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I bought a new notebook last week.
It has a grey cardboard cover, which I can collage and draw on.
I also bought a zippy bag
for my rubber, sharpener, pencils, charcoal and a pen.
“Once upon a time . . . . . .
once she got a hold of it, the notebook got extraordinary
wise companions, spirit guides in groups of five
and there became feathers
three charms offering the gifts of transformation, wisdom, flight, protection . . . .
Who journeys with me?
My Great Grand Mother, Melindy Phillips and I
My Mother, Nell Rose Martin
Free Spirits, watercolour pencils, 12″ x 12″
my main Muse
This is no ordinary notebook. This is a journeybook.
The story continues . . . .
journey (n.) c.1200, “a defined course of traveling; one’s path in life,” from Old French journee “day’s work or travel”
I’ve been faced with a few art deadlines recently. An opportunity to display up to 3 pieces into the Local Open Art Show at Greenhill Arts, to have my studio on the Arts Trail during the Moretonhampstead Festival of Food, Drink and the Arts and to enter an art quilt in Sacred Threads. I’ve hemmed and hawed. After all, an artist is ‘supposed’ to show her work at every opportunity, right?
Not necessarily. For a start, I’ve been in a fallow period since the autumn. I’ve been thinking a lot about and dabbling a bit in some new creative ideas, but haven’t been producing much. In addition, since the New Year, I’ve been feeling poorly from a tenacious flu virus and haven’t felt one jot like going into my studio and making anything.
Sure, I have some stuff that I could chuck into the Local Open and Sacred Threads, but I’d rather show people something new. As for having my studio on the Arts Trail, well Steve and I want to go out and enjoy the Food Festival this year. Still, it has been difficult to decide to fore go these opportunities. I’m still influenced by that nagging pressure to ‘get out there with my art’.
A couple of weeks ago, I had a scoot around the mypersonality.info webpage for my Myers-Briggs personality type, INFP. There is a chart with a one word description of each type and mine isn’t even called ‘Artist’.
No, I’m a ‘Dreamer’ who is “imaginative, artistic and often has a talent for language and writing”. INFPs can and do make very beautiful and unique works of art. Art which comes via walking the path of the heart, art which is created along the journey of the Soul. It was really good to read this and remind my self of exactly just sort of an artist I am. I am visionary artist who incubates my creative dreamings and then, when the time is right, brings them into being by the medium best suited to them. I am NOT an artist/ craftswoman who makes, makes, makes and markets, markets, markets.
Today I found a Squidoo lens called INFP Companion via this post written by Carol Rosinski:
“A lot of people think of artists as a group with many, if not most, personality traits in common. I thought the same thing for a long time and was disappointed when I couldn’t seem to connect on deeper levels with other artists.
When I was young, I thought I was different because I was an “artist.” Once I discovered my INFP personality type score though, I realized I’m not like most other artists either. On the Myers-Briggs personality index scale, I score very highly as an INFP. That means I am introverted and intuitive. By far, most of the people in the world are extroverted. And that goes for artists too.
The world seems to be made for extroverts and that creates problems for us. For instance, if you have a problem and ask for guidance, you’re probably going to be given advice that works for extroverts but not for you. I’ve found that to be true in all areas, but especially concerning art.
Recently, I read an article about how to market artwork. The author advised all artists to make the kind of art that people want to buy rather than the kind the artists really wanted to make. I’m sure many artists could do that, but I can’t. My creative well runs dry when the reason I’m making the art is just to sell it. Don’t get me wrong, I think money is a good thing. However, I can’t let my desire for money guide how I make my art. Instead, I find creative ways to sell the art I love to make.
If you’re an INFP artist, or other adventurer, you’re not without guidance. But you have to discover it yourself.
You are self-contained and made this way for a reason: No one else has ever been where you’re going, so no one can give you specific directions. As one INFP artist to another though, I can give you a clue. Intuition is your ship, and your feelings and ideals are the map and crew.
Bon voyage!”
It was so helpful to read this and to remember who I am and that I am right where I should be as the type of artist I am. I have a pretty good idea of where I’m headed, but am making the map as I travel there.
The journey unfolds!
Greeting the new day
Zesting orange peel for Florida Orange & Yoghurt coffee cake
Just another roadside attraction . . . .
Steve working on his screenplay betwixt leading guided tours
Today I led my first Stuff Your Inner Critic workshop. In our kitchen. While my artistic explorers were stitching, I read a little bit out loud from the chapter ‘The Imagination works slowly and quietly’.
