Book Review – Find Your Artistic Voice by Lisa Congdon

I bought Lisa Congdon’s Find Your Artistic Voice, went straight from the bookstore to a coffee shop and devoured it in about two hours. Lisa is an illustrator and her usual audience is artists, but I think this book and the concept of an artistic voice expands beyond just fine art to any creative endeavor we choose – dance, music, baking, gardening, fashion, make up, crafts, photography, collecting, decorating, writing…you get the point.

These are some of the things that make up my artistic voice.

Here are some of my favorite highlights.

Conformity is for the Birds.

I’ve always felt like an outsider and for some reason I perceived this as bad. I spent my whole life trying to fit in, be more like the “popular” people. But a thought popped into my mind while I was running the other day (running is like showering in that respect). It was this – why be a second (third, fourth…etc.) rate copy of somebody else (thinking a lot about celebrity/influencer culture here) when you can be a first-rate version of yourself? I wish I had learned this 40 years ago. Also, I felt like an outsider most of my life because I hadn’t found my people yet.

Enter Your Orbit.

Don’t think of finding your artistic voice as a destination, it’s more like “entering your own ‘orbit’, where you are floating around in your own circular path, like a planet orbits around its own sun. The sun you orbit around is your aptitude and skills, your ideas, your style, your perspective – all the things that make your voice yours.” I love this analogy because it allows room to evolve and grow. It’s not a fixed point. No matter where you are in your journey, you have an artistic voice, it’s not something you achieve, it’s who you are and how you express it. A three-year-old has an artistic voice just as much as an 83-year-old does.

Practice – A Lot

Lisa breaks down artistic voice into five components – style, skill, subject matter, medium and consistency. Her 10 steps to develop skill basically boil down to one word – practice.

For some reason when we think of art, we think we must have “natural talent”. But the truth is, it’s a skill like anything else. And the only way to develop that skill is through practice. Think of all the skills you’ve mastered over your life – walking, talking, reading, driving, math, cooking, etc. You already possess the most important skill of all – learning.

This all sounds so easy – just practice!

Unfortunately, our thoughts and feelings get in the way of our doing. Fear of failure, looking foolish, not being good enough are a few that come to mind. The older we get, the harder it is to be a beginner, with all its mistakes, messiness, doubts, and fumbles. But if we’re ever to improve, to bring that vision in our head and birth it into being, we must go through this stage.

The problem is we try to solve it by changing our thoughts and feelings.

William Glasser wrote a wonderful book – Control Theory. This is another one of those books I’ll never get rid of. The part that resonated with me and is applicable here is summed up as such: humans are basically a control system made up of four components that comprise our total behavior – doing (acting), thinking (our thoughts), feeling (emotions) and physiology (sweating, turning red). These are not mutually exclusive; each affects the others.

There is a huge emphasis these days on trying to change our thoughts and feelings, so we’ll act, either at all or differently. Most of us know how ineffective this is and Glasser points out that the one component we have the most control over is doing.

“Regardless of how we feel, we always have some control over what we do.”

So, the way to move forward is to act – imperfectly, cautiously, irrationally, stubbornly, doubtfully, anxiously, nervously, fearfully – no matter what we think or feel. As Glasser states, “Because we always have control over the doing component of our behavior if we markedly change that component, we cannot avoid changing the thinking, feeling and physiological components as well” (emphasis his).

Looking back at my own life I can see the truth in this. There have been days I am depressed, don’t want to do anything. No amount of thinking changed my mind. I just wanted to retreat into myself. But there were times when I had to get out of bed, take a shower, put on actual clothes, do my hair, etc. and wouldn’t you know it, these simple acts did improve my mood.

I’d also like to add that confidence is a by-product of acting. The more we practice, the more confidence we’ll get. Trying to get confidence before you do anything is a recipe for procrastination.

Make Your Own Rules.

The only rule book you need to follow is yours. And you find your personal “rules” by doing what you love, playing around and making discoveries.

