Today's intention was to edit the grant application I'm working on. I knew I had to do a little something, in particular because today is my coaching check in day. Whereby I email my coach what I've done since last week.Currently I am receiving creative coaching from Jill Badonsky, creative coach and founder of the kaizen muse creativity coaching program. My intentions are five fold to receive support during the creation process of the following;
What I am learning in this process is that creating anything is an organic process that evolves on its own time and, really has very little to do with ‘me’. ‘Me’ being the ego. The ‘me’ wants to schedule, force, create on demand, finish it by the deadline and have it all done – yesterday – and perfectly, of course.
The concept of "having it all done" is an illusion with anything we are creating. Everything is evolving, changing, growing at it’s own pace. Nothing is permanent. All this creations are projections and illusions of myself and where I am at now.
I’m realizing that I need to step back and let this creative force work through ‘me’. That my job here is to be present, set my intentions, and come from a place of love and trust in the process of being with my dreams as they manifest. This isn’t about ‘me’ doing, more about ‘me’ letting the doing happen. Watching, observing, and participating with awareness and love.
Something we talk about in creative process are side trips that we sometimes make when we’ve set out to do one thing, and end up doing another. The list above is in, what I had decided was priority order. I’d discussed this with Jill and we’d decided I’d finish up the revision of my marketing plan first. Enter side trip number one.
Turns out the information that I’d gathered and researched to write the marketing plan fits perfectly into a grant application I’d had filed away and was interested in applying to. Now finishing that grant application has become the #1 of 6 items we’re working on in this coaching.
I remain in creative process and learning to let go and trust the flow of things.
Notes on writing an Artist statement
April 2008 Deb Chaney - Artist Statement
I create large contemporary abstract paintings rich in texture with many layers which may include mixed media, acrylics, liquid metals, iridescent powders, earth elements such as sand, and paper collage. Using the ancient principles of Feng Shui, each painting is created with the intention to contribute balance and vitality to your living spaces and may be used to enhance a specific area of your life.
My creative process involves listening to the piece in progress and allowing it to guide me to its next step. Sometimes I am adding layer upon layer and removing parts of each layer. I have no exact plan as to what the finished piece will become. I let each layer guide me and trust the finished image will emerge. I paint with large sky flow brushes, palette knives, sea sponges, sturdy workshop rags, and even my fingers and sleeves. In mid process I have often thought I would eat the paint if that was what the painting required. The process of creating paintings challenges, invigorates and inspires me. Often what motivates me to jump out of bed in the morning is a thought as to I what next layer I need to add – or take away - on a piece I am currently working on. I practice daily, relish the process, and am grateful to live and work in passion.
What is Freedom? 
I’ve had a lot of inquiries with regards to the week long Lana Grow March 2008 Energizing and Experimental watermedia workshop here in Santa Barbara, however many of you work during the day and are looking for something in the evenings…
Tuesday evening was a specific request. So….
I am teaching a Tuesday evening abstract painting class with a focus painting techniques, play and experimentation, and principles that support creativity.
You will learn:
Each class will have a theme to support and deepen your creativity and nurturing yourself in art.
The class will be 8 weeks, Tuesday nights, beginning February 12th from 6-8 pm. This would be February 12, 19th, 26th, March 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th and April 1st ( no fooling!).
There is room for four students only, currently with possibly only two spaces left, and will be held at Deb’s home studio ‘Heaven on Earth’ in Santa Barbara. The cost is $249. You will receive a detailed class curriculum and materials list upon registration. Students are responsible for painting equipment and supplies. Visa and Mastercard as well as personal checks are accepted.
To register call or email Deb Chaney (805) 403-9870 deb@debchaney.com
After taking on a lot of goals this year, and with corporate and personal taxes coming up (I do the book keeping for our family business), and with my new schedule of driving my daughter to and from school, karate, and making dinners, lunches and breakfasts, plus my husband’s Saturday family clean the house dates (not very romantic but kind of fun and much better than doing all the cleaning by myself) - overwhelm has momentarily crept in and taken a hold of my sanity.
