Maintaining An Art Practice
It takes a creative a mind, a healthy body and passion to maintain an art practice. I focus on all three through out my week, week after week.
Creative Mind
I confess one way I maintain a creative mind is playing games. I tend not to follow trends, so I don’t start my day with Wordle. I do challenge myself to The New York Times mini crossword puzzle. Love how crossword clues encourage non-linear thinking. I subscribe to Pogo.com. This service must have more than 50 games and they provide daily, weekly and even monthly challenges. Since I love a good challenge, it forces me to try games I might not try otherwise. I come back for the variety and novelty.
Healthy Body
Just as I play a variety of games, I do a variety of activities to maintain a healthy body. Working in a studio requires flexibility, stamina and even muscles. I exercise before I hit the studio. Today the Senior Executive Director of Studio Operations and I did one of our regular 90 minutes walking circuits. This provides fresh air, a chance to chat and natural exercise. When the weather makes such a walk difficult, I turn to a variety of online classes, such as yoga, barre and even strength training.
Passion
How do I fuel my passion? Honestly, I barely have to work at this. If I were asked do you make art to live or live to make art, I might just answer yes. Creating art, for the most part, is a solitary practice. This suits me. However, without external input I can imagine my passion fizzling. Therefore, I make it a point to join groups of artists who meet regularly. I also read about art, watch documentaries about art and go to exhibitions. I simply gravitate to all things art related and my passion is naturally maintained.
Rainbow Scrap Challenge
I began quilting my 2022 Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt this week. I was tempted to do a loose all over mid-size stippling pattern using a variegated thread in rainbow colors. Why? Because it is easy and fast. However, if you know me, easy and fast aren’t in my art practice vocabulary. Instead, I have opted to do rainbow arcs in each of the featured color sections. So, this means thread changes. Sigh!
I’m linking up to the following posts:
