Lisa Call

Taking A Break

The law on inertia (ie Newton’s first law of motion):

An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced force. An object in motion continues in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

When I left for vacation my studio time had great momentum and I was also making excellent progress on the art business/marketing stuff.

I had grand ideas that I would continue to want to work on the art business during my month in South Africa so I took along materials (small and light) that would enable me to do that.

Then an “unbalanced force” came into play, namely that of having a great time relaxing and not feeling a need to get stuff done, and I promptly gave up the silly idea that I would Get Stuff Done during that time. I even stopped blogging as I definitely reached a state of rest.

It was excellent, and a well needed break for my usual constant motion.

Moving Again

Then I returned home and found it was quite easy to stay in that state of rest. It was great to just hang out and do very little the last few weeks.

This weekend I made it to the dye studio and created 40 yards of beautiful South African inspired fabric and then today I spent 2 hours in my studio organizing and finishing Structures #100 (it needed the edges finished and the hanging sleeve – I’m about half done with that project).

To that unknown “unbalanced force” that enabled me to get moving again – thank you. I have some ideas what was at play here and they will be good topics for future posts. I need to ponder the situation a bit more also.

South African Impressions

I now have the fabric dyed and will be starting my South African Impressions artwork this weekend after I wrap up a few loose ends on some other artwork.

I’ve started sorting my photos from the trip also and will start doing blog posts picking up where I left off on a day by day journal of the trip. It will be a great way to stay connected with the experience as I am making the artwork.

You can still purchase the South African Impressions art at a discount through the end of September.

For details see here: South African Impressions

Quick post tonight as I cook dinner and head out the door to an artist lecture at the Denver Art Museum by Sandy Skoglund.

One of the things I love about twitter are the quotes people post on occasion. Here are a few that resonated with me today:

Failure

“People fail in direct proportion to their willingness to accept socially acceptable excuses for failure.”

Tweeted by Sandra Martini

This is so relevant to what I wrote about yesterday about not making goals because I wanted to be the free-spirited artist type. It’s socially acceptable to not get stuff done cause I’m an artist and schedules are stifling.

Well – forget that – I’m not going to fail and my art career is not going to fail cause it’s cool to just float about unrestrained by structure.

Preparation

“The will to win is worthless if you do not have the will to prepare.” – Thane Yost

Tweeted by Jane Button

I read this and immediately equated ‘prepare’ with ’setting goals’. Some other day I might have read it differently but today it dove tails nicely with my intent to get back to structure.

Bathing

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” ~ Zig Ziglar

Tweeted byValery Satterwhite

Love this. I journal every morning and most mornings I set and intent for the day. When I can’t think of something specific it is often something along the lines of ‘live the day focused on the tasks I want to get done.’ Staying in the moment helps me stay motivated for the current task.

Bumper Sticker

My tweet for the day:

"Want to get new bumper stickers for my car – anyone have some good art ones? Any pointers to sources for art related bumper stickers?"

Didn’t get any pointers. So how about you blog readers? Do you have any art related bumper stickers on your car? What do they say?

If you don’t have one but wanted one – what might you put on it? Anyone have resources for some funny pre-made ones?

The Past

I used to put in 20 hours a week in my studio. Always. Every single week I’d prioritize the creation of art and I would make sure I found the time to make art.

Then I decided I needed to change my life. I wasn’t happy, things weren’t working. I was letting things into my life that I didn’t absolutely love. I wasn’t making choices, I was just letting life happen.

So I took some time to discover what I really wanted. The first step in this process was to eliminate things from my life that weren’t working. The boyfriend, the clutter in the house and eventually the house.

This lead to the remodel project, which I’ve been writing about weekly since last August. Wow. I contacted the contractor in July – we started the design in August. That is 10 months of construction on my brain.

The house has been 99% done since the end of March but I needed April and May to settle in, get the punch list finished and write about the process.

The Present

So now – here I am – where am I? I certainly have changed my life. I love living in Denver vs. the suburbs. I love living my life with intention. I love my new home and new studio.

