Lisa Call

Where did my weekend go?

Now that I’ve lived in my 1955 built house for a month I realize how much I take for granted. Like screens in the windows. What an amazing invention, without them one ends up with moths and other flying creatures all over one’s studio when working at night with a light on. Kinda fun to flick bugs off my computer screen, in a "once in a life time adventure" sort of way. I’m thinking long term this might not work out for me.

I had hopes for getting quite a bit more done this weekend but it was hot hot here in Denver, 100 or close both days. The modern convenience I miss the most is my air conditioning. Not only is it so crazy hot in the house the thought of turning on an iron is insane, it doesn’t cool off much at night so sleeping has been a challenge. After a week of 4 hours of sleep each night I was pretty wiped out by the weekend. Did a lot of nothing.

Even the cats are unhappy. Abby (see above) has taken to sleeping stretched out and upside down (and climbing out the screenless windows and escaping - but that’s another issue). Nukie (below) passes out behind my sewing machine so I have to move her every time I come back to sew. She makes a pitiful sound but she gets over it, and comes right back as soon as I leave. She’s no dummy, the fan is pointed into that corner of the room.

Last night I figured out the secret to sleeping in this heat (a wet frozen compress is a wonderful way to cool off) so that problem should be solved and I’m feeling more on my game with some rest. We’re only in the 90s this week so it’s positively chilly in here. Tomorrow if all goes well I will finish my studio newsletter and email it.

If not I’ll be napping in the heat.

Progress in the Studio

Markings #21 In Progress

I’ve spent time in my studio every day this week. Making progress on Markings #21 (only 2 more panels at the top right to construct then the fun part of fitting the sections together. This final stage of construction is fairly important and I always feel I could ruin the entire thing if it doesn’t go well.

I’m also making progress on the ACEO’s that I’ll make available with my studio newsletter. I anticipate sending it via email on sunday. I had a lot of fun designing new work (first time in months) so I ended making 5 of them, all of them based on Markings #21.

Progress with Everything

Two weeks ago I posted the following list as my goals for the upcoming 2 weeks, during which my kids have been at camp. I have 2 days left to complete everything and so far I think I can get it all done. Depends on how motivated I remain this weekend.

Here’s how I’m doing so far:

• Unpack entire house. DONE - at least done enough to live comfortably until we move out again for the remodel. I’ll post photos soon to compare to the cramped look we had on moving day.
• Set up studio. DONE - although small and I have to juggle things around a bit ,it’s quite reasonable
• Make small art for studio newsletter. Very close to done - another hour tomorrow and I’ll wrap it up.
• Write and send my second studio newsletter. All I have here is an outline.
• Catch up with the very many outstanding requests for photos, info, etc of my art. I’ve put many many hours into this task - came up with a list of over 30 projects to deal with. So I won’t finish them all but I’m dealing with the most outstanding requests now and more importantly I feel on top of the business side of art again.
• Find all my dye supplies and dye fabric with my childhood friend, Kelly, over the weekend. DONE and very fun - see photos in this post about dyeing fabric.
• Process the 400+ pictures taken while in Montana (my kids went a bit nuts with the camera - I think well over half are to be deleted). I downloaded them to my computer then forgot about them. This is lowest priority for the weekend.
• Figure out timeline and budget for getting house repaired and possible addition added, talk to 3 builders and select one to do the work. DONE - the builder came and measured the house and is starting the ‘as-built’ drawings this weekend.

Saturday and Sunday I’ll be focusing on my newsletter and wrapping up a few more of the outstanding art requests. And finishing construction of the composition of Markings #21 (next up will be doing the surface stitching on the piece). Markings #21 didn’t make the todo list but I couldn’t resist working on a big art project this week.

Shaded Walk    ©2007 Stephen Carl
Reprinted with permission from the artist

Artist Breakthrough Program

The last 4 weeks I’ve been participating in the Alyson Stanfield’s online Artist Breakthrough Program.