Lucky for me I get in the studio first thing – even if it’s just for 10 minutes. But when I leave my magic “heaven on earth” studio space, life creeps in…..
Then I remembered this list I created a while back…. Ok, you read on, I’m going out for a walk.
Oh and John Michael, if you're reading, for goodness sakes, don't do all of these at once - you're likely to get overwhelmed. Just pick one!!!
Here’s my top 10 list of getting past overwhelm:
Just pick the one that seems easy and the most fun.
I just Wanna PlayI've been setting my alarm for 5 am every morning for the last for weeks in order to get in some painting before starting the morning (the goal). No kidding. Hey, I know of another artist who gets up this early regualrly to paint, can’t I? Apparently not.
Funny thing is for the last two weeks every morning the alarm goes off and I bury down deeper in the blankets and procrastinate and then finally get up to leave about ten minutes maybe half hour if - I’m lucky - for painting. Every day those weeks I didn’t get up and then all day long I basically mentally beat myself with a stick. Why couldn't I get up earlier? Why was I wasting those precious morning hours sleeping?
In an effort to motivate myself, I even wrote a list of reasons why I could get up do this.
When that didn’t work I decide to allocate the first bit of the studio solely for doing fun explorative pieces on canvas pad – not touching the larger Pure Abstraction body of work which is my goal for this year.
This was a fun idea but it didn’t get me up at 5 am and yesterday I ended up playing all morning and not getting to any of my “serious” pieces. Hmmmm...
Maybe I need to call Nancy and ask how she does it!!!
Oh dear.
This morning the alarm didn't go off. I heard our neighbor’s car as he left for work and it seemed to be getting light out. Usually it’s dark when the alarm goes off. So I got out of bed, curious to see what time it was. 6:30 am!! But instead of the usual panic I tidied some things around the house, made my daughter’s lunch and then headed to the studio for the 10 minutes before seven when I wake her up and start the process of getting her ready for school.
And, honestly, it was the best 10 minutes ever!
Maybe ten minutes is enough. Less is more. I keep saying that to my friend Meg who is craving to get back into her creativity…”Just a few minutes in the morning is enough.” Yet here I was being a hypocrite and aiming high for two hours!!!
Cheers to ten minutes of painting time in the morning!
SerenityLast blog I talked about bridging , this being one studio technique/habit you can use to set yourself up to work on your painting regularly. If you went ahead and tried this, or took any small step towards any of your 2008 goals, it’s important to celebrate your success.
Why celebrate? Giving yourself a small reward for the step you just took in the direction of your goal is important because we are training our brains and our beings to form new habits and the reward is a positive re-enforcement to keep us going.
Let’s face it, if you go and paint for 5 minutes today you may not have someone patting you on your back saying; “Way to go!” or “Your painting is fantastic” or “ I’m sooo glad you took some time out to pursue your creative dream”. You may not have a lot of initial support around you, so it’s important that you became your own cheering squad. Therefore, giving ourselves positive feedback for this small step we took towards our goal will help us feel good about what we did so that we will do it again and form a new habit.
In the long run we hope that the doing the thing itself (in this case painting) is the reward in itself. I can say for me that being in creative process is reward in itself. However, even though I am totally passionate about my art and paint often ---sometimes there are things that come up – procrastination, resistance, life busy stuff, etc – that keep me away from the studio and my art and hence this is why, in the course of this blog, I am presenting you tricks and habits I've learned that I use to overcome this blocks.
Hence, the key is to reward yourself when you do *it, especially when you are starting out and forming this new habit!
*it= paint, take 5 minutes to write your book, make a small step towards one of your goals.
Here are some small ways that I reward myself for taking small steps towards my 2008 goals:
And these are some big ways that I reward myself for taking small steps towards (yes, I still did intend to say small step, however sometimes it's good to mix it up a bit and give yourself a jack pot. ) my goals:
I’d love to hear how you reward yourself for the small steps you are taking towards making your creative dreams become real life daily habit and ritual.