I’m not a spontaneous person by nature. I like rules. They give me structure and order. The problem is I’ve internalized someone else’s rules. I have made it a habit of narrowly defining things, like “nurture” to look a certain way – in this case, Mother Theresa-like selflessness. And since I don’t measure up to that, I haven’t thought of myself as nurturing. But I am nurturing. It just doesn’t look like Mother Theresa’s (I mean, whose does, for crying out loud?) When I realized I was doing this, I also realized the rules and definitions that I’ve ingrained are never in my favor or the way I do something. I’ve consistently set myself up to be “wrong”. I mean, what the hell is that all about?

Create a Meaningful Practice

Practice will help develop your skills. To develop the discipline to practice, you need to make it a habit. And it will be easier to do so if you make it meaningful and fun (recognizing sometimes it’ll just suck and that’s okay).

I’ve been consistently running for about 15 years. How did I develop the discipline to do so? I had a running partner. I wasn’t particularly fond of running but I was motivated to be healthy. I would have never become a runner if I had to do it on my own. She was my cheerleader and rock. Many mornings I wanted to stay in bed but I didn’t want to let her down. She helped ease me through the awkward beginner stage and our bond grew stronger as that hour became our morning therapy – a chance to physically and verbally work through the ups and downs in our life. When it came time to part ways, running was a deeply ingrained part of my being. It’s harder for me to not run, than just get up and do it.

A practice doesn’t have to take long. Our brain prioritizes consistency over duration so having a 15 minute a day practice will get you farther (and stick better) than doing something for an hour once a week.

The epiphany I had while writing this is realizing I need a practice buddy. One of the reasons I stopped working for myself was because I didn’t like doing it alone. I like having someone to bounce ideas off of, commiserate with, solve problems and cheer on.

The takeaway for me is this – to maximize my time, energy, enjoyment, and creativity – get a partner.  Someone who is working on their own creative goals, and we can support and encourage each other. And give a gentle kick in the ass when needed. Leave me a comment if you are interested and want to explore what that might look like.

Focus on the process, not the outcome.

I am guilty of this and it’s not an easy habit to break. Focusing on the outcome triggers all those fears mentioned earlier – looking foolish, being good enough, etc. This is at the root of all perfectionism.

Focusing on the process can also help move us into that all important action by reframing it as play or curiosity. Detach from the outcome and think of it as a learning experience. What worked? What didn’t? What could you do differently? Good or bad, outcomes are nothing more than feedback.

And if it all goes to hell, just think of what a good story it will make later on.

Sometimes the process is overwhelming, what do you do then? Break it down into baby steps. A complicated process is nothing more than a series of simple steps. And you don’t need to know all the steps, just the first step. Once you get through that, the second step is usually obvious. If not, just pick something and try it and keep doing that until something works.

While this book is about finding your voice, it led me to some interesting conclusions and a renewed sense of energy and motivation. I have a project I’ve been mulling over and it’s been killing me how I’ve been getting in my own way. Now I see a clear path forward and I’m excited to start.

December Art Journal Challenge

I love art journals but they intimidate me. I just know mine would look like crap. And of course they would if I compared them to the most popular, accomplished (as in having honed their skills for years, if not decades) artists, which I do. As a perfectionist, my ego wouldn’t doesn’t permit me to be a beginner.

Over my Thanksgiving break, I watched a lot of videos about creativity which led me back to art journaling. Seeing all those beautiful books make me ache. It’s time to quit dreaming and start doing. So December I’m challenging myself to do a page a day in an art journal.

I am both exciting and terrified by this. After spending some time with my thoughts, I realized I’m always focused on the outcome (and judging whether it’s “good” or “bad”) rather than the process. This has hampered (damn near halted it, if I’m going to be really honest) my progress in the fine arts.

I tell myself if I was really interested in art, then I’d do it. I say I’m happy to keep use my creativity confined to the needlearts. But based on the amount of supplies I already own for this challenge, it’s a bold-faced lie. I’ve always liked drawing and even won a prize for it in 6th grade. But for reasons unknown to me, I had the fortitude to work through the awkward beginner phase of sewing and knitting but not drawing and painting.

I found these drawer inserts at Goodwill and they are perfect for organizing materials.

Everything in these inserts I already had.

Just a sample of the ephemera I have

Ever before “art journaling” became a thing, I was smitten with the sketchbooks fashion and art students kept for their major. With it now mainstream, I bought my fair share of books and magazines. Unfortunately books are useless without action. But if Grandma Moses can start a painting career at 78, then I can start art journaling at 59.

