Collaboration

I've been creating daily 6 inch fabric art squares for 400 days. In 2015, I made 250 squares and today is Day 150 in 2016.  I have written 20 weekly articles in my Studio Notes blog in 2016.  I love both of these activities and will continue but sometimes you need to make things a little exciting and change it up. My current new project is all about Collaborations. The idea for collaborations just kind of happened to me.

In April 2016, I got a comment on Instagram that someone had posted one of my daily squares on their Instagram account called @quiltylovely.  (For all the Instagram accounts I mention in this article, just click on the highlighted name and you will be directed to their Instagram account to check them out for yourself on your laptop or phone even if you do not have an account.) This was exciting and shared my art with a whole new group of people.  Then I realized there are many sites like this on Instagram which curate material from other people’s Instagram accounts and then posts it on their account.  The curators always give credit to the original artists. I only follow the curated art accounts but I am sure there is a whole world of Instagram accounts based on thousands of topics. This is where the search function of Instagram becomes very useful.

In particular, two curated sites on Instagram that I have followed are @DoItForTheProcess and @CarveOutTimeForArt.  At first, I was just drawn to the posts because I really connected with all the artists they selected to share.  I also like the idea of focusing on the process and making time for art.  These two topics are basically what I write about in this blog every week. Then @CarveOutTimeForArt posted one of my daily squares from my Fire series. So exciting!

Another collaboration happened when a fellow quilt blogger, Debbie Jeske, @quilterstable featured my article What is Creative Flow and How do We Get There? in her fantastic newsletter, The Scrap Basket in April 2016. Several people signed up for my Studio Notes blog weekly articles based on reading my weekly article in her newsletter. I also had way more traffic to my website that week based on her article.

Daily 6 inch square from my Fire series which I sent to fellow Gee's Bend quilt fan.

Next, a fellow Instagramer @jimitick sent me a piece of his enso circle calligraphy. We had messaged about our mutual love of Gee’s Bend Alabama quilters. He kindly sent along a small quilt square made by a Gee’s Bend quilter that he got on a visit to Gee’s Bend, Alabama.  Swoon. I have it on my desk so I can see it regularly.  As a thank you, I sent him one of my daily squares ready to hang.  I made sure to send him one that he had liked on Instagram.

This collaboration stuff was getting interesting.  Up to this point, I had been rather passive and all this collaborating started happening to me. The next step was a natural one.  I reached out to someone I found on Instagram who is interested in supporting creatives to make more art.  Her name is Serena and you can find her on Instagram at  @sirensfinds and on her website sirensfinds.com. We are in the planning stages of doing a joint blog post and other exciting stuff.

 I also have been thinking about reaching out to fellow artists for art swaps. I am just amazed by all the wonderful creative people and their art on Instagram.  Collecting art is a recent idea that really has me daydreaming about it.  A fellow Instagramer @thewendywolf got me thinking about it when she posted pictures of art she has collected from friends and other artists.

About this time, another fellow quilt artist @wyndedyer who I have been following on Instagram for months posted on Instagram asking if anyone was interested in swapping art.  Again, serendipity? Or just clarifying your ideas puts them into motion? Anyway, I reached out to her and we will be doing an art swap this summer. I am making a pillow cover for her with 9 of my 6 inch squares.  She is making me one of her wonderful tarp quilts for us to hang outside and enjoy on our patio. Yes, I said tarp quilts.  She cuts up tarps in a variety of colors and sews them back together.  They are wonderful! I love her design sense. Plus they are waterproof.

My block for Merel.

Lastly, a friend of mine on Instagram @merel_birdblocks has had some serious health issues.  A fellow quilter Hillary, @entropyalwayswins organized a group quilt project where anyone could make a 8 inch quilt square of a bird in flight.  She and a helpful crew of others will assemble, quilt and mail the completed quilt to Merel.  Quilters have big hearts.  I had the pleasure of making Merel's bird out of one of my daily squares from the Sky series.  

So why am I writing about this?  Sometimes as creators we can get so busy and preoccupied with our own art. Collaborating is a way to get outside of yourself. It enlarges our view of the world. Whatever you give, comes back a hundred fold.  But isn’t that how it always goes.

I have only started to scratch the surface of finding more ways to collaborate. Good luck in finding your own ways. 

The Sky playlist on Spotify can be found HERE.  For each of my series I come up with a music playlist based on the theme.  This Sky playlist has one of my favorite songs, Blue Sky by The Allman Brothers and the great album by Jackson Browne Late for the Sky.