The turmoil is over and when I look back it’s been 2 1/2 years since I’ve been at this place (the year prior to my move my father was ill and passed away, as did 3 other close family members) with no big things to distract me.

This is a very exciting and scary place to be. I know myself. I know this is the time when historically I am very likely to create yet another diversion to keep me from having to answer that scary question:

"What Do I Want?"

It’s good to know this – to have the awareness. Because this time, I’m not going to do it. No boyfriends, no more moving, no more building. This is it. Just me and my dreams. Time to create them.

The Plan

I’ve been working on answering that question last 4 months. Thinking about what I love doing. Writing, reading, thinking big.

I’ve made tons of notes on scraps of paper it’s been fun to hint around at the answer to the question. Wonderful fun ideas coming up daily.

This dreaming part, which is wonderful and fun and vitally important, is now ready to take a more definite shape. I have a good idea of what I want, now time to make it concrete.

I’m ready to move from dream to plan so for that to happen I am putting the following task on my todo list daily:

- Planning – 30 minutes or more

I’m taking all those wonderful ideas and pulling them together into a cohesive plan that I can take action on. Priorities and systems and schedules.

And all of this is very fun, but it’s also pretty scary. Cause it’s a lot of work. Because all the big dreams that my right brain came up with, my left brain is saying "You are going to do WHAT? Do you know how much work that is? Do you even know how to do that? "

So I think those thoughts and still I move ahead, cause in addition to distractions I’m not letting fear stop me either. I just think about the next 30 minute planning session and I am making steady progress forward – turning the dream into reality.

And, because first and foremost I’m an artist and love creating art, the other thing on my daily todo list is:

- Create Art – 1 hour or more

I am committing to returning to 15 hours (or more) of studio time every week. I debated going back to 20 but decided I’m doing more art business work so I’ll stick with 15 for now.

I’ll let you all know how things progress.

Studio Posts

I’m not quite done with my posts on building a studio. Next up will be a post on my studio storage.

Tomorrow I plan to catch up on all the blog comments I’ve failed to respond to the last few weeks and see if there are other studio topics I need to cover based on the questions.

Once that is done I’ll need to think up another theme for my blog posts for June. Hm. Somewhere I had a list…

My Office

Focus

The past few days I have been intently focused on getting moved into my house. Last week I tried to unpack and settle in and also do some art business stuff. The result wasn’t real productive. The old proverb that says something like “If you chase 2 rabbits both will escape” pretty much applied.

When I’d try to sit and do some writing the piles of boxes around me would start distracting me and I’d start to unpack. Then I’d feel guilty for not doing the business stuff so jump back to that. Ack – totally 0 forward progress.

So now I’m just unpacking. That’s enough along with work and kids and all the other stuff I normally do. Few more days and I should be done, which means I’ll be able to take my final ‘after’ photos of the remodel.

The house is 99% done. They have promised to finish up the punch list this week. So soon it will be time for a house warming party. My daughter said she saw that on the Sims but didn’t know people did it in real life. Guess she’s about to experience a computer game in real life.

Art

This weekend I decided it was time to get art on my walls as the furniture was all in place and I’m just about finished with that process. It’s amazing how many hours it takes to sort out an art collection and choose homes for each piece and then fill in the empty spots (admittedly most of the space as my art collection isn’t very large yet) with my own textile paintings. Hours and hours – very fun hours.

I have 2 or 3 more pieces to go up and I’ll be done, for now. One of the last pieces will be Markings #12 but first I have to fix it so I can hang it right side up. Long time readers might recall it hung upside down in my last solo show and it wasn’t until I posted the images on line I figured it out.

In the photo above you can see Markings #15 hanging in my office. Below it are my very cool pencil holders made by Paula McCullough. They are just perfect on that shelf over the desk.

I don’t have local gallery representation yet so my house gets to be my local showcase of art.

Slides

This blog post is a way to avoid the chaos currently surrounding me in my office. I’m in the process of organizing and moving in but I’ve hit the ‘it’s a huge mess in here what should I do next’ part of the process and tired.

