Category Archives: creator

art, commitment, creator, excuses, showing up

How to be more productive

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How to be more productive in a society that asks so much of us every day is a challenge. After nine-to-five it’s hard to get motivated when all your energy is gone, BUT if you take the step to do something you love, you’ll find that you perk right up. It beats sitting on the couch eating popcorn.

The first step

Identify what you can do NOW to move your dreams forward. I’m coming from an artist’s point of view, but all areas of life can use the same approach. As an artist, I have so many art supplies that I have collected over the years, so I have no excuses.

Making art is a journey. There is a beginning but no end. The journey is traveling through many facets of creativity, and when one style doesn’t support your enthusiasm it’s important to trust the progress forward.

The second step

Can you commit to something you love to do? When you sign up for an exercise program you commit to following through, but how many do? It gets boring but you gain stamina and mobility. So, what change can you make to be more excited about it? Try a different style? It takes creativity to get out of a rut. Commitment is invaluable! Follow through until it gets to be second nature. That is probably the most valuable lesson I have had in my years as an artist.

I have made many clay figures in the past, and the above picture is a new variant of the same theme. I wanted to make a toadstool hat, which I knew would be a challenge. This is how I did it (lots of gnashing of teeth.): I took a Styrofoam ball and cut the top off. I already had the sculpture’s head done. I carved out the foam to fit the head. That was the easy part. Then I needed pleated fabric on the underside. I used A LOT of glue to press down every fold of white muslin. (You should’ve seen my gluey hands!) I made sure the folds were attached well, and then I went back to press them down as the glue was drying. Then I trimmed the excess of fabric at the edge, and there it was. I felt a great sense of accomplishment. I painted the red area first so that I wouldn’t get paint on the white pleats, and I added the clay hair afterward.

Step three: Keep experimenting!

You don’t learn what works unless you experiment with the materials. Many times a material won’t work, but you get a better idea of what will.

Set small goals

Climbing Mt. Everest takes MANY small steps. Say you can commit to half an hour of art-ing every day, plan ahead. If you’re a visual artist, bring a sketchbook in your purse and some pens and pencils. If you paint abstracts, make a wild background on a blank canvas. If you work with clay, make an armature for the sculpture you want to create. One small step will get you going.

How to be more productive happens in small steps!

The Universe helps those who help themselves. Brilliant ideas come from nowhere, and you can be the vessel for those ideas.

Show up, and magic will start happening 🙂

It’s true.

If you have no clue what excites you, think of what you liked in school, or what you were good at. Talent often shows itself early, a suggestion of a future to come. Doing what you love makes you HAPPY! If clueless, try different things; the smallest effort will eventually show you the path.

Lots of love,

Maria

My etsy shop EarthandFaery is filled with magic!

art, artist, body, creativity, creator, wisdom

Wisdom of your body to create

Wisdom of your body… did you know your body has wisdom, that it knows how to create? It’s obvious it knows how to run a healthy body, and it is wise in how to use a hand automatically, but how does it create?

We could go into discussing nerve endings and muscle memory and other obscure stuff I know nothing about, but think about the energy that actually lifts the hand and moves the eyes to the palette on your table or easel.

hands
wisdom hands

Do you trust your body to do its stuff? Sure you do. You know it’s going to beat your heart automatically, and when you need to yawn, you yawn. We only question the action if we get sick.

To get back to the topic of energy. What is looking out of your eyes? What makes you choose a certain color on the palette? Who holds the brush in your hand?

It’s consciousness. If you have ever looked at the pictures from the cosmos that NASA puts out now and again, you realize there is a great consciousness in the cosmos that holds the order among every single star and planet. If there wasn’t order, the earth might bounce into the moon and so on.

In the mini cosmos of our body, there is a consciousness that moves YOU.  You have personal preferences. What makes you take a particular action might be a conscious choice, but without the energy behind it, you could not lift your hand to the brush.

hand
Wisdom hand

Can you trust that consciousness to paint a painting FOR you? To trust that the hand knows what it’s doing?

Most people have a problem with the trust since we’re totally conditioned to see art as a specific expression, and we also like to label the art as pretty or awesome or ugly.

How do you learn to trust? By doing. By allowing your body to guide you into spontaneous creativity. To see it in action. That is courageous creating.

It is stepping off the creative cliff without expectations. The fall might end up in a puddle of mud or on a soft gilded cloud. It is uncertain, just as life is uncertain.

The only way to grow the trust muscle is to actually use it, yes, just like at the gym! Sounds boring?  At the gym you usually know what the result will be if you pump iron, but with the creative process you have to engage the unknown. You might even meet a trickster or two…

However, if you can learn to trust the innate wisdom of your hands / body and let go of the inner critic even just for a minute or two, you will experience the magic of being the center of the cosmos.

You are a divine creator, so let’s not pretend to be less…

I’m going to be putting together an e-course on how to become more YOU and create art from a place of trust.

We think we know what is going to happen tomorrow, but truly we don’t, so everything we do is based on faith that the tomorrow that comes will bring the experience we planned. It usually does, but what if we are faced with the unplanned, the unknown, what happens then?

That is where body meets magic. Keep in touch. I will be posting more about this shortly.  Meanwhile, you can join my free 2017 art journaling journey. The March prompts are going strong right now. You can SIGN UP HERE.

Create something today…! 🙂

xo

Maria

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art, craft, creativity, creator, mixed media, polymer clay mosaic

Art versus craft

Art versus craft, what is the difference?

What part of us needs to know?

I was making some polymer clay mosaic picture frames today and was struck by the thought that I feel the same when I’m doing crafts as I feel when painting.

In the past I have labeled painting as “art” and anything else that I enjoy to do with my hands as “craft.”  Craft ought to be more lowly than art, but there is NO difference since I’m the same creator.

Doesn’t it all come from the same inner source?  Yes, of course it does. Craft may be more mechanical in that you make more of the same items, but not one is exactly the same.  With my mosaics it’s hard to even make two that look alike, but if you put them all side by side, there is a definite similarity of style and a preferred choice of colors.

When I paint I also prefer certain colors to others. I don’t prefer a particular motif, but if I did, I might find painting easier than facing a blank canvas to start something completely new. I can’t seem to focus on a particular subject.  My color choices do carry “my” signature.  The mosaics all look similar because I have only so many tools in my toolbox for imprints and only so many rubber stamps. No matter. It won’t stop me from creating.

The me sitting in my studio is the one who creates, not necessarily the ego me who likes to think I’m The Great Artist. It doesn’t change what appears on the canvas or on my mosaic frames. If I’m having a good time, that’s good enough for me.

Feeling alive is what I enjoy, no matter what I do.  In other words, doing what I love.

It is a choice and sometimes a compulsion to create, but no matter how things transpire in the studio, I spent the day in a good way.

DSCN2161
polymer clay mosaic frame.

This one will end up with an altered Christmas ornament in the shape of a heart in the middle. I adhere some text to the surface and glue inspirational words on it. Then I attach it to the background that I alter with awesome paper.

DSCN2162
small frame with polymer clay mosaic tiles.

A 5×5″ picture frame.  Fun and fast to make since it’s so small.

What are you working on today?  I wish you all kinds of creativity.

This concludes day 10 of the blogging challenge …

xo

Maria

P.S. Check out some of my stuff for sale in my etsy shop HERE.