Unique vs. Universal

As an artist, you spend most of your time developing your unique vision, your unique way of making art. You follow what inspires you to keep creating.  I have been doing this for 18 years with fabric art.  A few people on Instagram have said they can tell which Instagram post is my art in a group hashtag such as #AbstractArt, etc with hundreds of Instagram posts a day.  I was happy to hear that I have a unique style that is recognizable to others as my art.  My focus is self expression, pushing boundaries of what I have done in the past, not trying to fit in or make what is culturally popular.  Sometimes being unique and following your own path can leave you feeling too much like a unique snowflake.

Sometimes I feel at odds with this unique approach when I teach private clients or group classes.  I'm obviously not teaching them exactly what I do, because that really wouldn't work.  Sometimes I think maybe I just shouldn't teach because no one is going to really get it or want to do what I do.  But then I found a super student who I have been working with since January 2016.  She made me realize I can teach the process of how you start a project, organize the steps, and get to the completion.  These are universal concepts to any creative project.  I have been able to teach the tips and tricks I've learned over the past 18 years of designing and sewing fabric art by showing her through each step of the process.  She said I am a wonderful teacher!  We have meet regularly while she made a queen-size quilt as a gift to her daughter. Yes, this woman has courage to tackle such a large project as a beginner.

You see at first, I thought I had failed because she decided to start with a quilt pattern sold by a well-known quilter. The kit comes with the fabric and a diagram of how you cut each shape and then sew the quilt top together.  It is lovely.  But I am someone who stopped using patterns almost a decade ago.  I am all about the freedom of expression in art, not the rule-following quilt police who stress you out about perfect seams and exact measurements.  I thought maybe people like the clearly-defined rules and control of knowing what it will look like at the end of the project. 

Bits and Pieces of 2015. Nine daily squares from the series.

Maybe my approach was too specific to just me. My approach starts with an inspiration for a series, like the Sky series I am currently working on.  The color palette comes from the white of the clouds, blue of the sky, and purples, oranges and yellows of the sunset and sunrise.  The design is based on the horizontal trending of clouds and sunrise/sunset colors.  This is what I mean by process-based design. Literally, I cut horizontal strips of fabric in my color palette and sew them together to make a 6-inch daily square. A recent addition to this process is the inclusion of small pieces of fabric sewn together as one horizontal strip.  I am trying to get the complicated colors and shapes of the kind of sunset or sunrise that makes us stop in our tracks and stare.  Most of my process-based designs are based on breaking down landscape scenes into their elemental geometric shapes.  Other types of  process design can be more geometric like my series Bits and Pieces of 2015 where I used left over fabric from last years series and sewed them to a dark grey fabric with a vertical theme.  Just pure geometry really.

The good news is that my super student said, of course, she wants to continue classes with me and her next project will be a process-based, free-form design. This has got me thinking.

Sometimes you have to know the rules before you can break them.  

Many abstract painters were classically trained and then followed the path to abstract expressionism. They had to know what the rules were to break them.

For all my students, I want the vision for their art to be their own.  I don't want to teach people how to be like me.  I want to encourage people to be like themselves.  It takes practice and dedication to find your unique expression.  But there are some universal processes and techniques I can share to help my students on their way.  Hopefully I can make it more efficient for my students and then they do not have to stumble around in the dark as much as I did starting out.  So I'm grateful for my super student because I realize that I do have something to offer besides just making my own art.

 

The Four Elements series

When I participated in the 100 day project in 2015, I made four 30 inch quilts that encompassed all the daily squares from the entire project sewn in the daily consecutive order.  I display them in my house as one large square with just a few inches of space between them.  I like that style of hanging four pieces together so much that when I contemplated participating in the 100 day project for 2016, I decided I wanted to have four pieces that went together well so I could hang them also as one larger square.

When I was thinking about the number 4 for four pieces, the idea of the Four Elements just popped into my thinking.  I must admit when my children were little we watched the Avatar cartoon series which divided their culture into people with special powers over the four elements:  Earth, Air, Water, and Fire.  I wanted to mix it up and use my own terminology so I decided on Fire, Sky, Water and Earth.  I guess I wanted Sky because it's really hard to think about colors of the Air.  The vision of sky opened up all sorts of colors of the sunrise, sunset, and blue skies. 

Normally, I come up with a design idea and a color idea, and I just let it unfold each day without too much thought of what the final piece will look like all together.  I just let it happen.  My main concern is to have enough variations available in the design and in the colors to make it interesting for me each day in the studio.  However, this time for the Four Elements series I actually got out my colored pencils and graph paper to draw my design ideas with color to see how the 4 pieces would look together when I hung them as a square all together. 