The big white bag in the middle of the floor is a trash bag – full of 90% of my slides. Tossing them out. I am keeping 1 slide of each textile painting so I’ve only tossed out the obvious ones and later on I’ll do more sorting. Five of the notebooks on the shelf are slides and I suspect I can get that down to just 1. Then I’ll put it in my basement and not look at it again forever.

I was pretty ruthless when I moved and tossed out and gave away a ton of stuff. I’m being even more picky now and have a big mound of things I will be getting rid of over the next few weeks. One of them is my slide projector and screen. No slides, no need for a projector. Anyone want it? I have a spare bulb and a few extra carousels also.

I have to say, I really prefer this digital world. Keeping track of images and entering shows is much easier for me now. Yay for technology.

To celebrate the coming of the new year I want to first honor my accomplishments for 2008.

1. Selected Courage for my year to guide me through a year of big changes.
2. I smiled more in 2008 than I did in 2007.
3. I sold my house of 12 years in a single day for over my asking price.
4. I bought a new home in Denver saying goodbye to the suburbs.
5. I hired an awesome contractor to build my dream studio on the back of my new house.
6. I have enjoyed the first 3 months of construction of my new studio.
7. I spent 446 hours in my studio making art (that an average of just under 8 hours a week. I had a few months during my house sale and move when I made no art)
8. I spent at least 700 hours marketing my art. I didn’t track it as closely as studio time but it was the lions share of my art career in 2008 as it was something I could do while the studio was inaccessible during the moves.
9. I created 4 new textile paintings in the Markings series.
10. I created 13 new textile patings in the Structures series.
11. I started new series inspired by my new house, called Home, and created 8 textile paintings – .
12. I started a new series of small works mounted on painted stretched canvas and created 21 textile paintings in the series – Lines.
13. I created 27 new ACEOs.
14. The result: I created 73 new pieces of art this year.
15. I set a goal of writing and sending 4 studio newsletters in 2008 – I met that goal by sending the 4th newsletter on New Year’s Eve.
16. I ended the year with 431 newsletter subscribers, exceeding my goal of 400.
17. I wrote 174 blog posts.
18. I joined twitter.
19. I wrote 1588 tweets (in about 4 months).
20. I ended the year with 400+ follows on twitter meeting my goal of 400.
21. I became more active on facebook.
22. I ended the year with 201 friends on facebook meeting my goal of 200.
23. I had a solo show of my Markings series in Boulder, CO in February.
24. I had a solo show of a few of my Structures textile paintings in Lincoln, NE in April.
25. I curated a group show at the Lux Center for Arts in Lincoln, NE in April.
26. I gave an artist talk at my February show – and love it.
27. I exhibited 6 large textile paintings at the Butler Museum of Art in Ohio.
28. I attended the opening of the Butler Museum show.
29. I was juried into Form Not Function for 2009.
30. I was asked to exhibit art at the Danforth Art Museum in 2009.
31. I exhibited Structures #60 at Art Quilt Elements (AQE).
32. I sold 2 small textile paintings in the gift shop during AQE.
33. Structures #60 was mentioned in the review of AQE in the SAQA journal.
34. I participated in the Artist Breakthrough program with Alyson Stanfield
35. I did a podcast interview with Alyson for her online book tour – my first podcast.
36. I was quoted in Alyson’s new book: I’d Rather Be in the Studio.
37. I enjoyed Alyson’s series of artist interviews this fall.
38. I attended my second retreat with Christine Kane in November
39. I had a nice family vacation in Montana in July.
40. I signed up to go on a tour of Africa in 2009 with Nancy Crow.
41. I turned profit in my art business for the first time ever.
42. I sold 2 textile paintings to the Cleveland University Hospital collection.
43. I sold many textile paintings to supporters and collectors.
44. I received dozens of supportive and loving comments from fans.
45. I dyed a couple hundred yards of fabric in my backyard under a crab apple tree in my new house since I had no where else to do it. I didn’t just give it up for the year.
