The Blank Canvas Blog Hop: How I Deal with a Blank Book Page...

Hi, It's Monday, September 15th, and it's Day 8 of the BLANK CANVAS BLOG HOP! I'm Virginia Simpson-Magruder and I am a jewelry, collage, and altered book artist and I'm here to share with you my tips for conquering the BLANK CANVAS! 

Up until a couple of seconds ago (this part was written Sunday morning) --- this post was my BLANK CANVAS. I've been sitting and staring at this screen for 15 minutes, and cleaning out my inbox for 20 minutes! All the while thinking about what I'm going to write about, letting all my thoughts mull around in the back of my mind, including my anxiety about possibly failing. 

So spelled out, this is usually how it goes before I get enough "juice", "umpfff", "spark", "mojo" to start a creative project: 

1. I think about the general subject matter or get an inkling of desire (to paint, to draw, to start and altered book, to write)....
2. I do something else (clean dishes, do laundry, call my mother, lay on a blanket under the tree, make some coffee)...
3. I berate myself and think I'm going to fail...
4. I pray for the divine energy to intervene...
5. I finally sit down (or stand up) in front of the "intended" project or art piece and...JUMP IN!

Can you relate???I bet some of you can!

Here are a few things I try to remember:

1. Don't punish or berate myself, or be critical of my procrastination: It's part of the creative process!
2. Give myself permission to wander around, go for a walk, put things away in my studio: It's part of the creative process!
3. Don't be afraid of making "bad" art, "ugly" art, "not good enough" art: It's part of the creative process!
4. Keep my intention to create in the back of my mind as I participate in my "non-making art" activities: It's part of the creative process!

The most important thing in approaching your BLANK CANVAS is to get into your right brain mode of thinking. The right brain is where creativity lives (versus the left brain which is where our analytical thought processes live) -- and one of the ways to get into that mode is to play with color, images, textures, words.  

MY TWO FAVORITE TECHNIQUES FOR OVERCOMING BLANK CANVAS PARALYSIS

I do one of two things to get warmed up and get the juices flowing. I start working in a SMALL or TINY book or journal. In the flip through below I show one of my altered journals, "Tiny Green Book". It is filled to the brim with images, color, and ephemera. I didn't think hard about what this book would contain except to select images, paper, ribbons, and text that have to do with the color green. Working in a small book or journal gives you the opportunity to complete a page easily without much thought. Focusing on a color and all its different shades and tones also stimulates the right brain. And as i am working in my studio -- if I come across an image or papers that i think will fit in it -- I'll stuff them in between the pages to glue in later. After working in a journal like this for 10 for 15 minutes I'm often ready to jump into a BLANK CANVAS.

To see my Tiny Green Journal Flip through Video go here.

Another technique I use and suggest to my altered book students is to have one altered book that is devoted solely to Playing or Experimenting with color, media, and techniques. Play with color, play with magazine images, play with art media, play with ribbons, play with glitter. Again, try not to think about what the end product is going to be. These play books often end up being my favorite altered books and journals. The more you fall into the color, shapes, textures -- the more you'll be accessing your right brain and you can follow that flow right into your BLANK CANVAS.

GIVEAWAY: Before you go -- be sure to participate in my Blank Canvas Blog Hop giveaway. If you go to my Wild Spirit Pendants' Facebook Fan Page and "Like Us", and then join my Kentucky Girl Designs e-newsletter list (click on the blue button in column to the right), you will have a chance to win my Wild Spirit Jaguar Pendant:

 

This hand-soldered collage pendant celebrates the Wild Spirit of Jaguar. Wear this pendant to reinforce the creative passion within you!

Have fun with these BLANK CANVAS tips and come visit me at Kentucky Girl Designs for more and a list of my workshops and upcoming e-courses.

Earlier Participants!
1. Sept 8   Karen Friedland 
2. Tuesday Sept 9   Lezette Markham
3. Wednesday Sept 10 Cynthia Patton
4. Thursday Sept 11 Jennyann Carthern
5. Friday "Frenzy" Sept 12  Kiala Givehand
6. Saturday Sept 13 Jan Blount
7. Sunday Sept 14 Effy Wild
8. Monday Sept 15 Virginia Simpson-Magruder
9. Tuesday Sept 16 Dariana Cruz
10. Wednesday Sept 17 Susan Miller
11. Thursday Sept 18 Grace Howes go here
12. Friday Sept 19 Tori Deaux
13. Saturday Sept 20 Kiala Givehand go here
14. Sunday Sept 21 Martin Arkenstone go here!
15. Monday Sept 22 Nicole Piar

In Spite Of...

In spite of a constant battle with procrastination and what feels like a totally chaotic art studio...I am going in and out of of the art room today...cleaning up, clearing off, finishing some journal pages, posting. I need to make some new necklaces and a custom for this weekend. I need to pull things together for the Collage Cafe workshop I'm teaching this weekend. I need to not feel so scattered and to focus on generating...generating...generating. What a tyrant the mind is! I need to take a deep breath and smell the roses!