This process of seeing all the designs together helped me balance the design elements in all four individual series.  For the Fire series, I used hot colors of reds, oranges and yellows for the flames.  I added blue for contrast and to represent blue flames.  For the design, my only parameter was three radiating lines from the bottom of the square.  For the Sky series I am currently working on, I am using blues for the sky and purples and oranges for the sunrise and sunsets.  The design parameters are horizontal trending lines with one white line in each square to represent clouds.  I knew I needed a different design for the Water series besides horizontal lines.  I decided to go with a diagonal line design in half of the square and a solid color for the other half for the Water series.  For the Earth series, I plan on having a green horizontal line for a base representing the green surface of earth with many colored vertical strips to represent trees and flowers.  I wanted to balance the cool colors of the Sky and Water series equally amongst the Fire and Earth series. So I will have the cool color series diagonal from each other in the 4 square layout.


When I work in a series, I always like to have one or two cohesive elements.  I'm always trying to allow for my art to be spontaneous in the moment each day. One way I have been able to do that in the Fire series and in the current Sky series is by using strips of very small pieces interspersed with the solid strips. I'm finding that is my most exciting part of the design process. I plan to continue this design element through the entire four elements series as one of these cohesive elements.

By making the detailed drawing of the design on the graph paper, I learned that I can have a plan but still keep things spontaneous.  Consider doing some preliminary planning for your next project but allow room for spontaneous inspiration and go with the flow. 

The Idea Behind the Gulf Waters series

Days 76-100,  Gulf Waters,  2016.

The idea for the Gulf Waters series started with a black and white junco bird outside my window in our redbud tree in March 2016. I always imagine these birds as little nuns in black and white habits. The idea came to me to make a quilt in all black and white. My immediate concern was that I did not have enough solid black fabric. Ok . Improvise. I could expand out to grey along with the black and white. Then I realized I have loads of bright blues like Caribbean water colors. I decide to switch to blues and greys as my color palette. This is perfect since I was going to be spending time on the Gulf of Mexico in March. Hence the name of the series, Gulf Waters. Things were starting to fall into place. Next idea, I needed some color accents in each square. The question is, should I use the same color in each square or the same color family, or totally random. Hmmm. I decided on Kona cotton tomato red to contrast with the bright blues. I have always loved turquoise blue and bright red together as a color combination.

Since I was in Florida for Spring Break during this 25 days, I needed a project that I could easily hand sew with some precut strips of fabric to sew together. This meant long strips and big squares as part of the design since they would be easier to hand sew. When I travel, I bring a small sewing case for a few needles, thread and a small embroidery-size scissors along with a variety of precut fabric strips in my color palette for the series. I use a lot of bias fabric which is cut diagonally across the fabric grain and can be stretchy. To stabilize my squares, I use a piece of thin cotton as a foundation fabric. I have used Ikea sheets cut into 7 inch squares in the past. It becomes my canvas where I lay out the fabric before I start sewing to see how the design will look. I audition the fabric choices for both color placement and the over all design. When I am satisfied, I start to sew the piece of fabric onto the foundation fabric by machine or hand sewing if I am not near my sewing machine. I keep sewing until I am done and the 7 inch white square is fully covered with fabric. Lastly, I use my 6.5” acrylic square ruler  and a rotary cutter to cut the square down to this consistent size.

In this case, this series started with the color palette. Once I knew what fabric to use, I turned to the design. 

Now for the design decision. In 2015, I was inspired by aboriginal artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye’s art to make the piece titled, Homage to Emily. I used one of her classic designs and added a color palette from one of her other works depicting colors of her native Australia, reds, oranges, and magenta. I thought this design would be perfect for the hand sewing portion of this Gulf Waters series. Not one to do the same thing twice, I decided to make some slight modifications. The lines would be vertical instead of horizontal. In addition some the same strips would have two or three colors instead of just one color. This adds quite a bit of complexity into the design.

I just completed quilting Gulf Waters. I love the red H in the middle of the quilt. The utter randomness of all the lines really speaks to me.  I never know how all of the daily squares will look together except in my imagination.  This piece exceeds my expectations.

 I used light grey thread to quilt all three layers of the quilt top, cotton batting, and backing fabric. The grey thread weaves in through the design vertically just like the fabric strips. For complicated designs like Gulf Waters, I try to keep the quilting lines simple and minimal to let the colors of the quilt top really stand out on their own. The finished quilt is 30 inches square. I am continuing to catch up on the quilting of all the daily squares and will post them on Instagram as I finish them. 
 

Learning about Habits and Imagination from author Terry Pratchett

I am currently reading this book, Terry Pratchett's second in the Disc World series.

I am currently reading this book, Terry Pratchett's second in the Disc World series.