46. I set up a temporary studio in a small bedroom after leaving a 600 sq ft studio to continue making art while my new studio is being built.
47. I create a project and wrote a chapter for a crafters how to book to be published in 2009.
48. I participated in several online interviews.
49. I sold enough PDF fabric to others to keep my account open with Kaufman.
50. I created a webpage to sell my artwork directly to collectors.
51. My direct sales of art were better than I imagined.
52. I did yoga almost every morning for 3 months in a row. I am still following a 3-4 times a month routine (most of the time).
53. I journaled in the morning on a consistent basis.
54. I wrote a gratitude entry in my journal 5 or 6 times a week.
55. I went on some beautiful hikes.
56. I experienced the magic of an aspen grove near it’s peak fall color.
57. I had a wonderful relationship with Jim for a few months.
58. I recovered from the end of the relationship by focusing on Joy in December.
59. I visited the Denver Art Museum numerous time through the year.
60. I visited the Contemporary Art
61. I taught myself how to mount my textile paintings on canvas.
62. I bought a new laptop for my art business.
63. I enjoyed several wonderful meals and outings with my artist friends.
64. I started a rewrite of my website with a design I really love.
65. I defined what success means to me as an artist.
66. I applied agile software management techniques to manage my art business.
67. I sold work in the artfulhome.com studio sale in the spring.
68. I sold work in the artfulhome.com studio sale in December.
69. Structures #39 appeared in the artful home holiday catalog.
70. Three textile paintings were selected as covers for Myers Briggs Booklets.
71. I received good compensation for the use of my images on the book covers.
72. Participated in Christine Kane’s Great Big Dreams E-Seminar – twice.
73. Made an investment in myself and signed up for Christine’s Platinum coaching circle for 2009.
74. Participated in small art showcase.
75. Listed in Fine Art Department.
76. Wrote guest post on Christine’s blog about my choice of the word Courage for 2008.
77. Received innumerable wonderful, supportive and informative comments on my blog.
78. Maintained a daily photo journal of the progress of my new home and studio construction.
79. Donated and gifted 10% of my gross art income.
80. Became comfortable and defined my career to include selling affordable art in addition to having museum shows with my Big Art.
81. Worked a fulltime job as a software engineer.
82. Thoroughly enjoyed being a mom to my 12 and 16 year old kids.
83. Wrote a series of blog posts about energy, and why I get so much done.
84. Survived my Quilt National 2009 rejection (the first rejection from QN in 4 shows)
85. Ordered new business cards.
86. Spent a weekend in silence.
87. Completed one ink drawing – Lines #4
88. Purchased 3+ beautiful new works of original art by artists I admire.
89. Baked an amazing cake for Christmas dinner.
90. Gave away a good percent (30%? 40%?) of my belongings to move from a 4000 sq ft home to a 900 sq ft home.
91. Was interviewed for inclusion in a book about art quilters to be published in 2009 or 2010.
92. Spent time with some wonderful old friends.
93. Spent time with some new amazing friends.
94. Let go of some friendships that were no longer serving me.
95. Through the use of acupuncture, yoga and intention, quit taking advil and aleave ending a 20+ year dependence on the drugs for pain relief.
96. Bought myself a big box of See’s candy’s in an act of serious self care.
97. Gave street people money and didn’t worry about what they might or might not do with it.
98. Tried out some new bright colors in my smaller textile paintings.
99. Used a purple christmas tree for the topping off of my construction.
100. Dressed my cats up for the holidays with no serious repercussions.

When I first thought of this list I knew my studio time (~8 hours a week) would see so small compared to my prefvious years goals of 20 hours per week. And then I look at everything else I have accomplished and I wonder where I found those 8 hours plus the 12-13 hours a week for marketing my work.

Gratitude for all I have done this year feels like the perfect way to end the year.

Tomorrow – my words for 2009 – Expansion and Integrity.

Happy New Year everyone.