Wild and Wooly Creating

I've been out of my studio for most of the previous week because of house guests, and I'm chomping on the bit to get my fingers dirty with ink, oil pastels, and pictures. Yet the brakes still seem to be on. The story of my life. That's OK. Perseverance and creating any little thing is the name of the game. Stoke those fires! Get those doggies rollin'! First, though, here is a sneak at my messy, messy, studio. How many objects can you count in this photo? Will I ever be organized?

Crazy Love

Have I said I love creating art? Have I said it makes me feel good? Have I said how I love seeing how pieces fall together and colors blend or surprise, and images take on a wonderful, wierd quality? Have I said how much I love my studio?

Yes, yes, yes. I've said all those things and more! So why is it that it seems to take a Herculean effort to walk into my studio and start playing with my "toys" (as my friend/graphic designer/photographer/artist Mary Ann C. says)? WHY?

I suppose all artists struggle with this push me/pull me dilemma. It's such a crazy love I have with my creative muse!

Well gosh darn. Here it is again. What little thing can I do to keep my creative toe in the water?

1. Straighten one area of my studio.
2. Take a photo of anything.
3. Write and publish a post.
4. Write some new copy for an oriel pendant.
5. Make a new oriel pendant design.
   
6. Make a journal page.
7. Straighten a bookshelf display
   
8. Read an art magazine. (Alright, read one article.)
9. Tear images and words out of said magazine.
   
10. Paint Angelina Kitty's toenails.
11. Dress Angelina up and take her picture (Angelina has left the room now...)
    
12. Buy a colorful potted flower.
13. Read someone else's blog post.
14. Draw a very bad picture and write an apology underneath it.
15. Straighten my desk so all of the colorful things on it show up.
16. Pick some flowers for the house.
17. Create a display on the front porch coffee table.
18. Take a nap.

Care to add any?

What would it be like to not feel stuck? To just feel my mane blow in the wind?

What a Beautiful Day

My California Backyard (photo by Elliot Atlas)

Today is another tax prep day for me. Uughh. Double Uughh. Yesterday I helped a client with her tax issues. Today it's "Hello -- again -- how much longer can I put you off?" tax prep.

In the in between hours (and I create alot of them), I took a walk on Deer Island (early AM), had a wonderful chat with an new/old friend, took my cat Zeus out into the backyard for a meander, attended a live chat shop critique on Etsy Virtual Labs. I would say the highlight was when I was holding Zeus in my arms, and a Red-Tail Hawk cruised by overhead. My heart soared with the bird, and Zeus butted his head up against mine. There we were in the California sunshine, nature saying hello, me with my lover cat in my arms, and all the other pleasantries I had experienced this morning were alive in that moment. How great was that?

Now back to those **** taxes!

What would it be like to not feel I "have" to do something? To just feel my mane blowing in the wind?

Traffic School

Traffic School Graduate (Mexico 2009)

The rest of my week was taken up with starting taxes 2008 preparation, and mastering online traffic school, which moved to the top of my Eeek!-Must-Do-Now priority list. I had forgotten that a traffic school certificate and yours truly were due at the Marin County Court this coming Monday. Extremely frustrating, I spent 8 hours online, reading, listening, and taking quizes on all the information you could possibly like to not know about vehicular ownership and maneuvering. I had to pay extra for Fed Ex Monday morning delivery of my certificate. Is this not boring? Yes, and I wonder when will I ever have the self-discipline to not complain and just get things done??? When indeed!

What would it be like to not feel like my wheels are just spinning? To just feel my mane blowing in the wind?

Thursday -- Say What????

Smirking Buddha Oriel

Oh my god it's Thursday already! Where did the week go to? What have I accomplished for the past 3 days?

It takes a tremendous amount of self-discipline for me to do art consistently. In defense of myself, I have been slowly finishing several oriels that had been copper-taped but not soldered. I have also been experimenting photographing them with my camera and my "photo studio in a box". I am also opening up a shop on 1000 Markets, so I am dealing with various issues -- file size of images, copy, opening an Amazon pay account.

Everyday I feel the desire to create and experiment with different tools and mediums, yet I find myself avoiding the studio except for the most minimal time. Do I need to set some more goals for myself? Here's some possibilities:

1. How about my own Illustration Friday (create a piece of art every Friday)?
   
2. Or, an Art-Every-Day-for-a-Year challenge (like it says a piece of art everyday--EEEKKKK!)?
   
3. Or, maybe a Technique Thursday (learn a new technique every Thursday).

Then post whatever I create. An unlimited time frame seems too daunting, so maybe I'll just commit to do this for a month. Hmmmmm. What to do, what to do?

What would it feel like to not hesitate? To just act? To just feel my mane blowing in the wind?

Completed 3-D Oriel (above): Smirking Buddha (the beveled glass makes his smile seem crooked. It's made with 3 panes of glass and stars are sprinkled on all levels.

Photos, Fear, and Timing

One of the things I have struggled with as an artist is how to "capture" the items I create. I have felt totally passive about this since I started creating art back in 1982. I never seemed to make it a priority to buy a camera: I had other more important pastimes (like riding and the upkeep of owning horses) that ate up what little money I was generating. So I reluctantly would have to beg, borrow and steal to hire someone to take photos of my artwork.