Terry Pratchett was prolific. He wrote 41 books just in his Disc World series that came straight out of his imagination where he created an entirely different universe that was a disc-shaped world riding on the back of four elephants standing on a turtle. I have read a few of them over the years. I am challenging myself to read all of his Disc World books in order in 2016. Over Spring Break, I read the last book he wrote before he passed away called The Shepard’s Crown. He knew he had some serious health problems and was contemplating mortality which comes across in this book in such a no-drama, matter- of-fact way. The rest of the book is about how the people left behind reacted to a beloved person passing and how they gained strength and resilience. I found the book very moving.

I admire Terry Pratchett for his imagination (which is off-the-charts by the way) shown in his books and also for his work habits. Here is a quote from fellow author and Terry’s friend Neil Gaiman in his introduction to the book Good Omens which they co-wrote,

"These are the things I realized back in 1985: Terry knew a lot. He had the kind of head that people get when they’re interested in things, and go and ask questions and listen and read. He knew genre, enough to know the territory, and he knew enough outside genre to be interesting. He was ferociously intelligent. He was having fun. Then again, Terry is that rarity, the kind of author who likes Writing, not Having Written, or Being a Writer, but the actual sitting there and making things up in front of a screen. At the time we met, he was still working as a press officer for the South Western Electricity board. He wrote four hundred words a night, every night: it was the only way for him to keep a real job and still write books. One night, a year later, he finished a novel, with a hundred words still to go, so he put a piece of paper into his typewriter, and wrote a hundred words of the next novel. (The day he retired to become a full-time writer, he phoned me up. “It’s only been half an hour since I retired, and already I hate those bastards,” he said cheerfully.) There was something else that was obvious in 1985: Terry was a science fiction writer. It was the way his mind worked: the urge to take it all apart, and put it back together in different ways, to see how it all fit together. It was the engine that drove Discworld—it’s not a “what if…” or an “if only…” or even an “if this goes on…”; it was the far more subtle and dangerous “If there was really a…, what would that mean? How would it work?”" from "Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett

Really, he started the next book the same night. That is impressive.  It is what I strive for. The no-drama, kick Resistance in the a** kind of creative output.
How can we all be more consistent in our creativity?  What holds you back specifically?  What would need to change to open up time every day or every weekend for you to create what speaks to you?  We are not talking about quitting your job.  Just starting with 10 minutes a day. Not sure how to do it or even what to do? Sit for that 10 minutes and think about it.
If you already have a creative passion, this still applies to you. Consider if you are stuck in a rut and need a creative kickstart. I have been practicing keeping my mind open lately by listening to podcasts, reading, and watching documentaries to keep the ideas flowing. Sometimes a creative habit can become stale.

The challenge is to keep up the work habits of a employee punching the clock and balance it with the wildest imagination that keeps you wanting to punch in every day. 


When I feel stuck, I am going to think about Terry Pratchett the man who kept showing up and wrote all those books.

And, yes, I highly recommend you read one of his books.  Good Omens is a good one to start with.  Next in line for my favorites is the Tiffany Aching series starting with A Hat Full of Sky. You will never forget the Wee Free Men. 
 

Studio Listening

When I'm in the studio working, sometimes I prefer silence. But other times I like to listen to music or podcasts. Here are a few of my favorites.

For people out there who only use laptops or iPads, you can listen to everything I mention below by clicking the link embedded in the article. Of course you can listen on your mobile device also.

Typical day in the studio with our Siberian cat Jasper.

I'm a big fan of Spotify.  We have a family membership so I do not need to listen to commercials. You can make an account and listen for free with just a few commercials scattered in with the music. A few months ago, I saw a fellow quilter would post Instagram photos of the albums she was listening to. That inspired me to start making a music playlist for each series I create based on that theme.  I started with the Sun Corn series and included lots of Los Lobos and Linda Ronstadt’s  album of Mexican folk songs. I went with a Latin music theme since the series is based on heirloom corn seeds. You can find the playlist HERE. This link takes you to the Spotify website and my playlist. You may need to sign up for Spotify to listen to the playlist but they have a free version. Spotify has genres and playlists they curate for any mood like chill, focus and fresh finds. 

My Gulf Waters playlist has lots of reggae with both familiar songs and some more obscure music and you can find it HERE. It just felt appropriate for spring since I always listen to reggae as the weather starts to warm up.

My current series Fire playlist is a compilation of songs I like with the word Fire in the title or band name. You would be surprised how many songs there are about fire. The nice thing about Spotify is you can search songs or artists which made this playlist rather easy to put together. Anyone remember "cuts tapes" from the 70's and 80's? It is an easier way of making a compilation. You can find the Fire playlist HERE. 

There a so many good podcasts out there. I am only listing my favorites. The iTunes platform is probably the most commonly used to listen to podcasts. I use an app called Overcast because I like the more streamlined interface and ability to make playlists of podcasts. 