Morning Aspens
by Stacey Peterson
Oil on Panel
9×12″
2008
reprinted with permission by the artist

Being Decisive

I think one reason I get so much done is I’m good at making decisions, meaning that when presented with choices I don’t spend days or weeks or months deciding what to do. I just decide. Then I do it.

When I decluttered my house at the beginning of the year I had no intention of moving at that time. But once the idea that I really could move came to me, I didn’t ponder it forever. I simply decided to move based on how that decision felt to me and within a week I had a Realtor lined up and got to work making it happen. I went from thinking "Hm, maybe I could move" to living in my new house in only 3 months.

One of my strengths is my intuition. I rarely sit down and make lists of advantages and disadvantages of doing something. I just listen to my feelings and pick the choice that feels right and move forward. I do journal and find writing (not list making) helps me listen my desires.

I don’t believe that every decision has a wrong and a right choice. I think there are pros and cons to all choices. So I focus on the positives of my direction and don’t let the negative aspects stop me.

This isn’t to say I don’t sometimes decide my choice wasn’t the best for me. So then I just change my mind and do something else. And once that decision is made then I just move forward in the new direction.

It’s hard to make forward progress and put energy anywhere if I don’t make a decision as to which direction to go. So step one is to decide. When I’m feeling low on energy I often find that I haven’t gotten clear about a decision that needs to be made. Making that decision releases all sorts of energy and starts propelling me towards my future.

If you are feeling like you don’t have the energy to devote to a project are you fully committed and have you truly decided that is the direction you should go? Maybe making a solid decision is the first step in boosting your energy.

Construction Zone

Tomorrow’s the big day – construction on my new studio begins. I spent a large portion of the weekend preparing my house for the event.

First up will be removal of the asbestos siding. Originally I thought I’d do this work myself. Then I decided that was a bit insane so I’ve hired asbestos removal people to do it. Once the siding is gone the builder can start and will begin by ripping the moldy shed off the back of the garage, which will create a pathway, through the garage, for the big digging thing to get to my backyard to dig a basement.

Pictures of the progress will start tomorrow and if things go as intended the artwork will also continue.

Morning Aspens

I love Stacey Peterson’s paintings of the Colorado landscape and have been saving up to purchase one for about a year. When she posted the photo of the above painting on her blog I knew instantly (there’s that intuitive decision making thing) it was the one I wanted and am happy to report it arrived at my house this week.

Stacey’s blog is one of my favorites. She’s my role model: she quit her technical job to support herself with her art and she lives in the Colorado mountains. Plus she’s really organized and hates clutter – my kind of person!

Depending on how messy it gets around here during construction the painting might have to live somewhere else for few months but right now it’s on the wall in my living room and I’m definitely enjoying it.

Now time to start saving up for the next artist’s work I covet.

Cherry Creek State Park, Denver, Colorado
 

Clarity

When I have clarity of intention I’m able to focus my actions on the things that will bring about my desires more quickly. I believe I am responsible for my own fate and focusing on what I want will result in it transpiring. So best to be very clear about what that is so I’m happy with the results. Hence my previous posts on my artistic success.

When I sit down with my todo list I think about each item and if it will lead to one of the goals on my list. If not I try to get the thing off my list – delegate it, don’t do it, or do it quickly. This is one reason why being clear is so helpful. It allows me to align my actions exactly to the outcomes I most want.

Another thing I meant to mention in my twitter for artists post, but it flittered out of my mind when writing, twitter fits into my long term success strategy. The marketing piece is probably there and it will help me sell art but more immediately I see it as a wonderful community of artists. I’ve meant dozens and dozens of new artists the last few weeks and am going to enjoy getting to know them better through their tweets. If you are trying to decided if twitter is right for you, one way to make that decision is to think about if it fits into your long term vision for your career.

Where Do You See Yourself?

Violette Severin has done a series of artist interviews on her blog and I was asked to participate. You can read my interview here: Interview with Lisa Call.

One of my favorite questions she asked was "Where do you see yourself in 10 years?" I gave a fairly short answer on her blog as I wasn’t yet done working through my definition of success. The list of items from last weeks post, What Does Success Mean To Me, is the more clear answer to that question.