Today is the last day, the last phone call. Time to evaluate how things went.

So to start here are the goals I stated for the month:

1. I work 5 or more hours a week in my studio making art.
2. I complete the rewrite of my website and blog and go live with them by May 12, 2008.
3. I update my resume to include jurors for all juried shows.
4. I create a complete resume for my personal use with every show in my career listed. This list also includes a list of which pieces were included in each of these shows.
5. I design a portfolio package to send to galleries (the package does not have to be complete but I identify all the parts and the format of the package)
6. I start a list of potential galleries to contact for representation. The list has 30 or more galleries listed.

In addition to the above, I was also working on getting my house ready to put on the market. Cleaning, packing, hiring contractors, yard work, etc.

How Did I do?

1. I worked in my studio 19 hours over the 4 weeks - very close to the my original goal.
2. Nope - the website is coming along nicely but it needs more work.
3. Didn’t even start
4. Didn’t even start
5. Didn’t even start
6. I have between 15-20 galleries on my list with contact info.

In addition I got a lot done on prepping my house. This weekend I completed the last of the decluttering, and have done a bunch of packing, cleaning and yardwork. I’m almost done getting contractors lined up to do the big stuff (paint, carpet, refinish hardwood, etc). This was a larger job than anticipated, getting estimates, rescheduling, etc, etc. I’m certainly learning a lot about how to deal with these guys (number one tip - don’t have expectations about getting anything done soon).

How Do I Feel About It?

I’m super happy with how things went. I probably stayed focused about 70-80% of the time I had available to "do stuff", which is a lot more than normal. Although I didn’t complete everything on my original list I didn’t really think I’d get it all done so that’s fine (more on this later).

I knew I’d be super busy, not just because of all I had going but also because my kids were with me almost the entire month since I didn’t get to see while they were in Europe for 3 months. Not every weekend was as crazy as the one I outlined in this post, but we were still busy. Staying this focused for a sustained period of time, with my kids at home, was probably a first so I’m very happy about that.

I got some really great ideas from other participants in the program for my website so I have more work to do than originally planned. I’m writing a custom plugin for wordpress to display my artwork images, as I couldn’t find anything out there that did what I wanted. I haven’t written code in a while so I’m excited.

What Did I Learn?

I set my goals higher than was realistic. I did this to keep myself motivated. But what I found as the weeks went on is that I wasn’t taking the goals quite seriously enough. I’d list 6 or 7 things to do in a day and only have time for 4 or maybe 5. So I set myself up from the start to not finish everything.

I think this is how I normally operate. It’s safe - because I know I never get everything done I fall back on that as the excuse every time to not do stuff. Eventually I start to think I don’t really need to finish things.

This month has shown me this is maybe not the most optimal way of doing stuff. I love my Getting Things Done project and tasks lists (from David Allen’s Book) as they are great at capturing the big picture. Yet this month I’ve found I need to get more specific, and more realistic, about what I am doing TODAY.

So in addition to my big lists, each morning I started to pick at most 3 things todo. The super most important things that absolutely have to get done. And I put my focus on getting those things done. At the end of the day it’s awesome to say I’ve completed them all.

Learning this new way of approaching my work was the best thing I got out of this class. Taking the time to think about how I get things done and to try some different approaches.

Where Does Blogging Fit In?

Obviously I stopped blogging about 1/2 way through the program. I’d find myself with an hour of time to work on my website or to write a blog post and more often than not I’d blog. So I decided to drop the goal to write and spent my free computer time on my website.

I don’t intend on making this a habit. Living my life at a pace where I don’t have time to blog is not okay with me. I love writing and I find it a great way to process information about my art and myself. So something else is going to have to give because I’m going to continue to blog 2 or 3 times a week throughout the process of selling my house.