Debbie Millan has been podcasting Design Matters for over 10 years. She is a great interviewer even on subjects I've never thought about or people I have never heard of. She talks about things that I'm interested in like the creative process and why people do what they do. She also is an author and has published several books on design and two illustrated essays. You can listen to her podcast HERE directly from her amazing website.

I've been following the Minimalists for several years. They just started podcasting and it's a free-flowing format where they pick a topic like consumerism, mental clutter or education and they have people ask questions by voice mail and just generally talk off the top of their heads about the current topic. I like their simple approach and I find the podcast interesting. Their website is fantastic and I have read a few of their essay collections. You can listen to it HERE directly from their website.

My son got me interested in the Start Up podcast.  They just started on season three and they follow the journeys of different start ups from the idea to crash and burn or success with everything in between. Great storytelling and first class journalism. You can listen to it HERE from their website.

Fresh Air with Terry Gross is another favorite. I often forget to listen to it on public radio so their podcast is wonderful for me. The podcast content is just the show. Their guests are always interesting and Terry is a wonderfully kind and knowledgeable interviewer. They often interview authors, actors, musicians, etc. Their guests are an eclectic mix of people. Sometimes I think I don't know who this person is and think about not listening to it. But often times I am surprised and fascinated by them. Every one has a story to share and Terry really brings it back to issues that all of us can connect to. You can listen to it HERE on the public radio website.

My all time favorite thing to listen to any time of the day is our local Chicago radio station WXRT. I have been a huge fan since 1981 when I first heard the station. Most of the same disc jockeys still work there from the 80's. What other station plays the Talking Heads at least once a day. You can listen to them from anywhere now, thanks to the Internet. You can listen to it HERE.

Hope you enjoyed my Studio Listening list and find at least one thing that you want to give a listen. Let me know what you thought about the music or podcasts. 

 

Constraint and Freedom

What makes a good long-term project idea? I've written a little bit about this before. However, I decided I would dedicate an article to this topic since it will be helpful for people interested in starting the 100 Day Project or a similar type of challenge project of your own design. 

As a reminder, the 100 Day Project started April 19, 2016 but it is never too late to jump in. It is mostly run on Instagram but you can do it however you want to. You could get inspiration by checking out the hashtag #The100dayproject by clicking HERE. Find more information at Elle Luna's Instagram account HERE.

The two words I will leave you with are Constraint and Freedom. You need some limits to reduce decision fatigue but you need some freedom to explore. This tug and pull of artistic freedom within self-imposed limits is what I create for myself every 25 days with each new series I create. If I looked at the realm of possibilities without reigning in some of my wild ideas, I would get nothing done. Guaranteed. 

The main parameters for a project are the size or scope, materials, colors, design, and a framework. 

If you set a size for the daily project that is too big, it is too easy to quit. Seriously, think about what can I do in 15 to 30 minutes a day. I have seen people in the 100 day project of 2015 who were so ambitious with the daily project that they just could not keep up. The purpose of the long term projects are to get you to create more on a consistent basis, not to beat yourself up as a failure. This first decision on size and scope can make or break your project. Choice wisely.

Materials.  Find something that you love to engage with. Something that you're very curious about. It should be a little bit challenging and a little bit comfortable both at the same time. 100 days is a long time so make sure you can travel with an abbreviated version of your project.  I hand sew my 6 inch square when I am on the road. Need inspiration? Walk around the nonfiction library shelves. What did you like to do when you were 10 years old before anyone told you that you couldn’t do it?

Homage to Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Days 176-200, 2015. 30 inches by 30 inches.

Colors. What colors do you like and what colors will make you expand your boundaries a little bit? Neutrals, cool or warm colors and combinations between them. Many projects can be color based such as only black and white photos or only warm colors like in my piece Homage to Emily Kame Kngwarreye where I used colors Emily used from her homeland in central Australia.

Designs. For each 25 day series, I like the design to be process based with simple guidelines and lots of opportunities for variation. I have found this parameter to be the most challenging to balance constraint and freedom. Design guidelines that are too specific are stifling. So I just use general guidelines. Some examples I've used are alternating lines or wedges of ivory and warm colors like in my Homage to Emily Kame Kngwarreye. The variables were the height and angle of the lines which made the entire piece full of movement.

The design guidelines for my current series Fire are three radiating lines from the base of the square. If you do not use Instagram but want to see my art, you can click HERE. I test my design guidelines and think about the amount of variables I can explore. If it's too simple, I will get bored. I won't have enough freedom. The freedom and excitement of the possibilities is what makes you want to go back to the studio every day. This Fire series has given me the perfect balance of constraints with warm colors and blue for a contrast and the freedom of design guidelines that allow me to experiment with the variations while still staying within the design guidelines.