Stuff Your Inner Critic workshop in progress
There was time for some writing and reflection on some of the sabotaging messages our Inner Critics whisper or shriek to us.
What she said
Hello!
Stuffing her Inner Critic
Contemplating his Inner Critic
Tiger Lily
What (or who) is behind this door?
The wonderful Inner Critics made by my brave, creative compañeros today
At the end of the workshop, I presented each doll with a milagrito, a little miracle. They are only small, but muy powerful.
His gift is the key
Her gift is a soft touch
Mulligatawny soup for supper
Gleaming
Sophia, Goddess of Wisdom
Today I’ve been playing with light and transparency in my studio. I’m using one of my Southbank photos as a starting point.
Different tranparency levels on rice paper, lit from behind
Halogen lamp
No light
Ambient light
Natural light
Sheer
BTW, these are the ‘Stuff Your Inner Critic’ leaflets that Steve designed and wrote for me. I am so lucky to have such a talented and supportive husband!
Oh, maybe I haven’t mentioned this. I’m leading a Creativity workshop in my home studio during Devon Open Studios 2012. You can find out about it here. If you’re interested, give me a shout via the contact page of my website, pronto! I already have a few bookings on both days.
We went to a party on Saturday night in which the theme was ‘Square’. Steve went as a famous square in London. I made his ensemble on Friday night, which consisted of a hat
Detail of hat
and a further clue . . . . .
Ship’s biscuit from the HMS Victory
Most people got it pretty quickly when Steve said he’s a London square.
Steve as Trafalgar Square a la Lord Admiral Nelson
Lord Admiral Nelson as Himself
I focussed on the food, of course.
Chocolate Battenberg Cake
After Eight Cupcakes
At the last minute, I decided on my rather obtuse costume: a square in major European city.
Rembrandtplein, Amsterdam
I wore a grey linen swing top over a long-sleeved black T-shirt and linen trousers with random squares of 4 brooches pinned to it. The brooches are made from my photographs of Amsterdam printed onto silk. Rembrantplein is around the corner from where I usually stay when I visit the city. One of my artist friends said that my grey and black palette reminded her of Rembrandt’s use of chiaroscuro. So it worked, after a fashion.
Michael Forever, Thirty Two, Houseboat & Vespa
I invited our hostess and birthday girl, performance artist and actress Lucy Patrick to choose a brooch for her birthday present. She was dazzlingly arrayed in blue and white checks and a T-shirt with her age, squared, on it. 2704.
You can do the math. Steve and I figured it out doing the ‘guess and check method’.
Some of the other guests -
I couldn’t resist.
im·pas·sioned adj. Filled with passion; fervent
Still painting our flat. Still a bit tedious. I feel like Sisyphus. Only with paint.
I paint one wall. Then touch up the trim. Then discover where the wall needs to be touched back up . . . . . . .
Steve’s lucky. He can escape to Buckinghamshire a few days a week. But he’s always happy to come home and do the tedious (to me) detail work. And he’s great at it! Patient and thorough.
Me? After we started on this re-decorating lark, I kvetched* about it to a couple of artist friends. They both agreed that DIY is horrible. As my artist/hair dresser Libby says, ‘Decorating is great fior the first hour’. We visual artists have the vision, but loathe the ploddingness of DIY.
It’s weird. I can spend ages fulminaing over the craftmanship and construction of one of my art pieces, but when it comes to DIY, I want a quick fix. I have the vision and want the result NOW! I’m quite appalled that I can quite rapidly become the worst sort of obsessive-compulsive, perfectionistic bitch during a bout of DIY, even when I’m not actually doing the work. Afterwards, I apologise profusely to Steve and he says, ‘Don’t worry about it. It’s just DIY’. Wonderful!
Anyhow, where this may (or mayn’t) be leading to is that my husband and I are re-decorating our flat in our fourth year here together. It’s discombobulating as we’re living in semi-chaos and looking great!
The cool thing I did today was finish painting one of our bedroom walls an impassioned and fervent colour of red. I proposed the hue, and we both chose this particular colour, Redcurrant Glory. This is the wall at the head of our marriage bed, upon which hangs our wedding quilt ‘Cleaved‘.
This is one thing I’m very good at. Picking colours. I’ll post some more piccies when the room is put back together.
Today was the first sunny and dry day for a fortnight. I went into Exeter (missed the Queen’s visit by a hair) and bought these beautiful pussy willows . . . . . . .. . and finished painting the wall when I got back home!
*To complain persistently and whiningly.
