok that reminds me. We have some control here. We can turn off the phone, shut down the computer, turn off skype, click off facebook, shut the door, put up a sign, nicely tell everyone we will be busy for the next hour. Mommy time. Get out the body guard (read 9 Modern Day Muses and a Body guard) Let me know if that works for you, or for that matter what works for you.
So what about you? How are you making time for your creative pursuits in amoungst the noise and distractions of life?
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Looking for a unique and personal gift? Tote bags. Mugs. Aprons. Prints & Greeting Cards.All with Deb's original artwork. The Little Inspiration Book, & Sand in my Bra Written/co-written by Deb.
Original ART available to view and purchase
...in Beverly Hills paintings at SWITCH Boutique
...in Santa Barbara at Java Station Coffee House,
...in Los Angeles at Via Roma Boutique.
Deb Chaney Contemporary Abstract Artist PO Box 3931 Santa Barbara, CA 93130 805-570-1582 debchaney@live.com http://debchaney.blogspot.com