One fun thing about this class was watching other artists work on their goals. Steve Carl (photographer - the above image is his work) had a goal of starting a blog and it’s been fun watching him and remembering back to when I started mine 3 years ago. I think he’s off to a great start. You can check it out here: Works by Steve Carl

What’s Next?

The other important thing I feel I learned is that trying to do 3 things at once (make art, build a website and get a house ready to put on the market) is too much. I think if I would have focused on just 1 thing at a time in the end I would have gotten more done.

Time to focus on the house and get it on the market. I’ll have a few moments here and there to do some art/art business work but at least 2 of the 3 must do items on my list each day are going to be house related. While I’m not excited about losing momentum on the website I think in the end this is the best choice. I’ve been feeling a bit too scattered the last few days not really making huge headway on any one thing.

Deb Kirkeeide wrote the following comment on my last post (the crazy birthday party weekend for my daughter):

I’m exhausted! How do you keep such focus? And when do you have time for fun and relaxation? I admire your fortitude.

Very good question Deb. Recently I listened to the book The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness by Dave Ramsey. He’s the debt free guy. While I don’t agree with all he says, nor do I like some of how he delivers his message (I think the belittling and sarcasm are way over done), he makes a lot of good points.

What struck me listening to this book was how his line:

Live like noone else,
so you can
Live like noone else.

applies to many of the choices on how I am currently spending my time. I am very busy with 2 full time careers and kids and a house, etc. I’m making choices today so in the (very near) future I can be a fulltime self supporting artist that doesn’t have to scramble for money. Those choices have me living today as very few people are willing to live: staying super focused and not having tons of time for just sitting about. I believe the pay off in the future will be well worth it.

The alternatives don’t sound very attractive to me.

1) Just work the day job and wait until I retire to make art (no way!)
2) Quit the day job and struggle for money (also not for me)

I wouldn’t object to finding a wealthy art patron that would support me but that sounds like a recipe for disaster as these types tend to have hidden agendas and I’m not good at being told how to live my life.

 
But not everyday is a day full of goals and craziness like last weekend. Today, I’ve got nothing on the todo list that I must get done. Just doing what I feel like doing cause it’s my birthday. Yay! Chocolate for everyone on me.

And next weekend - I’ve told the kids I will not drive them anywhere - I’m going to get in some studio time.

This is what a weekend looks like when focusing on 2 major goals (preparing my house to put on the market and redesigning my website) when four 12 years olds visit for a birthday party:

Friday evening:

• 4:00-4:05pm: Arrive home from work thinking that the weekend isn’t busy enough so decide to participate in community garage sale in the morning.
• 4:05-5:00pm: Sort through kitchen in search of something to sell. Fortunately garage is full of things needing a new home as they’ve been decommissioned from my life.
• 5:00-6:00pm: Cook nice dinner for kids
• 6:00-6:15pm: Plan menu for daughters sleepover birthday party. Head out the door to purchase food for party and discover wallet is in purse, which is still at my office.
• 6:15-9:00pm: Settle for plan B: work in studio an hour and work on new website design.

Saturday:

