Climbing a spiral staircase

Do you have that sort of déjà vu feeling that you've asked yourself the same questions before?  Hopefully as you ask yourself the question you have moved on a bit - much like climbing a spiral staircase - where you come to the same point but higher up.

I went to Committed to Cloth for the workshop Unlocking the Mystery of Creative Play.  Having done it twice before, I knew what to expect - sort of!  Lesley changes it up a bit every year depending on who is on the workshop.  But I knew there would be playing with paper and design as you have seen in my two previous posts.

But I wanted to spend some of the time investigating what I am going to do with my work in the future.  I've been working through the Head, Heart and Hands workbook and found that to be really useful.  The activities are about finding your creative voice.

This is one of the things I wanted to talk to Leslie about.  I was very fortunate to have a session with her every day, just to talk.  In between I did the paper play activites but mostly thought and journaled.  I answered some of the questions that Leslie asked, which often provoked questions of my own.  Here are a few of my answers.

Why do I go to so many workshops?

• I enjoy learning new processes and techniques
• The 'cross-pollination' of working with other people and their ideas

Why should I stop going to so many?

• I don't spend time afterwards playing with what I 've learned or making the process my own
• Procrastination: a workshop can be a 'worthwhile' way of putting off doing my own work.  Why is that?  Lack of self belief in my own work.
• Money spent on workshops could be better spent on quality materials for my own work
• Free up mental capacity for my own work

Leslie talked to the whole group about 'finding joy' in our creations and our creative process.  She and I talked about numbing and how Brene Brown says you can't numb one emotion on its own.  If you numb one emotion you numb them all.   I wrote about numbing in January 2014.

I journaled about joy - or the lack of it.  I journaled about the investment of time and money.  I asked myself questions and came to a point where I felt there was a choice:

Give up creative activities altogether.  Clear out all the media and fabric and find a new thing.
or
Become committed totally to what I do.  But do what I want to do - no courses, no exhibitions, no deadlines - just play.

I decided on the latter.

I made a list of what I need to do.

• Narrow down techniques I like - make a list.
• List the colours I like to work with.
• List materials I like to work with - narrow it down.
• Take responsibility for my own creativity.
• Develop my curiosity.
• Go on Artist's dates.
• Value my work.
• Play

As I have written this blog post, all of the above seems so easy, but at the time - those 5 days away - there was a lot of angst.  I knew things needed to change but I don't like change.  I like to think I'm open to change but in reality I can be quite resistant.

I'm still working through the questions and journaling.  I looked back through my creativity journal and found that I was asking these same questions in 2017.  Hence the spiral staircase analogy.  I'm climbing the staircase and believe that I am making progress and seeing the same point from a different perspective.

Climbing the stairs featured in the first photo.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Announcing Faithart 101

On Saturday February 28th, His Kingdom Come is launching its first collaborative class prepared by the 5 members of the Foundation Team. Faithart 101 has been developed for beginners to Faith Journaling. The 5 classes cover basic journaling information, how to translate scripture into art, the basics of drawing people, using scrapbooking techniques and mixed media techniques.

Each of the 5 classes can be purchased individually or all 5 can be bought together with a discount. The individual classes are $8 each but you can buy all 5 together for $35. PayPal will sort out the currency for you if you live outside the United States. Once you have purchased your classes and have been added to the class site you can work through the classes at your own pace. You will have unlimited access to the classes you have purchased.

The Foundation Team consists of Bernice, Mary, Shonna, Merri and Diane and each day this week you can find out more about each of us on our personal blogs. We will also tell you about the class we are teaching as part of Faithart 101.
Bernice at Newly Creative on Sunday 22nd Feb - here today.
Diane at Adore Him Creations on Monday 23rd Feb.
Shonna at Twisted Figures on Tuesday 24th Feb.
Merri at Connecting Faith and Creativity on Wednesday 25th Feb.
Mary at Me, With My Head in the Clouds on Thursday 26th Feb.


My class is Journaling Basics.

Let me tell you a bit about myself:

Brief Bio

After retiring from teaching at the age of 43, I took a 4 year part-time course in Creative Embroidery. Subsequent work as a church administrator took up all my time and creativity was put to one side. A second retirement enabled me to give time to scrapbooking, art journaling, mixed media and many online workshops. I live in England with Roger, my husband of 31 years and we have one son who is married and living in Sydney. I became a Christian 25 years ago. I currently runs art challenge blogs with a Christian bias.

I had attended my local Methodist church from the age of 8 to 18 but once I got to college I didn’t go to church again. Twenty years later I started going to church because I saw an article in the local free newspaper about how God had freed the writer from the inexplicable anger she felt. I attended the church for a while and a small group where I was allowed to ask lots of questions. I became a Christian at an outreach the church held when a visiting Mime Artist performed a mime about Moses and his stick becoming a snake. You’re thinking ‘what!’ I know it doesn’t make sense but there you are. The preacher preached on something that spoke to me that I can’t remember and at the end of the evening I accepted Christ into my life.

How does your faith impact your creativity?
I don’t always make faith related projects but I am very aware that my creativity is a gift from God. I think it helps me steer clear of workshops that wouldn’t be good for me spiritually.

What is your preferred medium of creativity?
I’m a bit of a Jill-of-all-trades and master of none. I flit between media and styles depending on what my project is.

What is your favourite technique?
Quite possibly anything that I happen to be doing at the time.  When the Gelli plate is out - that's my favourite!  When the stencils are out - they are my favourite!  I really love using Thermofax screens which are an easy way to screenprint.  I used them on this page that was featured in the book Art Journal Kickstarter.

Who is your favourite person in the Bible and why?
I am really fond of Esther because she was brave and obedient but I think my favourite is David because despite the things he did wrong he is still described in Acts this way:  ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’

What Bible verse do you regularly rely on?
I can do all this through him who gives me strength.  Philippians 4:13

Where to find me

Facebook
Twitter
Flickr

I have several art challenge blogs and creative Bible Study blogs which you can find through the tabs at the top of this blog.

Join us on February 28th in taking Faithart101 at His Kingdom Come and learn more about Faithjournaling. If you are not already a member of the His Kingdom Come community then please sign up. You can purchase the class or classes from today.