Walking in This World

I created this blog a couple years ago as a requirement of a group of quilters working their way through Julia Cameron's The Artist Way.

When we finished, a few of us talked about looking at the sequel, Walking in the World, but never really got started.

(image and link, courtesy of Amazon)

I'm ready now . . . and planning to start after the holidays, in early January. Want to join me? My "walks" should be interesting, given Michigan winters and short winter days.

Artist way: week 12 check-in

All too often, when we say we want to be creative, we mean that we want to be able to be productive. -J. Cameron

In terms of Artist Way tasks, my performance this week was anything but stellar, but still, I experienced a feeling of accomplishment for completing the book and enjoyed looking back on the small, positive changes in my creative life.

The photo is of a section of my branching out scarf, knit last fall and cited as an example of my habit of creating and abandoning almost finished objects. It's pinned to my design wall, blocking now--I am going to wear it to work one day next week. Along with another almost finished scarf, socks and a sleeveless turtleneck, I faced my fears of judgement and finished the projects anyway. The sky didn't fall.

I also made the leap and tried a new direction in quilting. No one laughed out loud or slyly intimated that my approach was too simplistic.

In the time available to me, I am making more and finishing more. I credit the work with TAW.

At work, I have re-established an attitude of work as play and am finding ways to enjoy being there.

Getting back to the basics, a week of sleepless nights resulted in no morning pages this week for me and, honestly, I missed the way they help me stay grounded during stressful times.

My artist date this week was the beginning of a 2 week adventure that I'm sharing with more than 4,000 others around the world: the Knitting Olympics. A couple of participants have blogged about why they think we're all doing it. My opinion is that we're doing it for the simple JOY it brings. It has all the qualities of a perfect artist date.

My Knitting Olympics experience provided me with a bit of synchronicity, too. As I just described in my upate, after making phenomenal progress, I discovered a mistake and had to rip out most of what I knit yesterday afternoon and evening. Flipping back through chapter 12 and my notes on it, I had to smile at this, very appropriate for me, quote:

Do not fear mistakes–there are none. -Miles Davis

Artist Way: week 11 check-in

Last week, I did morning pages 5 of 7 days. I have suggested the practice to a couple of colleagues as a way of starting the day centered in the midst of too much going on at the office.

For my Artist Date, I spent a morning in my sewing room, truly playing with two ideas: the Illustration Friday topic of the week (chair) and Ami Simms' Art Quilt Initiative. The result is this start on a journal-sized quilt which, if it turns out well, will be donated for Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts.

Synchronicity is alive and well and even following me into the office on a regular basis. My project has become very interrupt driven--I'm being bombarded with phone calls and email messages from a large cast of characters and yet, I continue to be surprised by how often I'll pick up the phone to call someone who is calling me or I'll be in the middle of responding to an email message and the person I'm mailing will call. On the home front, I was home in bed with a cold one day last week. I took advantage of being home during daylight hours and ventured out briefly in the afternoon to take a photo to use as the basis for the design for my February Journal Quilt. While I was out, I popped in next door, where I met a friend of my neighbor who is on the brink of moving to Santa Fe, a place I believe could be my next home. She was also talking about a very innovative business program that she recently completed that actually sounded very interesting to me; it's very innovative out-of-the-box stuff. So now you know--I'm not just a quilt class junkie ... I love to learn and this could be my next learning adventure.

Artist Way: week 10 check-in

It takes grace and courage to admit and surrender our blocking devices. -J. Cameron

BLOCK. It seems to be a loaded word for many of us. Since I don't actually think of myself as a blocked artist, I usually translate Julia's use of blocks into things that slow me down in terms of productivity or things that keep me from leaping and making the original quilts in my head instead of safely being inspired by others' work.

Like Debra admitted on the the Artist Way Quilters blog, I also didn't crack the book until the end of the week. When I finally did read the chapter, the synchronicity–or maybe just plain ole irony–put a big smile on my face. All that stuff about work and workaholism and what was it that kept me from reading the chapter and doing the Artist Way exercises this week? Yep, it was the demands of a project at what I affectionately refer to as my day job. All week long, I've gone into the office early, worked late and come home emotionally exhausted. To me this chapter seemed to be all about balancing creating with livelihood and that constant struggle to find time for everything that's necessary for life. Another quote that grabbed me from this chapter was this one:

When we are really honest with ourselves, we must admit that our lives are all that really belong to us. So it is how we use our lives that deermines the kind of men we are. -Caesar Chavez

When I finally read the chapter and the exercises, I realized that I must have picked up a trick or two from past reading this book and made them my own. Part of exercise 5 is to "do one lovely thing for yourself each day." When work or life become stress-y, this has become my automatic response. During this week, I bought a pot of blooming pot of azaelas at the grocery store when I ran in to pick up milk and coffee, evn though it won't be able to go outside for at least 4 more months. Another day, I took a stroll through an art gallery during my lunch hour. One evening, I enjoyed a nice long soak in a bubble bath.