• 6:30-6:50am: Up early to hear answering machine message from sister that airplane tickets for family vacation over 4th of July have just gone up to $600. Wonder why I didn’t purchase them last week when they were under $300.
• 6:50-8:00am: Drive to office (~1 hour round trip) to get purse, buy food for party (they don’t have the required ice cream flavor so leave that task for later), return home as the garage sale is to start.
• 8:00-9:00am: Pull stuff out of garage and slap prices on it. Note it is really cold and windy (as is indicated by the lamp that keeps crashing over).
• 9:00-11:30am: Send kids off to teen court training (they are jurors) as I come close to freezing to death doing yard work during the garage sale. Few people show up, I make $50 and get my tree trimmed and start cleaning up rocks overgrown with grass in my front yard. The snow is not encouraging. Look at clock often wondering when kids will be home.
• 11:30-11:45am: Bring remaining junk in to garage. Label unsold dresser (with drawer that won’t close) and 40 year old folding camp table (that is less than stable) as free and head to yummy thai restaurant for lunch.
• 11:45am-12:45pm: Have yummy lunch and hope that when thai place reopens in a week in new location it is still as yummy.
• 12:45pm: Return home to happily see that the dresser is gone. The camp table is still on my driveway as I type. I’m sure my neighbors are pleased with me - my house looks like a flea market at the moment as there is also firewood, some PVC pipe, bags of tree branches and a big pile of rocks on my driveway. This is all against HOA rules I have no doubt.
• 12:45-1:00pm: Purchase airline tickets for summer trip into alternate location requiring a 5 hour drive on days other than originally planned no doubt messing up everyone else’s plans.
• 1:00-1:30pm: Try to organize house for birthday party starting at 4pm as I try to get son to figure out his plans (something 15 year old boys do not excel at).
• 1:30-2:00pm: Phone call with sister about summer plans. In the background son discovered his cell phone is out of minutes and he has no idea what is going on. Hang up phone recognizing I need to take action.
• 2:00-2:10pm: Turn circles wondering what I’m doing.
• 2:10-4:10pm: Go to store to buy more minutes for sons phone. Drive son way the heck downtown denver (60 miles round trip) so he can attend friends lacrosse game and escape sister’s party. Includes turning around and driving back to give him money after I drop him off so he can take bus and lightrail to another friends house later on (plans changed 2 seconds after I dropped him off - surprise!). Also stop and buy ice cream for party. They didn’t have the required flavors either. Glad I added a second shopping trip to the day.
• 4:10pm - Arrive home 10 minutes late for the start of party. One kid has already been there 45 minutes. Good thing kids are old enough to babysit each other. Discover daughter did amazing job decorating for party - looks great.
• 4:30-10:00pm: Hide in basement packing boxes and organizing as kids make noise during party. Cook dinner, let them make huge ice cream sundaes, be thankful house has not yet been cleaned or repaired for sale as 4 girls are making a mess. Plans of working on website fly out the window when I realize it is just not very quiet.
• 10:00pm: Send girls to room, hope they sleep then head to bed.

Sunday:

• Wake up at 7am to discover girls are already awake and playing Wii (borrowed from kids dad’s house). Wonder if they slept at all.
• 7:00-9:00am: Escape to basement again and pack more. There is always more to pack apparently.
• 9:00-10:15am: Cook breakfast and try to round girls up into car to go bowling.
• 10:20am: Finally get girls in car - wonder if we will make it there by 10:30 to get the cheap rates.
• 10:35am-12:45pm: Kids bowl. We got the cheap rates so I buy them popcorn and sprite and win mom of the year award for about 10seconds. It’s over when I refuse to buy more sprite but offer to get them a pitcher of water. While kids bowl I shuffle papers and redo all my todo lists figuring out what I can get done in the coming week. Also talk more with sister about summer plans. Drive back home (40 minutes round trip drive time)
• 12:45-1:30pm: Make lunch for girls.
• 1:30-1:45pm: 15 glorious minutes in my studio.
• 1:45-2:00pm: Round kids up to leave. Hunt for lost retainer (which was already packed).
• 2:00-4:00pm: Drive kids back home. Not a normal birthday party service but needed to help out another mom that had to work. Also drive in complete opposite direction across town to pick up son - it’s safe to come home now. Total miles - 70, Total time in car 2 hours. THIS is why I am moving to Denver.
• 4:00-8:00pm: Try really hard to focus and get back to work on website or packing. Fail at both. Hang out with kids and play board game instead.
• 8:00-9:15pm: Identify that I can complete an item on my weekly goals for the artist breakthrough program if I write a blog post as it’s the only thing I have energy for.

This must be why others have cable/dish - I’m sure even reality TV might seem okay right now.