When I launched my Etsy shop, Kentucky Girl -- I made do by either scanning my oriel pendants, or even xeroxing them, then scanning those copies and uploading them to the my shop. I agonized over what type of camera to buy. I searched the online groups, the Etsy forum, asked friends who were camera buffs their opinions, and it all just drove me crazy. Hyperventilation even. I couldn't make up my mind.

Finally last summer, my brother Jesse (who is less video/camera/computer challenged than me) came in town and held my hand metaphorically, and we went out together to find a camera. A friend had recommended Seawood Photo in San Anselmo (CA), and we hooked up with the salesman Don Kennedy (who actually was at one time a real-life jewelry photographer -- imagine that!). Dan recommended the Canon Powershot, which I bought, and a "Photo Studio In-A-Box" set that included lights, camera stand, backgrounds, nylon diffuser screen -- everything I could possibly need to take plausible photos of my jewelry.

Have I unpacked the box? NO! Have I studied the manual of my Powershot? NO! This is serious -- we are talking drag your ass as long as possible here!

But tonight I'm making progress -- I unpacked and set up the photo studio. I've got my camera manual and I'm ready to rock! Let's see what happens!

What would it feel like to not be so concerned with timing? What would it be like to just feel my mane blowing in the wind?

Appearances and Choices

Ah Mondays...the perfect day for procrastination. I appear to have a motivational dysfunction!

Let me see, today I pulled from my Secret Dakini Oracle Deck the card "Ganesh /Lord of Obstacles"! Ganesh appears to be stuck in the middle of a dew-drop laden spider's web. Or is Ganesh just poised to jump up and down on the trampoline of life?

Obstacles seem to be the pattern today -- everything feels sticky -- and there appears to be no solutions in sight. I went to have my car worked on, they hadn't written down the appointment at the garage. I went to get wheat grass at Whole Foods and they were out. I started to solder in the studio, and my soldering iron tip would not hold the solder and refused to clean up. If I was an astrologer, I would say the heavens appear to be in Mercury Retrograde! And, I was also in Border's today while looking for a specific magazine (no luck there), and saw displayed the book Stuck, Why We Can't (Or Won't) Move On. Really, how funny is that?

The truth is, I'm not helplessly, hopelessly mired in inertia. I CHOOSE to be! If I look at today's events like that, I feel some motion internally...and my inertia is balanced by things I did choose to do. I chose to go for a walk and run. I chose go into my art studio and organize some areas. I chose to drive to the pet store and get cat food ("Meow and thank you" says Angelina). And I have a whole afternoon to choose, or not to choose, to do other things on my list. And if I want to be mired in slothfulness, I CAN CHOOSE THAT! Yippee!

What would it feel like to not feel stuck? To push past the world of appearances -- to feel my mane blowing in the wind?

Exercise, Coffee...and Chocolate!

AFTER...

BEFORE...

Well, I shook off my stupor and burned through another 2 areas of my studio: my soldering station and the "embellishing" station (charms, crystals, beads way station and general catch all for supplies that I pull out -- see "before" photo!). How did I manage to reverse the lethargy?

1. Did 20 minutes of stretching exercises (Egoscue-yoga-sports stretches pioneered by my friend Jen Fuller, see link)
2. Chocolate.
3. A Walk/Run (even impressed myself with this) around Deer Island
4. More chocolate.
5. A Peet's coffee.
6. And still more chocolate!

Whatever works -- it was good mix and once I started with one area the other just fell into place. I still have to put in another 3 or 4 hours before it's ready for Linadria's visit.

Better get off the internet. Ciao!

After the Headway Comes the Lull

OK, this is what happens with me. I make great headway and then I slack off. I have no energy today, everything is a blur, I feel like I'm coming down with a cold....yada.. yada... yada.

Time to pull up the bootstraps again! What could I do to shift my energy?

List of possibilities:

• Do my Egoscue exercises
• Go for a walk/run around Deer Island
  
• Work on my Pole Dance choreography
  
• Go get a cup of Peet's coffee
• Complete one of my oriels
• Start cleaning up another area of my art studio
• Eat some chocolate
  

Can you guess which one I am going to do? Later....

Procrastination

Messy Messy Messy. Good God! I have a deadline....I have to reorganize my art studio.

Holy Moley!!!!! I've been spinning my wheels around this 4EVER. But I have to keep that deadline -- 2pm this Saturday -- so Linadria (I've hired her to help me market my necklaces) can see me at work in my studio. And Michael wants to come and take pictures for my marketing ventures and to submit to magazines.

Wonderful. I've tried almost everything except locking myself in the studio. I know that most artists deal with this. Except the ones featured in the "Artist's Studio" books and magazines. HAH! I've done this before, I can do it again. I can just feel my investment in keeping the status quo; if I don't clean up, I don't have to make new jewelry, I don't have to make money, I don't have to go out into the public's eye. I DON'T like throwing away anything!

Well tough, little lady. Get that whip cracking! Chew it up and spit it out! Divest! Establish order! Use those organizing skills you use for other people's lives! Stay tuned...I will be reporting back in.

What would it feel like to not procrastinate? To just feel my mane blowing in the wind?