The point of this challenge is not to create a beautiful journal. The point is to unleash my imagination. I’ll have to continually remind myself that it’s not about the product/outcome, it’s about the process. Comparison-itis has stopped me cold and denied me the freedom, pleasure and fun of just playing around. Maybe that will be my theme.

I hope by the end of the month I’ve:

• Developed a daily habit of working in an art journal
• Find my voice
• Learn to embrace the process, let go of outcomes and reclaim my ability to play
• Go deeper and gain insights into my creative process
• Document my journey

As I said, I am excited but anticipate coming up against some resistance. I hope on those days I use the journal to work through it rather than letting it get the better of me. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Creative Play

I’ve always been interested in the origins of creativity so I’ve done a lot of research on the subject. Most recently, I took Brent Eviston’s Becoming Creative – An Artistic Guide to Creativity on Skillshare. It was the last lesson when I had my epiphany.

Research shows that children are naturally creative but we tend to bury it as we get older. I could go on about divergent vs. convergent thinking, connotation, left vs. right brain and a bunch of other high falutin terms. But let me ask you this – what is the one thing that usually sets children apart from adults?

Play.

Play at it’s best, captured in Dublin, Ireland.

Creativity is nothing more than tapping into our powers of play. This was so obvious to me after the last video in Eviston’s class. He called it “divergent exploration”. I loved his class but when he described “divergent exploration” I thought the term was ridiculous. Why not just call it what it was – play? I mean, which sounds more fun? “Hey kids, today were going to do some divergent explorations!” or “Hey everybody, let’s play!”

Granted, it’s a more structured, intentional type of play than most kids do, but it’s still play, nonetheless.

I had another epiphany while doing a journal exercise for his class. I design and make a lot of fashion and home decorating related items but in reality, after taking both fashion and interior design classes, neither fashion nor interior design is my passion. I’m not drawn to these fields because I’m interested in them, I’m interested in the creative process inherently used in these fields.

It’s the creative process that is my passion, probably because it is play. I have fun doing it. Making things with fabric and fiber (like sweaters, hooked rugs or quilts) is just my preferred method of expressing it. And after taking Eviston’s class, even though I didn’t know the science or fancy words of what makes the creative process, I realize my creativity hasn’t been buried like most adults. I’ve been intuitively using it all along.

In a video I talked about one of my favorite tools to generate ideas – the stencil. Check out it out here if you want to learn more about it. This got me thinking about other fun ways to spark your imagination. These are not all specific to fashion, they can be used to brainstorm ideas no matter what your medium.

Mr Potato Head

Mr. Potato Head, in case you don’t remember, is a plastic potato with interchangeable parts. You could change the lips, eyes, ears, nose, etc to create a bunch of expressions or unique characters. What if you applied this concept to your design? For instance with a sweater, you could get a picture of a basic sweater and then try different types of necklines, collars, cuffs, ribbings, etc.

Cut Outs

Hooked rug with flower motifs. Paper cut outs of the different flowers helped me determine where to place them.

There are a lot of ways you can play with these. First, I used cut outs to figure out the designs for both of my hooked rugs. I knew one would be circles and the other flowers. I cut actual sizes of the motifs and moved them around on the canvas until I came up with a pattern I liked.

Second, you can cut out words and throw them in a pile and randomly pick some and write something (poem, paragraph, short story) using just those words.

Third, you can cut out pictures from a magazine. You can follow a theme (flowers) or just go with whatever catches your fancy. Once you have 5-10 pictures, play around with them. What combinations can you come up with?

Interior designers use this technique when playing around with furniture placement on a floor plan.

Roll of the Die

Take a pair of dice and assign something different to each number. If you were knitting it might look like this: roll 1 – make a bobble, roll 2 – bind off 5 stitches, roll 3 – change colors, etc. For drawing it could be 1=hash marks, 2=organic shape, 3=body part, 4=thick lines. You get the idea. Part of the fun is thinking up what each roll will be. And every time you play, you’ll create something different.