This week, I managed morning pages 5 of 7 days. Julia mentions in this chapter that Artist Dates are often harder to do than morning pages . . . and so it was for me, this week. I had plans to go to a movie yesterday and never made it. Maybe instead of going into the office to work a few hours this afternoon, I'll go to a matinée instead :-)

Artist Way: week 9 check-in

I did morning pages 6 of 7 days this week.

For an artist date, I spent Saturday morning dyeing at the local art center. I overdyed the failed shibori silk scarf with better results, dyed a large cotton rag rug--I guess I caught the decorating but from Deb--and dyepainted two fat quarters for my stash.
Last week I found myself thinking alot about the image for the winter Art Image Challenge, Drum Bridge at Maguro by Hiroshige (1797-1858). I love this predominarely white landscape and thinking about how to translate some part of it into fabric.

I kept wishing I could get a closer look at those trees and the snow on the trees and mother nature obliged me with a nice bit of synchronicity by way of two snow storms. These pictures are take the day of the first. As I walked between building, I stopped to take these photos.

I had to laugh as i walked through the plaza and realized that many of the elements of Hiroshige's painting exist in my world: the snow covered trees, the bridge, stone wall, the figures walking. Maybe I should reinterpret the painting as a 21st century view of a snow-covered plaza?

I wasn't able to complete all of the exercises this week because of too many long days in the office. I did work through the blasting through blocks questions before beginning my work on the January Quilt Journal page and found it enlightening and refreshing to understand the resentments and fears (aka emotional baggage) I'd already attached to this effort.

Artist Way: week 8 check in

Small movements lead us to the larger movements in our creative lives. -Julia Cameron

This was a pretty good week for me. I completed morning pages 6 out of 7 days, but I ran out of time for an Artist Date. Synchronicity? Working the chapter that "tackles" time when a project at work became especially demanding of my time. Also this quote on time from Carl Sanburg turned up on the quotations weblog:

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. -Carl Sandburg

Last week I said that I thought Julia gave us a great basis for resolutions by reminding us that Treating myself like a precious object will make me strong. This week I would add that I think the steps of the goal search task is one of the best approaches to goal-setting I've encountered--perfect for setting goals for 2006. I found it a great way to go from "dream" to long term goal to near term goal to what I can do now; from ideal-ideal to ideal to what's possible now. I set some quilt-related goals that, for the first time, feel realistic for me, given the reality of my life. I also believe that they are small movements which will lead to larger movements in my creative life.

I really liked the tasks of describing ideal and ideal-ideal days. I realized that my ideal day in the world I inhabit now would have to be a 30-hour day--no wonder I'm having problems finding time for morning pages AND exercise AND breakfast in the morning before I go to work. I was surprised that I included a lot of detail about things that would make my day-job ideal. (I realized that it wouldn't take much to make that work so much more fulfilling).

Part of my ideal-ideal day would be spending half my days making things. I gave myself the gift of half a day working in my studio space and made some progress on the daisy work-in-progress:

Edit to add link to Artist Way Quilter discussiont:
Artist Way Quilters: Chap 8 Check-in January 15, 2006

Resolving, Evolving and The Artist Way

In week 7, Julia Cameron asks us to make this line our mantra,

Treating myself like a precious object will make me strong.

What a great bit of timing (and synchronicity!) to receive this reminder when so many are busily creating goals for the year and resolving to do what it takes to achieve them.

I confess that I am more of an evolver than resolver--continually fine-tuning my life as I discover more of what works and what doesn't. Treating myself like a precious object--in the context of diet, exercise, career or creating a balanced life with plenty of time for making things always seems to be the right answer. I read about diets with the same attitude as toward my weekly horoscope--taking them in and seeing if they resonate. For me, if I am mindful, if I am paying attention, if I am treating myself like a precious object, I will eat well, sleep enough, keep moving (and feeling better) ... and CREATE.