ACEO #6    ©2008    2.5"x3.5"
This card was inspired by Markings #3

Breaking Down the Work

For the next 4 weeks, throughout the Artist Breakthrough Program, I’m going to post my weekly goals. Both to hold me accountable to all of my readers and also to write some about how I get things done. Nothing like doing this in public to inspire me to actually do the work.

I break my larger goals down into small tasks. The more overwhelming the goal feels the smaller I break down the tasks. Sometimes down to 5 minute jobs that are super easy. Doing these simple tasks gives me a sense of accomplishment and the momentum to start tackling some of the larger tasks. Once I get going I get on a roll and can "do things" for hours.

Week One Goals

These are my tasks for this week, based on my longer term monthly goals from my previous post. These are to be completed by Sunday, April 20.

1. I work in my studio 5 hours this week
2. I do 3 blog posts
3. I upgrade my 2 wordpress installs for my website to 2.5
4. I complete the template for my website/blog. This is a multi step task - 4.1) I break this down into steps for what is still needed to complete the template and 4.2)I complete the identified tasks from 4.1
5. I define the structure of my website (which pages I will have, what will be on the pages, the menu structure to access the pages)
6. I identify 5 potential galleries for representation (at this point I’m just building a list with contact info)

The First 24 Hours

Yesterday I completed #3 and my wordpress installs are now ready to go. I love wordpress, I’m less enamored with having to manually update my install. I’m looking forward to the day they have a single click upgrade feature.

Today I worked on item 4.1 and have the list of changes needed in my template fairly well settled. I also started in on 5 and defining the pages I want in my new website.

And best of all, this morning I worked in my studio for half an hour before heading to work. The last 6 weeks my studio has been fairly well neglected. I’m looking forward to returning to a routine of making art on a near daily basis.

Oh and blog post #1 for the week is now completed. I know I said it would be about newsletters. I promise - I will get to that this week.

Update on Moving

Much of my motivation for doing this program is to keep me on track with my art while also keeping motivated with getting my house on the market. I spent most of the last week removing a very large amount of stuff from my house. Throwing out a lot, giving away tons and packing up things we can live without until we’ve moved.

I’m very picky about what gets put into a box labeled "I don’t need this for many months". I’m looking to eliminate the majority of these types of things from my life. So far most of these boxes are filled with either 1) my kids stuff (they aren’t as enamored with tossing things as I am) or 2) photo albums and scrapbooking supplies. This is one project I’m sure I will get to some day so I packed it all up and will move it. If I don’t do something with this stuff before the next move I think most of it will end up in the donate pile.

The unfortunate news is the contractor, general fix-it guy that was going to do much of the fix-it type work around my house bailed out on me. Had better offers so I’m left with noone to do the work. I spent much of monday being stressed out, pissed off and generally unhappy with the situation. I decided I needed some time to feel bad but gave myself a deadline of 9pm to just get over it and move on. Great way to experience the emotions but not let them take over my life. I’ve now processed the experience and am getting back on track.

Moving is a lot of work but I’m focusing on enjoying the process, keeping the tasks small and manageable so I don’t get overwhelmed. My morning yoga is a big help in keeping calm.

ACEO #5    ©2008    2.5"x3.5"
This card was inspired by Markings #12

Staying Focused

Tomorrow is the start of ABP - Alyson Stanfield’s Artist Breakthrough Program. When I originally signed up for this class I had no plans on putting my house on the market and had big plans for getting a lot done for my art business.

I thought about not doing the class then decided it was perfect timing. What better way to not lose focus on my art, during a rather hectic time in my life, than to have a group of people holding me accountable.

I’ve scaled back my goals for the 28 day program from my original plan and I’m confident I can complete my new goals, as long as I stayed focused. I’m still several weeks away from getting my house on the market and one of my #1 goals for that process is for it to be effortless and fun. Making sure I’m still thinking about my art will definitely help along those lines.

