I’m back and writing once more about the book 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women by Gail McMeekin and The Next Chapter Blogging Book Club. One of my favorite parts of secret #3 was the section about Barbara Sher. When I read her quote “The good life is when you get up in the morning and can’t wait to start all over again”, I got goosebumps. In that one line, I finally realized what I have been searching for since I became a stay-at-home mom. I need something in my life that makes me want to get up and do it all over again…and cooking, cleaning, shopping and laundry are not enough. In the past few years, I have been focusing on experimenting with various art techniques, trying to find one that I felt passionate about. I wrote about that a bit in my post about secret #2. I’m giving myself permission to continue playing and follow whatever my current fascination is at the time. There was a lot of discussion in the chapter regarding risk-taking. Because I’ve always been shy, it took me a long time to truly embrace life and take risks. I have always believed that the semester I spent studying in Europe was a defining moment in my life. It was there that I became confident in myself as a person. After graduating from college, that confidence served me well in my accounting career. Unfortunately, motherhood changed all that. Chapter three also referred to an inner patriarch that torments us with limiting rules. I think it is my inner patriarch that makes me feel as though the family and home responsibilities must be done to a “Donna Reed” level before my “frivolous creative yearnings” can be indulged. I have been trying to identify myself with one goal, one interest. I know now that I have to embrace the business person, the homemaker, the mother, and the artist. I can be all these things and it is okay. I’m going to join Jessie Marianiello’s Be Brave Project and follow the words of Eleanor Roosevelt  to ”do something everyday that scares you”. As part of my mission to rediscover my adventurous side, I bought a new pair of shoes this week that expresses just that. But here is a picture so that you can be the judge.

My last words for today come from Eudora Welty…

All serious daring starts from within.

Well, I didn’t quite get this post done before the group moved on to the next chapter. Yesterday was just a busy day and when it got to be last night, I just didn’t have it in me to write about Chapter 2 of the 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women. Secret number two about honoring your inspirations dealt with a topic that I seem to think about quite often – identifying those things that you love – those things that have been with you since you were young. As I have found my way back to creating art, I seem to continually ask myself what “my style” is and what kind of artwork do I like to do the best. A friend of mine used the phrase “jack of all trades, master of none” yesterday. I guess that has been the way I feel about my art. So when I read this chapter, I hoped to come away with a description of things that influence my art. Well, I can honestly say that it didn’t happen but at least I spent some quality time with myself and got a little closer the answer.

I started by digging out a list that I had made about eight years ago when I was reading “Simple Abundance” by Sara Ban Breathnach. You were supposed to spend 10 minutes and create a list 50 things that you love. As I reread the list, I realized that several items influence my artwork. Some of these are:

• reading
• music
• architecture
• foreign countries (people, sites, sounds, smells and tastes)
• history
• color
• nature

I plan to pay closer attention to the things that I’ m drawn to so that I can further refine my inspirations and start seeking out opportunities to indulge my creative soul.

There were a couple of lines from the book that struck particularly strong emotions from me. The phrase ”…it’s not the `work’, it’s exploration and discovery” seemed to some up my view of creating. The end result is not the driving force behind my work. It is the creation process. There was also the discussion of needing the ritual of work and creating rituals that signal to you that it is time to create. This is something that I have been working on for the past year – dedicating time each day.  I am fortunate to have a wonderful studio in my house, where I can be alone with all my supplies and things that inspire me. But because I am a stay-at-home mom, I find it so hard to officially add studio time to my routine. Listening to the interview with Suzie Ridler, made me realize that part of my problem is still the stigma I associate with being a stay-at-home mom/housewife. Even though I left the workforce almost 15 years ago, I still have not let go of valuing my self-worth in terms of a salary. This chapter has made me realize that it is time that I became comfortable in my own skin!  Ahhh, self-confidence has never been one of my strengths.

Yesterday there was synchronicity working its magic in my life (and I love when that happens). I seem to be constantly looking for ways to keep myself on the creative path (it is more fun and easier with traveling companions). After I made my post for the GPP Crusade, I was visiting some of the blog posts by other “crusaders” when I followed a link to another blog, then another link, and another link until I found myself on Jamie Ridler’s “The Next Chapter” blog, which is a blogging book group currently reading “The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women” by Gail McMeekin. Since I knew I had the book (having read bits and pieces in the past) and the group had just started the second chapter, I knew I was meant to join in.

The first secret is acknowledging your creative self. I have always thought of myself as creative. Some of my first memories involve a box of 64 crayons and large cardboard boxes that were transformed into whatever my imagination envisioned. My creativity continued to thrive throughout my childhood, drawing “Winky” from magazine ads and attempting to write my own Nancy Drew mysteries. My right brain and left brain were equally stimulated through high school but when it came time to choose a career path, my mind quickly focused on pursuing a career in business. So followed my bachelor degrees in Accounting and Management Information Systems.

You always hear stories about parents who discouraged children from pursuing a career in the arts but my parents never made such comments to me. What I do remember was that my older sister began her college career as an art major only to switch two years later into occupational therapy because there was “a need” for people in the field. I also had an older brother in the accounting field, so maybe I thought wearing a business suit to work each day was appealing (boy, would that idea change). During that time, my creativity didn’t go into hibernation but my recognition of my self as being creative certainly did. I would sew and decorate my apartments but I always looked upon those things as more domestic than creative. It wasn’t until after my oldest son was born that I began to look for my creativity. I found myself suffering from post-partum depression (something I denied for a very long time) but found that I felt best when I was engaged in a creative activity. I began scrapbooking and it seemed the perfect outlet – creativity while capturing memories for my child. My need for creativity in my life became apparent when I had periods of time when I didn’t make time for it. My depression always worsened during those times. The best times were when I was exploring new materials or techniques as I moved from scrapbooking to pursuing interests in a variety of mediums. I now call myself a mixed media artist…acknowledging my artist self but knowing that I will probably never be devoted to just one medium for artistic expression.

It may have been a month since I last posted, but I used some of the time to do an entry for Michelle Ward’s Green Pepper Press Crusade #27 (actually got it done over two weeks before the deadline…WooHoo!).
Don’t you just love Michelle’s title for this challenge…SHAPE UP! Although I have my own personal fitness resolution, I was glad to find out that her challenge was to pick a shape and study the various ways the shapes could be incorporated into our art and make some new tools to make our shape of choice.
I will admit that I thought about what shape I wanted to use for several days before finally decided to go with a chevron shape. What is a chevron, you may ask? It is that shape you see on the sleeves of military uniforms that indicate the rank…a “V” shape (although it is upside down on a uniform).
I started by cutting three different sizes of chevron as stencils from chipboard, being careful so that I could use the shape I removed as a mask. I also cut a small chevron out of craft foam that I could use as a stamp (I decided to put the “stamp” on some EZ Mount so that I could use the stamp with my acrylic blocks).
I played with my new tools on a journal page, using gesso to stencil some of the shapes and mask others. I created not only solid shapes but also outlines which I plan to explore more. But I think my favorite part was using the chevron stamp to make a herringbone pattern, which is on the right side of the page on the dark teal area. I see more “chevron play” in my future.