Everything turns, turns, turns, turns

Here we are, a week into the new year of 2024. Which is a lot to deal with in itself: This means that 2014 was ten years ago at this point. It does not feel like it at all. But alas, if we are to uphold the basic tenets of the existence of time, ten years ago it was.

In June of 2014, I had just resigned from teaching art at a public high school in North Carolina, deciding to take a year off before attending grad school for my MFA. So much has changed since then, and when I reflect on the years between then and now, on all of the therapy I have been in, and on all of the self help books I have read, the realization that we operate in cycles, seasons, and phases has become crystallized in my mind. It has finally sunk in.

The reason that this has been such a hard thing to compute is due to American society’s emphasis on productivity and output. We are expected to work 40-60 hours per week, 52 weeks a year, in addition to side hustles, on an average of six hours of sleep per night. It is really preferred that we act more like machines and run full throttle until we break down. However, we are living, breathing creatures of nature. We all have our own little cycles.

An illustration of the four seasons. Source: Pixabay.

We have a life cycle of infancy, childhood, and adulthood. We have menstrual cycles. We have waking hours and sleeping hours. We need a balance of work, play, and rest on repeat. The seasons teach us that we have periods of growth and renewal, and periods of withdrawal and hibernation. Periods of sunshine, and periods of staying cozy in the dark. And because of these lessons from the natural world, I have decided to be easier on myself, and to take notice of my own little seasons in a more nature-inspired manner. As much as I would like to, I can’t do everything, everywhere, all at once, so I need to be more mindful and look at my individual patterns.

I have decided to look at the year of 2024 as a whole to determine where my own personal seasons lie. For the next month, I will be making as much art as possible because in February, my teaching session begins. The majority of my creative output will go towards my examples and lessons. However, I really want to participate in Februllage this year, so in between making things, I’ll be gathering materials to create a card catalog of sorts for quick reference when February comes around. I will also only apply for the programs or opportunities that I really want, at least one per quarter. I will reevaluate the next season or cycle after my teaching session, after the dust has settled. That will be my Q1. Artmaking and teaching. Q2, I will worry about later.

For now, I will rededicate myself to the present moment and let go of any expectations that require me to be full-throttle, all day everyday. My words of the year are Fun and Rest—I like the word of the year approach, more than the resolution approach. We’ll see how it goes. I hope whether you have made resolutions or a vision board or other goals, that you’ll use them as a general guide and try not to be in a big hurry. As my secret blog post says, we spend way more time in the messy middle of our journey than we do at our destination.

Update: New Things on the Way!

It has been too long, dear readers! I hope you are all well, and have experienced some form of sunshine in the past few days. The gray of winter really puts a damper on things, so I am glad spring is upon us in the Northern Hemisphere.

I just wanted to update everyone on what I have been working on:

1. I will be moving from RedBubble to Threadless Artist Shops because the user interface is more friendly, so stay tuned for a new shop link here and in my LinkTree on Instagram.

2. I am also finalizing a journal/sketchbook for people aged 7-700. It’s super cute, so I hope artists big and small enjoy using their imagination and having some fun:)

3. The National Collage Society’s Small Format Show features collages that all measure 4x6 inches. I won an award for my entry, Astronaut in the Ocean! The show will be online and run from May 14-September 30th. You can access the show here.

4. Finally, more painting. I really wish I were a vampire so that I could stay up all night painting. And learning the piano. But oh, well. As I said in my last post, rest and play are essential for optimal productivity and living itself. So in addition to sunshine, I hope you all take that nap or color in your coloring book, because those are important things, too.

Enjoy your day today, and I’ll see you next time!

Productivity, Rest, And Other Tips

So I’m taking this Skillshare class on Productivity by Brooke Glaser and she said that your super productive days are usually followed by a day where you are not as productive. When I watched this lesson, I was like, oh my gosh, so true! She also said that as a creative entrepreneur, you need to take your weekends off to rest, do fun things, relax, etc, so that you can maximize your productivity during the week.

I took these things to heart. My super productive day was Friday. Saturday, I knew, would be unproductive and that would be okay because Weekend! So I ran some errands, did some fun web surfing, then I thought, what if I worked on project X for just a little bit? I’ve been a Photoshop girl for 20 years now, but I’ve been learning about Illustrator so I thought I would just draw my cute idea and it would be easy breezy because Simple Project.

I ended up running into a problem with no answer on the forums, it seemed, and I got incredibly frustrated to the point of wanting to cry if I was just a little closer to the edge. I figured out the solution after digging through every post about the topic that I could find. But I’m writing about this because I didn’t enjoy what I was doing anymore because I had expended so much physical and mental energy the day before, and I needed to do something fun and rest. I learned my lesson. And I will probably have to relearn it many times because I do love crossing things off my to do list and conquering tasks, no matter what day it is.