My ABP Goals

My specific goals for the next 28 days:

1. I work 5 or more hours a week in my studio making art.
2. I complete the rewrite of my website and blog and go live with them by May 12, 2008.
3. I update my resume to include jurors for all juried shows.
4. I create a complete resume for my personal use with every show in my career listed. This list also includes a list of which pieces were included in each of these shows.
5. I design a portfolio package to send to galleries (the package does not have to be complete but I identify all the parts and the format of the package)
6. I start a list of potential galleries to contact for representation. The list has 30 or more galleries listed.

ACEO #5

The Artist Card shown above is one of the 3 new Art Cards/ACEOs I sold through my online newsletter a few weeks ago. With my studio being a bit in disarray over the next few weeks (I’m going to be replacing the carpet before I put the house on the market) it is very likely I’ll be making some more ACEOs over the next month - small quick projects might feel just right.

This week I’m planning on blogging about what I learned with the newsletter as I promised. I got a bit distracted last week with the house stuff but after a weekend of doing house stuff I’m back and focusing on art.

 
ACEO stands for “art cards, editions and originals”. Originally known as ATC, Artist Trading Card, and are traded between artists. When sold to the public they are referred to as ACEOs. The primary rule for an ACEO or ATC is they be 3 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ - the size of a trading card. They are created in many different mediums and are collectible, trade able and affordable art for everyone.

I Need a Better System

I’ve tried various plans for organizing my office and files but they generally don’t work for me and instead of filing I start stacking papers and eventually it’s completely out of control with years of papers piled up around my office. The result is forgotten deadlines and missed opportunities.

I’m great at making lists but I tend to have several lists going on different scraps of paper and some online and they are never complete so my brain spends a lot of time trying to remember what I need to do. I’ve decided it’s time for a change. I couldn’t deal with the clutter anymore and I was tired of forgetting important things.

Getting Things Done

I’ve read several organization books in the past and none of them really worked for me. Until this month, I finally read David Allen’s Getting Things Done.

I love it.

It’s about writing everything down so you can forget about it and relax. Everything has a clear category (can you take action on it or can’t you) so everything is in an obvious place. It’s probably not for everyone as he’s got a flow chart for how to determine what to do with a piece of paper, but I’m finding it extremely helpful. Once I got going it’s not as complicated as it seemed when I read about it.

One of the things I love about it is he’s not selling a day timer or electronic gadget. He’s just explains his ideas and leaves the reader to implement it in a way that works for them.

I spent the first week of March (the week before my kids came home) organizing my office. Tossing out huge piles of papers and redoing my filing system.

• I now have a real world in box and my desktop is cleared.
• My email inbox is at 0 at the end of most days.
• I don’t have stacks of papers without a home.
• At a glance I know all the balls I have up in the air at any time and which ones need action.

Important but Not Urgent

As a result of identifying all the projects I was working on and the next steps I needed to do on them I’ve made some big progress in completing some of the projects. Projects that I’ve always wanted to do but haven’t tackled because they aren’t the most urgent things in my life.

As an example I knew I wanted to get some limbs cut off of a tree so my garden would get more light but it never made it onto a list as it was never urgent. With this system I wrote it down and in a few free minutes at work I found someone to do the work on craiglist and they came out that day and did the job.

It feels great to be making progress on more than just the things with a deadline this week.

Ready for the Big Breakthrough

I’m now in a position to tackle a really big project and bring it to completion - getting a professional portfolio pulled together along with a rewrite of my website as I’m ready to start looking for gallery representation.

This is a pretty big project and instead of going it alone I’ve signed up for Alyson Stanfield’s Artist Breakthrough Program (on the classes tab, it starts in April). After taking Christine Kane’s e-seminar I know the value in having outside support. And I love the amazing benefits of group energy. I’ll be holding myself accountable to completing these projects by working with a group and setting some deadlines.

I’m excited about getting this work finished and moving to the next level with my art career.