Four of the daily squares in my current series Fire.

Framework. It helps to think about how all these pieces will work together at the end of the project. In my case, I sew 25 days of daily squares together into a large square of fabric art within the same series. You end up with a cohesive body of work at the end of the project. Consider how you would want to share it. Look for an exhibit space. A local coffee shop or park district. Self publish your writings. Open up an Etsy store to sell your work. Publish all the photos in a photo book. Give them away to friends and family.

Lastly, if you've selected a project idea that is not working, change it up in midstream. Why not? The goal is to make more art. Everything else serves that purpose. 

In what ways do you already set self-imposed limits or constraints and how do you balance that with artistic freedom? It is like a creative cook only making dinner with what is in the fridge. Or a illustrator who is only drawing birds. Or a painter who only a paints abstracts. Or a photographer who takes photos of what she sees each day that inspires her. Or setting up a time to be creative every day and do whatever you feel like in that time. 

This is why constraint and freedom are so helpful. You limit yourself just slightly enough to know how to proceed but you are still excited about all the different ways you can approach your art.

If you want to be more creative, I encourage you to start even a week long project just to get you creating. Once you start, you may not want to stop.

History of My Every Day Project and The 100 Day Project for 2016 Starts Next Week... Want to Join In?


I have developed a process of making art on a regular basis which I call the Every Day Project. In January 2015, I challenged myself to come up with 14 days of designs. In a way, I wanted to prove to myself that I had many creative ideas and wouldn't hit the wall of creator’s block. I knew that designing my projects is my favorite part of the process so I decided to do more of it every day. I started a notebook in Evernote and added an entry each day. At first, I started out with sketches of completed projects with actual measurements of each design element and decisions on which fabric I would use. This quickly became such a burden that I did not want to do it every day and Resistance (See last week's article about Steven Pressfield's book War of Art) reared its ugly head.  So I improvised and decided I really like the design part and could commit to at least coming up with a design idea and document it each day. I completed my 14 day challenge, but by the end of the 14 days, I ended up just adding photos of design inspirations for my daily entries. This was enough. I really did not want to come up with an entire project idea every day. It would create a mental backlog of projects I could never complete. I really just was training myself to look for inspiration around me. I was hooked on doing something every day. But I had no idea where to start.

In April 2015, I found out about a program called Creative Mornings.  There are chapters in cities around the world where they hold breakfast morning meetings every month with great speakers. I followed a link from their website to a list of newsletters that they really liked.  I stumbled upon the 100 Day Project for 2015 being sponsored by Elle Luna and The Great Discontent magazine. But the start date was April 6 and it was just a few days away. 

I was quite nervous to delve into the 100 Day Project, but I knew that feeling was a sign to pursue this and just do it. In hindsight, this project changed the way I work and make art.

I needed a small size project I could make and post a photo of every day. I decided on a 6 inch square and an improv sewing process. I picked a variety of colors to use and stayed with them. I needed something to tie all the pieces together. I knew the designs would purposely by varied, every day. So colors needed to be the connecting link. I sew 25 days together in consecutive order into a larger square. The process is a traditional quilting style of piecing a quilt top but the subject matter is decidedly modern with an abstract art emphasis seeing each 6 inch square as a piece of abstract art all in itself. 

The 6 inch square became such a habit in 100 days that I decided to continue. I went 250 days of creating every day in 2015. I only took a two week break over the Winter Holidays (And I missed it). I was more productive than ever by just making one 6 inch square a day. I have contemplated this phenomenon for a long time because it is so counterintuitive. 

The 100 Day Project in 2015 was a challenge for me artistically. As I mentioned, I had color themes of bright bold colors balancing hot and cold with neutrals. However I had no design restrictions.

The freedom was intoxicating at times, but a huge burden other times. When the sky is the limit, it is often hard to get started.  

So I knew the next series would have to have some design guidelines if I was going to keep going. Going forward, I decided to pick a theme for the 25 day pieces. I preselect the fabric and decide on general design guidelines for a sort of structure and then ask what if I do this…and I push the limits of that design. I play with the possible variations and allow myself to break some rules if need be. This must have kicked the Resistance to the curb because I am still making art every day.

Screenshot of Elle Luna's Instagram post about the 100 Day Project for 2016.

Screenshot of Elle Luna's Instagram post about the 100 Day Project for 2016.