Bibliomancy

My friend Jean did a whole video on this idea. This is a fun journaling exercise but if you’re a writer you could use your notebooks and create a mismash of characters, plots, etc. If you’re an artist use your sketchbooks and see what zany combinations – whether it be color, shape or form – that you come up. News stories could create an interesting murder plot or conversation. Use a dictionary to write a poem. Use an atlas to come up with the place to set your story. Your high school yearbook could give you some interesting traits based on personalities of classmates or teachers. It would probably be the most you ever used it.

100 Day Project

The way to come up with a good idea is to have as many ideas as possible. A lot of times the first 10-20 are the mediocre, run-of-the-mill ideas. In other words, pure crap. So the challenge of creating a new idea a day (for instance, a new sweater design a day via a quick sketch) is a great way to push yourself beyond the hum-drum into the interesting.

Many of these ideas are variation on a theme and their sole purpose is to just play, the outcome isn’t important. You’re not trying to create a masterpiece. You’re looking for interesting sparks of ideas, unusual pairings and combinations and ways to disrupt your habitual thoughts.

So bust loose, have fun, connect with that inner child and just play.

Coming out of my rut and triangle quilt update

You know that creative wasteland I talked about a couple of posts ago? Yeah, still there. Having a project like a scrap quilt gives me something to do while I’m figuring out what I want to do, if you know what I mean.

I love making quilts and I have enough fabric to make a few. I decided to make a triangle quilt. It’s done by cutting four inch squares, drawing a diagonal line down the center, sewing a quarter inch on either side of the diagonal line and cutting them apart. As this is a scrap quilt, I just cut out squares and randomly sewed them together. No particular design – a “no-brainer” of a project. It gives my hands something to do while my brain is incubating.

Creating my half triangles

Scrap quilts have a long history in America. Patchwork quilts were often made from sewing scraps and old clothes. Nothing was wasted. One of the tennents of the sustainability movement is not to waste anything and use what you have on hand. Some people might see this as restrictive and feel deprived but it’s the opposite for me. I love the challenge of using what I have. It’s strangely satisfying to use stuff up and see my stash shrink.

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  Random spools of thread that were cluttering up my spool case

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  The ever so satisfying feeling of using them up.

The quilts I’m making will be donated to a non-profit. This one will be queen size and requires 930 half-triangle squares (30 squares X 31 rows). I had already made 300 squares and over the weekend I cranked out the rest while watching some bad Netflix movies and reruns (if you have any good Netflix viewing suggestions, please tell me).

Squares are all done, now laying them out to sew them up for the quilt top.

A couple of thoughts emerged during this sewing marathon. First, I finally figured out where I could pin my quilts. While I have the floor space in my apartment (I don’t have a lot of furniture) it’s carpet so essentially useless. I realized I have access to a huge space where I could pin multiple quilts out at a time. Even though I will have the room to do the whole thing, I’ll do it in two pieces because it is so much easier to quilt smaller pieces on a regular sewing machine than one large piece.

Second, sometimes when I’m in these “lows” I find great clarity. Not being able to move forward could be my brain/soul/authentic self’s (or whatever you want call it) way of saying I’m on the wrong track. I believe this dry spell is one of those times. I happened upon a Youtube channel and it got me thinking about what I am really trying to accomplish. I’m focusing on the wrong things – on the outcomes – things I don’t have any control over. I was getting caught up in my old nemesis, outer validation, worrying about what other people think and trying to do what the “experts” are doing instead of following my own passions, curiosity, wants and interests. The best thing I could do to get out of my rut was to give my hands something to do while my subconscious worked things out.

It sounds cliche but we each are given one life to live. I’ve already lived too much of mine by other people’s agenda but it’s a hard habit to break. I still fall into the trap of comparing myself to other (seemingly more successful) people and thinking I should be doing what they’re doing. But it’s just that, a trap. Because when I focus on what “they’re” doing, it takes the focus off of what I want to do, what would truly make my life meaningful and fulfilled. It’s like my brain slammed on the brakes as if to say “whoa, you missed your exit!”

So I readjust my internal GPS and head back to where I’m suppose to go and the creative juices start flowing again.

Craft Show Goodies

The holidays always give me the itch to do a craft show. The snowmen are my new favorite. I had some old styrofoam ornaments and crocheted over them with white yarn. I’ve had them laying around in that state for about 3-4 years now. This year I finally decided it was time to do something with them so I made them hats, gave them those adorable faces and I am in love!

