Start practicing
If you didn’t start the day with a smile,
it’s not too late to start practicing for tomorrow.
- Unknown
Truth is beauty
If truth is beauty,
how come no one has their hair
done in a library?
- Lily Tomlin
I tend to make art that I find attractive. I tend not to make angry art or sad art. That’s not to say that I don’t admire the TRUTH (the beautiful truth) in art that is angry or depressing or makes a political statement of some description. That’s the sort of art a lot of SERIOUS artists make.
So am I not a serious artist?
Hmmm.
These days what I’m serious about is making art that reflects happiness. That’s the whole purpose of my experiment here at Happiness-Studio.
And that’s the truth. (Thanks, Lily Tomlin!)
History in a hardware store
Anyone can look for history in a museum.
The creative explorer looks for history in a hardware store.
- Robert Wieder
Okay, so this quote is about history, but I LOVE looking for ART in hardware stores. And junk shops - thie kind filled with old metal objects. I like to rummage around and ask myself, “What could I make with this weird thing?” It is still creative exploration.
If you don’t already know him, I want to introduce you to Keith Lo Bue who does amazing found object art and is also one of the remarkable-ist teachers I’ve had the pleasure to do a class with. He also creates digital art with humor and aplomb.
Daily artist practice
I’ve been trying to do something artistic every day - this is what I refer to as my Daily Artistic Practice, or DAP. All the artwork on my blog is my own recent doodling and some has been made this month since I started DAP-ing.
It doesn’t take much effort to do a doodle. It’s relaxing. It’s fun.
Sometimes I forget the DAP and I don’t beat myself up over it. Those days have been rare, anyway.
I’m collecting the physical doodles (as opposed to the digital doodles made in Photoshop) and will make a book by binding them together somehow. Maybe I could make a new book every month and I could aspire to bind each one in a different way . . .
Dream for a living
I dream for a living.
- Steven Spielberg
Ah, Steven, and what a wonderful dreamer you are!
The art of doodling
“Doodling allows the unconscious to render in symbolic expression. Symbols have universal as well as personal meaning. When you are stuck for an answer to a problem or looking for creative innovation, the technique of doodling will unleash the hidden symbolic powers of the unconscious mind.”
Enchanted Mind - The Art of Doodling
Aha! I was surfing around and found this quote on the Enchanted Mind website. More testimonial to the fact that doodling is good for you!
The highest prize
Marianne Williamson. Fantastic author. I highly recommend her. But the first time I picked up her debut book, A Return to Dreams, I couldn’t get past the first chapter. The book begins with a description of her down and outness, before she had her epiphany upon taking A Course in Miracles. She sets the scene in her first chapter, but I didn’t read far enough to see that the real pearls of wisdom came later. Luckily, I attempted reading the book a second time, and this time I could hardly put it down.
But how about this quote (which I wrote on top of a watercolor painted during one of my DAP sessions)? It says that the best thing about being creative is the feeling of joy we get out of the process. It’s not about the praise or any financial reward - though these aspects may contribute to our sense of elation!
If you are reading this blog, I imagine you are much like me - creative, probably making art. So why do you create art? Does it give you a sense of joy? That’s my experience. Does it ring true for you?
Where are you?
Everyone who got where he is,
had to begin where he was.
- Robert Louis Stevenson
It is SOOOO easy to make excuses. “I could never do that, I don’t have the training.” or “I don’t have time for that sort of thing.” or “I can’t afford that.”
But when you think about it, we really could achieve about anything we put our minds to - it is usually just a matter of changing our attitude and then changing our priorities.
Humor
Humor is the great thing, the saving thing.
The minute it crops up, all our irritations
and resentments slip away,
and a sunny spirit takes their place.
- Mark Twain
Reach out eagerly
The purpose of life is to live it,
to taste experience to the utmost,
to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.
- Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt was an incredible woman. She was driven! I’m certain she had no fear of reaching out for newer experiences. I think her kids felt a little neglected (which is a pity) but she certainly was a woman who influenced America - and possibly other parts of the world - during a period of time when there was a need for strong women and men to make a stand.
I borrowed an image of Eleanor with apologies to the original artist. Clearly I don’t have copyright. The green scribbles and text are my own done in Photoshop.
On January 2nd I wrote about my commitment to perform a “daily artistic practice” or DAP. (more…)