So, now for your reading pleasure, my list of other major productivity tips, as I have learned at this point:

1. Rest. (See above)

2. Do something you would normally do, but do it in a novel way (also from Brooke Glaser’s Skillshare class). If you have an ongoing project that starts to feel like a drag, mix it up! Do your work in a coffee shop or reserve a study room at the library. Take yourself to a picnic table at the park.

3. Play. In The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, she emphasizes that our creative spirit thrives on play, and losing that ability is what causes artist’s block and emotional fatigue. Having fun is a form of taking care of yourself, and is what makes life livable. Take a class that sounds fun, do something you enjoyed as a child, go for a walk and look for interesting rocks, whatever you can think of. I recommend The Artist’s Way to anyone who pursues creative work or anyone who feels stuck in life, especially the audio book because her voice is so soothing.

4. Stretch and take breaks often. Repetitive strain injury is real. I have plantar fasciitis because I stood on one foot for too long while I was painting. Stretching, getting up and walking around (or sitting down, in my case), or getting a drink of water and playing on your phone for ten minutes are vital for your mental and physical health. Experts recommend taking some kind of break for your physical health every 20 minutes, and as someone who likes to be in the zone for three hours, I struggle with that. I’m still trying to find the right balance, but at least my body and mind get a break every so often, and hopefully more often as I figure out how to get in the zone as soon as I sit down to work.

5. The Pomodoro Technique. When I’m doing something more administrative than artsy and my to do list is extremely long, I start at the top, set a timer for 20 minutes, and tackle each thing for that amount of time, rotating until I finish as many as I can. And also taking breaks every two chunks of time to keep my brain from getting fatigued.

6. Scheduling two to three major tasks each day, and then tackling smaller things after those major things are complete. No need to overload oneself. This is the method of the Flourish planner by Bonnie Christine, surface pattern designer and lover of productivity. When she first started her creative journey, she resolved to do at least one thing each day that would bring her closer to her goals. And if you think about it, that’s 30-31 things a month, 365 things a year. That’s a lot of productivity! Two to three tasks are manageable, but if you can only do one because life happens, you’re still making progress.

Those are my methods for now. I am not done with my Skillshare class, so there are many more things to learn, but these have helped me and will continue to help me. My major goal now is to focus on three things: making time for rest and play, pattern design, and my second coloring book. Let’s see how this goes! What are some of your favorite productivity tips?

A Little Progress Each Day Adds to Big Results/Find Your Artistic Voice by Lisa Congden book review

Hello, all!

Back for my monthly (loose term) update. The title for today’s post came from an image one of my best friends sent to me. I made it the wallpaper on my phone because it really is those little things that build up to something amazing, which is why someone seems like an overnight success, but their success was really a decade or more in the making. For example, artist of many hats Lisa Congdon.

I have been doing little things here and there to educate myself about my craft and my field, as well as continuing to make and experiment. One of these things was going to a lecture by Lisa Congdon which was about her book Find Your Artistic Voice: The Essential Guide to Working Your Creative Magic. The talk was wonderful, she signed my book (!), and I finally accepted two important pieces of advice.

For YEARS, I have struggled with working consistently and dedicating a time each day to making something. I like to experiment and work for eight hour stints when I can dedicate a day to it. As Lisa said, even just making something for 15 minutes each weekday keeps your artistic muscle nimble and flexible. One artist friend of hers wakes up at 5 am each day to hone her craft, which she did admit was hard at first, but then she started to look forward to having that time for her passion everyday. My goal is not to wake up at 5am everyday because that just makes me laugh about how ridiculous that would be for me, but being mindful about how I spend my day and being as productive as possible? I can do that. Lisa also said to not only schedule in your art making time, but also the other aspects of an artist’s life, from researching packaging for your art prints, to writing a grant, or to documenting your work. I was like, yasss, Lisa, those are all vital things that need my attention! So, creating blocks of time for the making of things that you need to make, that you want to make, that you would like to learn more about, are essential to being productive as an artist. And are essential to self-care.

The other takeaway from her book that also sunk in was creating bodies of work around a central theme or giving yourself an experimentation assignment to explore. One of hers was creating something using only the color blue everyday. Another artist friend of hers created a different character everyday. I haven’t decided on my experimentation assignment yet, but I am leaning towards her blue idea because the examples she showed us from that body of work were so beautiful. Maybe I should create a blue character everyday? I would like to get away from using reference images and just draw the things I like in order to develop my own visual language. And there it is. My assignment for myself. Thank you, gang! And see you next time!