Blog Book Tour

Speaking of Alyson, I’m going to be hosting her on my blog on April 1 as part of her blog book tour. I love her new book I’d Rather Be in The Studio and I was excited for the opportunity to interview her for the book tour. Although I’ve read Alyson’s blog for years and attended a workshop with her I still learned quite a bit from her book. I definitely recommend it.

Markings #5    ©2007    66"x 57"

No Pressure

My show, Markings: Repetition and Pattern, opened today. The work is done. My artist talk is outlined and ready to go for saturday at the artist reception. I’ve got a detailed list of things to bring (cookies, updated portfolio, camera, etc). The deadline for shipping work for my next show, Fencing in or Keeping Out, isn’t for another month. My kids are still in Europe. Taxes are done. Bills are caught up. Plants are watered. Cats are fed. Laundry is done.

I’m in a very rare state of my life. I don’t feel the pressure of any looming deadlines I need to rush to complete.

Wow. What an amazing feeling.

Used to be this situation would rarely last long. Some deadline will sneak up on me and I’d start feeling I have to do things in high gear again.

My intent is to not let that happen that way anymore. I don’t want to live my life feeling I’m just putting out one fire after another.

Spinning My Wheels

My normal M.O. would be to make an excuse to myself that I needed to do nothing all week, for several weeks. I delivered the work for my show monday, obviously I deserve a month off. Then I’d waste the entire time online doing nothing. Then I’d feel drained, annoyed at myself and back under pressure to crank out the work at the last minute.

The result being only the immediate deadlines are met and things like decluttering my house, which is a huge job and needs to be done in little chunks, never ever gets finished because it never gets started because I’m either doing nothing at all or running around like a chicken with my head cut off.

I know I have a reputation for being super organized and good at managing my time but the reality is I work really fast and can pull off amazing things when under pressure. But only the big splashy things get done. The other stuff gets ignored and I don’t talk about it although it frustrates me a lot.

No more!

A Better Way

My plan is to keep track of upcoming commitments for the next 6 months and each week pick a few items that I need to focus on that week so my goals will be met in an effortless manner.

This week my priorities are

• Preparation for my artist reception on saturday
• Decluttering of my house
• Making steady progress for the work for the show in April

So tonight I cleaned out 1/2 of my linen closet, wrote the outline for my artist talk and made a shopping list and I spent a hour in my studio.

This doesn’t mean I won’t take time out to relax. I think it probably means I’ll have more time for slowing down and enjoying a break.

I’ll let you know how it goes.
 

Markings #5

I said in my last post that there were 2 pieces that didn’t make it into the show up in Boulder. This is the other piece. I really love this piece but it was too big. I had 2 pieces that were very dark and the other one fit into the space better. So this one came home to keep me company instead.

Structures #83    ©2007    12"x12"

Transitioning

My commute between home and office is a half hour drive each way. I spend this time doing various things: making phone calls, listening to music, getting annoyed at the traffic or listening to books on tape.

Being a "do-er" type person I like to accomplish things and doing stuff in the car, on the surface, seems to increase the amount of stuff I could get done in the day. Problem is most of these things are a distraction from what I find to be the best use of car time: transitioning and thinking about what comes next.

When I am not distracted and I get all excited on my drive home about working in my studio I find it effortless to just head right to it after dinner. If I’m on the phone when I pull in my driveway, and even worse still talking as I eat dinner, I am distracted and tend to end up in front of the computer reading blogs. I never took the time to think about how I wanted the evening to go so it goes no where, which is fine every once in a while but every day results in 0 hours of studio time for the week.

Too Tired

How tired I am has less to do with my studio time than my thoughts as I transition back home. Yes working all day and being a parent and paying bills and fixing cars and all those other things take energy. If I focus on how exhausted I should be on my drive home it is pretty much guaranteed I will do nothing that evening.