Now the 100 Day Project is running again from April 19 to July 27 in 2016. I am going to do it again, or rather just continue to do it. This year I am designing the next 100 days to be a coordinated theme. I have chosen to use the 4 Elements: Fire, Earth, Sky and Water. I have been sketching ideas searching for the balance of constraints and freedom. I need the design and color guidelines to be easily accessible with enough freedom to play around and make each day interesting and new.


Interested in joining me? Here is a link to Elle Luna's Instagram page.

Debating what would be a good project to do? What have you always wanted to try?  Watercolors? Try a 5 inch square a day. Like listening to new music? Make a new playlist on Spotify every day and post them. Play the piano? Learn a few measures of a song out of a new music book each day. Like your phone camera? Take a photo each day and explore new photography apps and filters. Like smoothies? 100 days of smoothies. New to knitting? Knit for 30 minutes a day on a project. You get the idea.

After 100 days of doing any creative activity, you will learn what you like to do and what you do not like to do. It will change you, I guarantee. You will be learning how to use your creative voice. You can decide to share what you make or not. Post on any social media platform you like. If that is not your cup of tea, document in a journal or photo album. The community on Instagram for the 100 days project is so supportive.  They become your accountability partners and I still follow several of the people from the 100 Day Project last year.

Take the leap and join in. 
 

Does Reading Books on Creativity Make You More Creative?

I am a bit addicted to books on creativity. I have read over 20 books on creativity and have at least 40 more on my to-read list. Now the question is, can reading all these books on creativity make you more creative? Yes and No. Yes, if you take action after reading them. No, if you use the reading of the books to replace actually making stuff. Sometimes I have used the creativity books as a crutch to try to get into the creative flow as I wrote about last week. But it is a false creative flow, in a way, because it is unsustainable. It ends when the books ends. A crutch can be useful to smooth over rough spots in your creative life. It can help fuel the creative fire or give you the courage to tackle a new project. So with that in mind, I am sharing some of my favorite books on creativity, the special ones that I still think about years after I read them.

The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp. I love this book so much. It is organized in the exact order of starting a creative project, looking at the white canvas or white room in her case as a choreographer, to the end of a project with a wrap up.  Her honesty in the ups and downs of her creative work was startling and so much more effective than if she only shared her successes. One thing that has stayed with me was her project box for each project, like a bankers box.  She threw in everything that helped her gather inspiration from a variety of sources. This gave me the idea for the Evernote notebook Design and Color Ideas which I wrote about in a previous article.

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield is a book I will continue to reread many times, maybe yearly. It is about Resistance to the work and gives me courage to keep up with my creative habit. Resistance is what tells you... you can work tomorrow and today we should just watch Netflix. Resistance says... you suck at this anyway. Reading all the things artists (or anyone with any productive work to do) say to themselves is reassuring that you are not alone. He gives some details of the cost in his life of giving into Resistance. It is sobering. This book keeps me going on my daily creative habit. It is easier to just never stop then it is to have to start again and maybe listen to that voice of Resistance.

Oh how I love Austin Kleon. The first book of his that I read is Steal like an Artist.  He writes about your artistic influence family tree.  He says figure out who influences you or whose art you like. Then figure out who influenced them and then go back as far as you can. Ingenious idea. The more we immerse ourselves in other's creative’s work, the more we can figure out what we like and what we may not like as much. It can help us find our voice. By doing this, it made me realize my creative mentors are Nancy Crow, Gees Bend quilters, and traditional Amish quilters. It helped me think about how my art has evolved over the years. He inspires me to stay curious.

His second book that I read is Show your Work. He debunks the idea of a solitary artist working away. He encourages people to talk about things that you love and share with others who love it too. He emphasized documenting your process, telling the story of your art. This sentence stopped me in my tracks when I read it, "It sounds a little extreme, but in this day and age, if your work isn't online, it doesn't exist. We all have the opportunity to use our voices, to have our say, but so many of us are wasting it. If you want people to know about what you do and the things you care about, you have to share.” This book got me to use Instagram as a tool to connect with others interested in art and to find a continuing source of inspiration for my art.  This book also nudged me to get a website and start a blog.  He has a weekly newsletter of 10 things he has found interesting during the week. Simple and great fodder for “feeding the beast” of creative inspiration.

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert on my desk. The book cover is wonderfully colorful. I have all the other books I mentioned in this article as ebooks.

The last book I am going to write about is Elizabeth Gilbert's new book called Big Magic. I love her way of making creative work just like any job. She always knew she was going to be a writer. She had loads of rejection in the beginning but that did not deter her. She embodies persistence. She gets up every day and just writes because that is what she does. I like her work ethic and she inspires me to create every day too. Her idea of creative genius like a muse in your life is a fascinating way to look at it.  If you have not seen her TED talk on this watch it and be inspired. Over eleven million other people have. She is an avid user of social media.  You can follow her on Facebook or Instagram and get daily inspiration.