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Denim Jacket with Knit Sleeves

Repurpose a denim vest (or any vest) by turning it into a unique jacket with hand knit sleeves. Instructions include pattern for a basic sleeve, how to prepare the vest and sew in the sleeve.

denim jacket

Art Journaling

 

I adore art journals. I have many blank books just waiting for me to fill up the pages only to remain empty. I finally decided to devote some time to it. I chose a regular spiral bound artist’s sketchbook for my first one (so I don’t “ruin” it). I am trying to overcome my resistance to creating the “perfect” page and started in the middle of the book, took a Sharpie and just started drawing (after consulting with myself as to what I might want to draw). I love flowers, so I decided to draw some fantasy flowers. I would draw a couple and then go do something else. And come back later and add more.

For this project it was important for me to focus on the process, not worry about the finished product. As a matter of fact, my goal was to “draw one shitty page.” I’m trying to practice baby steps and lowering my expectations (to overcome my blocks).

Overall, it was fun and I want to explore flowers more but I think my next page is going to be about animals. I’m checking out my National Geographics as I write this and for this page my goal will be to draw a bad interpretation of my inspiration.

It’s better to set the bar low so that I will at least do something rather than do nothing at all. My only expectation is forward movement.

Crafty Guys

Crafting is not a female only sport. There are many guys out there who are creative and crafty – whether it’s rebuilding an old mustang or making sculpture from junk. Ben Venom happens to be a quilter who uses rock t-shirts as his medium and incorporates lyrics from his favorite and obscure rock and punk rock songs.

His stuff is incredible – check it out.

 

Redefining our Homes

Saturday I took a trip down to Huntsville, Texas, to visit Pheonix Commotion, Dan Phillips construction company that specializes in building small homes from reclaimed and leftover building materials (which I mentioned in a previous post). Basically stuff that was either headed for the dumpster because of  botched orders (“Oh, you wanted 10 ft boards, not 8 ft boards), leftover inventory or just general waste (bottle caps, wine corks, bone).

I like Dan’s philosophy in making use of these materials to build housing for artists and single moms. The construction industry has tons of waste and using it keeps it out of the landfill and costs down. Not to mention that many new building materials are treated with chemicals that out gas and cause health issues for many people. Reclaimed or recycled materials (like using old barn wood or salvaging stuff from buildings that will be torn down) don’t have that problem because they are old enough that the chemicals have already leached out.

On the tour ($10 per person – very reasonable) we got to see the inside of only 3 of the houses (as the other’s are private residences) – the Bone House, the Tree House and I don’t know if the third house had a name but the front fencing had wine bottles as part of the fence, so I’ll call it the Wine House.

Some of these homes had artist’s studios with them as separate buildings. Personally, I could never live in any of the houses. I found them too confining and with the multitude of patterns on practically every surface, too busy. I like a cleaner aesthetic. Also, I want a flat counter top surface (the counters in the bone house where done in a bone mosaic – as in actual bone). I can’t imagine trying to cut something and having my cutting board bouncing all over the place. Plus keeping it clean would not be fun. The floor in that kitchen was absolutely beautiful but impractical, from a cleaning standpoint, in my opinion. 

I found the artist’s studios much more to my liking, which were mostly one big rectangle with a bathroom. I’m thinking I need about 800 square feet and properly planned will seem spacious and be very comfortable. And most important – paid for. I don’t plan on using bottle caps for flooring (I’m going to go with a stained cement – way cheaper and less time-consuming) but I will be looking in unusual places for my materials rather than hitting up the big box stores.  

It’ll be at least a year before I can even move and probably longer than that before I get another house as I decide on where I eventually want to settle down. Being an empty-nester will free me to go anywhere I want so I am going to explore my options. But Dan’s opened my eyes to lots of options so that when I am ready to build or remodel, I can do it without taking on a mortgage and customized just for me as long as I am willing to put in some time sourcing cheap/free materials and doing some of the jobs.

Blue (or green or purple) is the new black

I came across this post on my internet travels today.

While it seems more geared toward the graphic design crowd I thought the concept of not using black was very interesting and wondered how I could apply it to my work. If nothing else, I am going to be looking at shadows a lot differently. And maybe just observing color, actually trying to pinpoint what it is, might be all I need to learn.