3 Gigantic Mistakes To Absolutely NOT Make In 2020

Here's What We Absolutely Should Not Do:

1. Make preposterous promises.

2. Set gigantic goals.

3. Make no master plan.

Here's a couple examples:

• I'll lose 20 pounds by Feb. 1st. (Unless you're getting rid of a small pet, that's not likely to happen.)

• I'm going to pay off all my credit cards. (Really? You gonna cut them all up?)

The excitement of the season overtakes us. But ...we strangle our enthusiasm with unrealistic aspirations, with promises we know down deep that we're unable to keep.
                  
Here' Some Suggestions of What You CAN Do:

• Brain dump all the 'wants & shoulds', write them down on paper.

• Prioritize them - what is the absolutely, positively, most important sure thing you really, REALLY want to achieve?

• Lay out a plan to get yourself there. What are the baby steps? What is the 'one thing every day' you can do to move ahead to your goal?

I don't know about you but my life is stressful enough without putting unrealistic expectations on myself. My New Year's resolution is to provide you with outstanding opportunities to improve your creative, artistic skills. Oh yeah, it's on baby!

Please accept my sincere wishes for a Happy, Healthy, Joyful, Creative New Year. See you on the other side.

Big, Powerful Love,

Falling Back into Creative Mode

Do you feel a hint of sadness as September rolls around?

It marks the end of carefree summer days and is a harbinger of cooler weather and the inevitable down hill slide to the holiday season. (Some stores have been displaying Christmas merchandise since mid-August!  Seriously?)

September is also a time of renewed motivation for me:  to start new projects and finish old ones.

As the weather cools, the seasonal tempo changes to less outside time and more inside time. Less time spent mowing the grass and more time for making art!

I find myself purging, organizing, arranging …

• Purging clutter.

• Organizing my schedule

• Arranging my studio for the inevitable flurry of activity to come.

How does September affect you?

When my kids were little, it was all about back-to-school. The hustle and bustle of buying school supplies, new shoes (because their feet grew over the summer), and new clothes (because they shot up 2-3 inches and all their pants were now floods).  

And did I mention all those exciting school supplies? I absolutely LOVED my new set of crayons and fresh paper. Remember the smell of those new books? Ahhh … such a good memory.

Every year I would get a new box of 64 crayons – remember those? After my knee surgery last October, those very same crayons helped me keep my sanity while recuperating. Simple delights.

Do You Believe You Have No Artistic Ability?

Or worse, you thought you did until you compared yourself to someone else.

Trust me, I’ve been there. When I was in high school I had a good friend who could draw anything. I mean anything! I was definitely not at her level and was so embarrassed by my feeble attempts that I stopped drawing altogether.

Don’t let that happen to you. I’m going to share a process I go through every time I go to my studio to work. This step-by-step checklist throws me a life line every time I start going down that rabbit hole.

It’s going to help you do 3 things:

• STOP you from saying that you are no good at art.

• REMEMBER that art is NOT a competitive sport. You are doing it because you love it.

• Help you FOCUS on the process, not the product. Cuz, friend, the journey is what it's all about.

Ready? Here come the pearls of hard won wisdom:

1. Take a minute to gather yourself. Clear your mind of the to-do list. Leave the phone in the other room. Tell your creative self that the two of you will make some magic today. I know it may sound a bit woo-woo, but trust me, it helps.

2. The only way you can judge your progress is by looking at what you’ve done before. In other words, don’t compare yourself to anyone else. It’s irrelevant. The only measuring stick of any value is how far you have come on your creative journey. I kept a lot of pieces from when I first started out. I look at them now and say: ‘Oh boy, what were you thinking?’ Your artistic journey is like a metal spring. It starts at one end (the bottom for our purposes) and spirals to the other end (the top). Remember that early stuff I said I kept? Well, I actually redid a couple of them to see just how much I’ve improved. And WOW! I was amazed and secretly beaming at the progress I made.

3. Never point out what you think of as mistakes. If you don’t tell anyone, chances are they won’t even notice. If by chance they do, say you meant to do that (with an appropriate smirk). Or better yet, if you think you made a big boo-boo, repeat it -do it again so it looks purposeful. Part of growing as an artist is being about to take risks, to think creatively to solve a problem. Look at you practicing some of Kosta’s 16 Habits of the Mind. Here’s a link to a visual for you.

4. I have this critic in my head that spews out all sorts of negative comments: You have no talent. Who are you to think you are an artist? What makes you think you can actually create anything? You don’t have time for this. Yada, yada, yada … Don’t buy into it. Politely acknowledge the comments and then tell that critic to go site in the corner and leave you alone for the next few hours. (You don’t have to say it out loud, we don’t want peeps thinking you’ve lost it.)

5. Dive into your project! Picasso says: ‘Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.’ Ever watch a little one paint or draw? Are they worried about whether it’s anatomically correct? Whether it makes sense? My daughter took a little video of my then 2 year old granddaughter painting. It’s absolutely precious. Z is totally absorbed in what she is doing, intently watching what happens when she puts paint to paper. Work on developing that wonder and awe. Check her out in this video.

6. Remind the critic to stay in the corner

7. Realize that nothing is perfect. I still have issues when evaluating my work. First of all, there is no such thing as perfect. Perfection is an illusion because we all have different definitions of perfect. Don’t believe me? Ask three different people what their idea of a perfect day would be.

8. Breathe. In and out, in an out. This is supposed to be fun.

Let’s make some wild, wonderful art together!