Some people might have a problem with defining success so another way to think about it is with this question. What do you envision yourself doing in the future?

Positive Day Dreaming

I’ve been trying out positive day dreaming and it seems most of the time it goes like this:

I wake up and get to spend the entire day in my studio making art. Then the next day I get to do the same. And the next and the next. I even toss in some marketing activities cause it’s fun now and of course eating good food, making the art in a beautiful studio and spending part of the time with the people I love.

Right now I can think of nothing I would like more than to spend an entire month making art and not going to work. Okay admittedly an entire life doing this would be better, but with the remodel I think I might be working for a few more years now. A tradeoff that will be well worth it.

Still – I think I’m going to figure out how to take a month off work and just make art the entire time. What a perfect use of my vacation time. It puts a huge smile on my face just thinking about it.

Studio Newsletter

It’s time again for my quarterly studio newsletter. I expect the September edition to be sent by end of the week if not sooner. As has become habit, I will have a few ACEOs for sale to my newsletter subscribers.

You can check out a sample here: Lisa Call Studio News.

You can sign up below for the newsletter:

 
And of course, I will never share or sell your email address and will only use it for the purpose stated above. All emails sent will include a link to unsubscribe should you decide you are no longer interested.

A Natural Progression

When I thought about being an artist 10-12 years ago, my definition of success was to get my work into some juried quilt shows. It didn’t take long and I was, by my definition, a success.

So I set the bar higher. I decided I needed to get into Quilt National to be a success. That goal was first achieved in 2003. I’ve now been accepted, into what to some is considered by some to be the quintessential art quilt venue, 3 times in a row.

With some success to my name, I decided to looked a little deeper and decided I wanted to focus on finding my artistic voice and this became my definition of success:

- I am the best artist I can be
- I have solo shows in not-for-profit galleries (note that non-profit part)

My focus was almost solely on making art and a bit of time was spent showing my work. My actions were in alignment with my intent and I was content. I spent years completely focused on my art and I feel this was a wise choice. As a result I have a lot of confidence in my art and skills and I had a few solo shows along the way.

Moving On

Each time I near or reach my definition of success I feel it’s time to change it and think bigger. The other option, declaring myself a success and coasting, doesn’t suit me very well. At least not yet.

It’s not that I’ve never had big grandiose ideas about where my art can go. It’s that I never spent the time to think about them in detail, write them down, focus on them and thereby make them my new reality. I don’t think this is a bad thing. Could be it’s a natural progression for many of us – start small and get bigger as the way becomes clearer and the obstacles seem less daunting.

Adding Value

Some of the change in direction I’m now planning came about when I was willing to realize and accept that:

1. It’s okay to sell art
2. I can work to be the best artist I can and market my work at the same time. This involved learning to ignore all the voices that speak to the contrary.
3. Getting money for something I love doing is pretty darn cool

I love Steve Pavlina’s comments on twitter the other day that read:

Becoming a millionaire (through honest means) requires delivering $1 million worth of value to other people. That’s generous, not greedy!

It’s a good reminder that as an artist I am providing value to the world and as such it’s okay to be reimbursed for that value.

Cynthia Guajardo had some interesting thoughts the other day as she was pondering what value she might be adding as a ceramic artist in her blog post about living simply. I was very happy to read that she came to the conclusion that she was adding value and will continue to make her pottery.

I suspect it’s fairly common for artists to question what value they might be adding to universe with their art and craft. I know I have. And I’m happy I also came to the conclusion that we add a lot and it is essential we keep creating. And expecting to be compensated fairly for that value.

My New Definition for Success

So now it’s time to take a deep breath and think big and tell the world all about it.