I had a friend that used to talk about how much I slept almost every day. I would generally say I was tired and worn out. I didn’t really think this but I used it as an excuse for getting out of things I didn’t want to do (which is a whole other issue - I should have just been honest). But sure enough I eventually felt tired all the time after saying it so often. I’ve since put an end to those conversations and amazingly I rarely feel tired or worn out anymore.

Sure there are days that are draining but I try not to focus on it and I rarely find this to be a problem. I’ve made getting 7-8 hours a sleep every night a pretty high priority. I go to bed around 9:30 every night - quite unfashionably early but since I get up at 5:30 it is really important to me.

Setting Intent

Now that I’m taking Christine Kane’s eseminar I have new words for this transitioning: Setting Intent. I also have a deeper understanding for how to go about it.

I protect my drive home time. I ignore the traffic (okay I’m still working on this - but I try not to let it bother me - it’s a fact of my current life choices - I accept that). I don’t listen to books on tape and I don’t make phone calls. I do listen to music some days but I’ve been embracing the silence more and more. I’m consciously setting my intent for the evening.

Morning Routine

I also have a new routine in the morning. Instead of rushing through a shower and then getting sucked into email and blogs I spend at least 30 minutes doing yoga, journaling and setting my intent for the day. It’s a much gentler way to start my day and I find myself much more relaxed and happy.

I’ve now done this 21 days in a row. So according to some experts this is now a habit and I will keep doing it. I’m not sure I’m buying that magic 21 day number but it’s no longer difficult to do this. At the beginning of the month I would have to force myself to stay in my bedroom and do the stuff. A few days I cheated and read email first but I went back and did the yoga and journaling. Now I just do this as matter of fact.

The real test will be when my kids return home from Europe in March and I have to be out of the house at 7am with them in tow. I fully intend on keeping this practice and by march it should be fairly solidly rooted into my daily routine and not a problem.

How to Set Intent

When I first started writing about my intent for the day I wasn’t really sure how to go about it or even what it meant. Being very goal oriented the first week or so it look suspiciously like a to-do list. Okay - it was a to-do list. That is a form of setting intent.

Now I’m looking deeper and leaving my todo lists for random scraps of paper about the house as I used to do. Here’s a bit of what I wrote today:

My thoughts create my world. If I think I’m going to be stressed and busy I will be. If I think I am going to be relaxed. I am.

I will pay close attention to my thoughts today. Looking to focus on calmness. To embrace effortlessness. I will be positive.

As I near the home stretch for my solo show opening in 1 month I am struggling with a rather long to-do list. I’ve had a few panicked times this weekend as I wrap my head around the work I want to do for the show. I’m working at approaching it with a lot less stress than normal, as the above thoughts indicate. It is really helping.

 
This is getting pretty long so another day I’ll write about things I’m doing to help me hold my intent. Learning to set the intent in a positive way is the first step. Actually following through is also important.

Structures #83

One of the activities I completed this weekend was to photograph a pile of new artwork. Structures #83 was a piece I made last fall while I was making the work for the Arvada Center show. It didn’t end up fitting in with the 9 pieces I selected so it got set aside. If you click to see the larger image you can hopefully see all the different thread colors I used to add texture to the composition.

I absolutely love the yellow in this piece. It’s so cheerful. I got the color pretty accurate on my monitor at home, which was another cheerful thing. I’m getting more courageous clicking on things in photoshop and my results get better each session.

On my todo list (now pushed back to March or April) is a rewrite of my website. I am going to put all of my small work on the website with prices. I thought I’d never put prices on my website but having the courage to admit to myself that I want to sell my art and that selling art is not a bad thing, I’m all for letting the world know it’s for sale. These small 12" x 12" pieces are $250 each, including the 9 pieces from the Arvada Center show:

Structures #90, Structures #86, Structures #85
Structures #87, Structures #88, Structures #81
Structures #89, Structures #91, Structures #82