I have learned so much from each of these books and way more than I wrote about in this article.  Each lesson I wrote about in this article from each book came directly from my memory.  I did not even have to look at the book again.  That is how powerful these books on creativity can be. 

My conclusion is books on creativity help you with the mechanics of how to get inspired and how to do the work.  Theses tools help support you. But it is up to you to just start creating what speaks to you, what lights you up. 

What is Creative Flow and How Do We Get There?

Maybe you have heard of the term creative flow. It is when you are so immersed in the creative act that you experience a sense of flow where you are totally in the moment and the ideas appear almost effortlessly one after another. You feel so absorbed in the task that you lose a sense of time and place. It would take a fire alarm to drag you away from your activity. This is one of those things that you just know it when you're in it. I know what it feels like and tweak the conditions to get there regularly through my creative habits. Of course, some days your creative pursuit does not feel so flowy. That is OK. I keep it short on those days. But I still am in the studio. I never just give up. I may make something I am not happy with, but I just show up.

If you have found an activity that makes you feel this way, you are blessed. If you have not, keep being curious til you find it. Maybe it is not one activity but many activities within a general topic. Tap into your mental space, your imagination. There are 1000+ different things you can do to access creative flow. The sooner you discover what really lights you up, the sooner you have a fast-track ticket into the creative flow. If you still have no idea what to try, just remember Be curious. Keep an open mind. Consider wondering around the library or a book store. Here’s a list of some examples of activities to try: crocheting, knitting, embroidery, cooking, photography, painting, watercolors, piano, ukulele, illustration, hand lettering, scrap booking.  This list can be as big as your imagination.

All 4 quilts in my 100 Day series, 2015. The guitar is there for scale.

The first time I truly knew I was in a creative flow is when, you know I am going to say this… I started my creative habit. It started with the 100 day project in April 2015.  I have a visual record of the creative flow in the 4 pieces that I created during that experience. I loved being in the creative flow so much that I just did not stop. Next week will be my one year anniversary of my creative habit of making a fabric art square every day.

Two pieces of fused glass I have made at Hands On Art Studio over the years.

If you look around you, you will see people in the flow all the time. Children are pros at it. A few years ago my family was on vacation in Door County, Wisconsin. We went to Hands On Art Studio where you can make pottery, jewelry, metal work, fused glass, mosaics, and beading, etc. We have been going to Hands On for years and it is my favorite thing to do in Door County. You pay a nominal fee for the studio time for the whole day and then pay for the supplies you use that day. It is a place that embraces the concept of creative flow. My family and I were in the fusible glass studio. Fusible glass is a technique where you glue down pieces of colored glass onto an clear piece of glass.  Then Hands On staff put it in the kiln to melt or fuse together.  It was so crowded on this particular day that we were in the outdoor patio with just a roof covering us. It started to storm outside and rain flooded the patio. Everyone was so intent on their projects, I had to say it is too wet to work guys and your glue is not holding the glass anymore. They had not even noticed. We went inside. Then the storm knocked out the power. We all (about 15 of us) kept working in the very low light of the back up generator. We were all touching shards of sharp glass (including our children) in the low light. No one complained and we all kept working. We had a vision and we were in the creative flow. We were not stopping. The staff noticed more people kept coming to start a new project and I think they kind of wished we would all leave. After all, it was still really storming outside. No one left. Amazing. The power of creative flow.

My big take away from my past students is that they need this creative flow because it's central to their sense of balance in their life.

I write and teach to help people like you discover your unique creative style and give you mental tools and encouragement to create more.

Regular creative self expression is a mindfulness exercise that gets you directly into a state of creative flow. The calming effects of being present in the act of creating permeate every other aspect of your daily life. Being in the creative flow reduces stress.

 +creativity -stress  

How go we get into creative flow? We start by finding inspiration on a regular basis and then turning that inspiration into our art of choice through our creative habits. Creativity is a tool to get into the creative flow. Step out of time. Be in the moment. Express yourself. Live more mindfully. Clear your head. Bring peace to your day. 
So start a creative habit. Build a creative practice. Design one that fits into your existing routine. You will find your creative practice becomes a continual journey of self-care that feels good and keeps you present in the moment while being creative doing things that you love on a regular basis. More creativity. More joy. The benefits reinforce the practice. Our intention is to use this creative time as a stress reducer, a time of relaxation, like a meditation practice. Let go of rules. Let go of judgment. It’s all just self-expression. 

 

For every new series, I am creating a playlist on Spotify based on the series theme.  This one is Gulf Waters. If you like reggae, you'll like it. Click here to listen on Spotify.