This is my new definition for what it means to me to be a successful artist:

• I am creating a body of work that I am proud of and that I know is pushing me to become the best artist I can.
• I see growth in my artwork.
• I am authentically marketing my artwork.
• I quit my day job and live comfortably from the proceeds of my creative talents. I want to be very clear about my definition so I have an amount in mind but think specific dollar amounts are a bit too personal for public consumption.
• My work is valued by buyers and collectors, who are willing to pay a good price for my artwork. Again, I have a specific idea of what I want my art to sell for so I am very clear about where this career is headed.
• I create an affordable line of work for those that can not afford my larger pieces.
• My work is included in 4 or more museum collections.
• I publish one or more books about my art and my writing about art. At least one will be a big "coffee table" style book
• I actively participate in a community of mutually supportive artists.
• I am an inspiration and mentor to other artists.
• I continually learn about myself through my art and my writing about art.
• I enjoy all aspects of being an artist.

Why Do I Need to Know This?

One of the items on my goal list for 2008 was to define what success means to me as an artist. As I mentioned in that post, my definition of success has changed, so I wasn’t sure where to go with my goals for 2008 at the beginning of the year so I didn’t really write any.

This wasn’t a bad thing because turns out what I really wanted to do this year was sell my house and get out of the suburbs. That lifestyle was no longer working for me. I loved my big house and big studio but I’m much happier in the city: close to work, close to the kids school and close to everything – museums, galleries, restaurants. I’ve seen more art in the past few months than I did the last 5 years, because it is right here 10-15 minutes from my house.

But back to success. I feel it’s now time to define what it means to me to be a successful artist. I have a vague idea in my head what I intend for my career but I want to write it down and give it some serious thought.

I feel I need to do this right now for a few reasons:

1. Clarity: Most importantly I want to get really clear about why I am making art and how I want to market it. Or more accurately, why I am making art today and where I am intending for this career to go. I believe that getting very clear about intentions is the best way to ensure they become real. When I am wishy washy with my intent my results tend to be wishy washy. When I get really clear I find I get very clear results also.
2. Adapting: I don’t think it’s realistic, at least for me, to come up with big grand ideas about what success means and for it not to change over time. I wrote out some definitions for myself a few years ago and then I moved and I decided I like selling my art and so much of what I wrote is no longer up to date. By revisiting this definition I can learn and adapt and move get closer to my true desires.
3. Direction: Having a definition of success for my art career makes writing goals very easy. If I know what I think success means then I just have to do the things that will result in that success. Without a definition of success it’s kind of hard to figure out what I should be doing on a day to day basis. There are thousands of things I could do as an artist and only by understanding what my desired destination is, can I pick the activities that best suit my stated intentions.

I’ve spent a couple days writing and thinking about the specifics of this definition and when I get it finalized, or at least polished enough that it feels right and it is clear, I’ll post it on my blog.

 
Do you have a definition for what success means to you as an artist?

Priorities

In my series of posts on holding intent I’ve talked about some of the quotes I have on my studio wall. Here’s another related to priorities:

My Take on the Parts

What: I need to identify the specific tasks, or at the minimum the next task, that will get me to my goal. Without this breakdown of the parts it’s hard to identify the next action I should take to achieve a goal. Priorities imply that there are things to choose from, I need to identify those things.

I: There is only 1 person that is in charge of me reaching my goals – and it’s me. Taking responsibility for all of my choices and actions is a huge help in reaching my goals. It is not the internet’s fault that I waste time reading email and blogs, it was my choice. If I don’t like that choice and I can change it.

Doing: If I just sit around it’s unlikely my goals will be met.

Right Now: Worrying about the future or stressing out about the past isn’t going to move me forward. It’s when I stay in the present moment I make progress.

Closer: This is a process (and not a quick one), not a destination. Doing things gets me closer to my goals but I need to be patient and enjoy the journey, because without that the goal is rather empty. For me it’s about a life time commitment to living life one day at a time with the intention to be the person I want to be and living the life I want to have each day giving my situation in that exact moment.

Ultimate Goal: If I don’t know what I want and who I want to be, it’s kind of hard to make progress in that direction.

The Universe

On Alyson Standfield’s recommendation in January I signed up to get Notes from the Universe. I love these emails each morning as they make me smile and remind me that my thoughts do become my reality. Today’s was particularly relevant to my topic:

Where are you spending your time?