Love & Glitter

Out Of The Comfort Zone and Into The Creative Fire

I spent yesterday Life Booking. (I love verbing nouns!) Between BOD and my other commitments, I have been having trouble finding the time to just sit down and play, but yesterday, I had a little tantrum (not really), groomed two of the four dogs (which took many hours of hunching over little fur balls and weilding sharp scissors on squirming creatures), and then abandoned all else in favour of doing Tam's second lesson (week six). 

It was paint over collage. The first time I attempted this (during 21 Secrets one session), I failed miserably. I didn't wait until the magazine image was dry after gluing it down, see? I just went all hog wild with the clear gesso thinking I was brilliant!

Well, I didn't try again that time because failure didn't sit too well with me. I went and did something I knew I could do without failure ~ kind of like a balm to my bruised ego. 

I don't do that anymore. I prefer to push through now days because I find the lessons stick with me far more firmly than they do when I throw my hands up and move on to something 'easier'. 

Anyway...it worked beautifully this time and I have pictures to prove it.

The 'before shot'. This is a picture of Maggie Gyllenhaal torn out of an O magazine. 

And this is what I did with it. Too. Much. Fun

Here's her adorable little face. 

It took me a couple of hours because I was working WAY outside my comfort zone, but this is what I'm learning these days:

Right? :)

So I signed up for Andrea Schroeder's Creative Dream Incubator. Did you know she's now offering it as a moduled class? In other words, you can buy module one, work through it at your own pace, and then when you're ready, buy module two. I'm really liking this option because I like to work at my own pace, and someone, buying it a module at a time eliminates the pressure to work it 'weekly' or all at once, or in a mad rush. 

There is no rush. I bought one module. When I'm ready, I can buy the second. 

Awesomesauce. 

I read the PDF this morning (I do that ~ read the whole thing first, and then work through it) and there was something in there that blew my mind. Essentially, Andrea taught me (in about two seconds) that I get to choose my experience. I get to decide what I focus on. I don't have to succumb to the negativity I might find around me. 

I knew this in my head. (You know what I mean by that, right?)

But the trickle down hadn't yet happened so that what I know in my head becomes integrated into my way of being...

...and she fixed that, too with a little exercise that I'm going to be incorporating into my daily life. 

***

In the meantime, I commissioned a journal from the AMAZINGLY talented Pippa Gore (who also happens to be one of my favourite people) and lookit what she did:

Can you imagine anything more perfect for me?

Gah. So freaking happy. Life is good. 

Just a quick heads up! I'm streaming today at 1 p.m. EST. I hope to see you there. xo

 

 

Live Like We ' re Dying

I've been quiet here on the blog and it's mostly because I got caught up in this dumb idea that I should wait until I had a video for you. I've been making videos, but they're for something I can't show you until it's all done and in the can and available as an e-course. When I'm not working on those videos, I'm doing Soul Restoration 1 for the second time, and that's something I could have been sharing, right? Except that I get into these grooves where I think you won't be interested unless it has great production value and videos and some kind of point. I'm going to quit that now. :) Soul Restoration is wonderful. The curriculum is powerful and the work that results is the kind of art I love: expressive, deeply personal, meaningful only to the person who made it. It's never going to hang in a museum, but I can see myself checking in with the journal I'm filling for years to come to see what's changed, what's transformed since I first sat down to do the work. Here are some pictures: I took these with my camera phone (as you can probably tell) because the Nikon is alllll the way over there and I can't be bothered to get up and go get it. :D Anyway...I just finished up week 3 and I'm moving into week 4 today. You'd think that the last thing I'd want to do after making art videos all day is make art, but you'd be wrong! When I finish doing 'worky' art, I love nothing better than to grab the cheap crafter's acrylics and go to town on art that's just for me. It restores my soul, fills my well, gives me a place to rest on the page that holds no expectations. Love that. *** Steve Jobs died last night, and as someone who does everything she does on a Mac or accompanied by her iPod, I feel the loss. I'm blessed to note I'm not alone. There's nothing worse that grieving all by yourself and thinking everyone thinks you're crazy for crying over a C.E.O. The spousal unit is all disgruntled with what he considers proof of our crazy consumer culture, but I think we're responding the way we are to Steve's death because he was an artist and a visionary, not because he was a C.E.O. I think we are responding less to the products themselves, and the loss of future Stevesque products, and more over the experiences we have had as a result of those products. So, the spousal unit can shake his fist at the consumer culture all he wants. I'll be over here on the red leather couch remembering the first time I used a Mac and how a decade of creativity began with that first delighted sight of a bouncing, smiling icon; literary magazines, podcasts, art videos, all produced on a Mac; photos edited and stored and hoarded like treasure on a Mac; gut wrenching and joy bubbling conversations over iChat; art made to music fed to my ears by my iPod. (Note: I met the spousal unit over an orange Mac Book on an on line matchmaking web site!) It's not the thing. It's what we do with the thing, and what results from our doing it, and Steve Jobs wasn't just a C.E.O. He was a facilitator of creativity. He made good things happen and then handed those good things to us so we could make good things happen. He also reminds us to live like we're dying, because the truth is, we are here for a short time, and we'd best get on with the business of creating the very best, juiciest, wild precious life we can.

(insert geeky moment of silence here)

In Other News Sign-ups for Life Book 2012 are pouring in and I am so enjoying giving free spots in Elements to those who purchase the class through my link. I know how transformative Elements was for those who did the guided version and I'm hoping those in the self-guided version find it equally powerful. And then, there's Life Book itself! So excited to be not only teaching in it, but taking all those gorgeous mixed media lessons. I am dying to get started, and can hardly wait until January 1st. I fully intend to be in the rooms, arting right along with you. I am usually hermity during e-courses, but I'm going to use this opportunity to reach out and get to know the community better. I love to lurk, but what lurking doesn't get me is a sense of my place in this world we're building together. The periphery is safe, but 'safe' isn't good enough for this wild child anymore. I want to enter the fray wholeheartedly and embrace both the joys and the risks of community. So, I'll see you there, yeah?  Yeah! xo Effy