Gosh! I just spent an amazing couple of hours in my studio! I was painting papers in “layers”. I would then scrape through the layers and expose some of the marks and colors from a previous layer, which I had let dry! I had my Ipod on – playing Aaron Copeland and I was dancing and brushing away – working hard at trying to get rhythmic strokes that will be repeated later with a line or two of calligraphy written over these layers of paint. Hope it works out to look something like what is in my head 
As I was working and having such a great time, I was wondering, why on earth am I not doing this more often? It took me most of the day to decide what I was going to do and to get myself actually into the studio! Why am I so resistant to getting started?
While cleaning up I found these words, I think that I need them emblazoned on my brain somehow – or maybe I can project them very large somewhere where I can see them constantly!
How You Can Cultivate Creativity
by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Try to be inspired by something every day.
Try to inspire at least one person every day.
Write down each day what surprised you and how you surprised others.
When something strikes a spark of interest, follow it.
Wake up in the morning with a specific goal to look forward to.
If you do anything well, it becomes enjoyable.
To keep enjoying something, you need to increase its complexity.
Take charge of your schedule.
Make time for reflection and relaxation.
Shape your space.
Find out what you like and what you hate about life.
Start doing more of what you love, less of what you hate.
Develop what you lack.
Shift often from openness to closure.
Find a way to express what moves you.
Look at problems from as many viewpoints as possible.
Figure out the implications of the problem.
Implement the solution.
Produce as many ideas as possible.
Try to produce unlikely ideas.
- This is the type of papers I was creating. I worked on sheets that are 40″ long. The plan is to make it into an accordion book.
This entry was posted on Sunday, March 29th, 2009 at 8:01 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Posted by Joyce Daniels on July 15th, 2009 at 7:05 am:
I just read your article “A Perfect Day” and found the perfect explanation as to why I spend as many hours as possible in my “studio”. Having experienced several losses in the past two years, I have been drawn to spend more and more time trying to create “art.” I don’t feel like my creations are worth sharing with anyone, but they have been worth more than I can say in achieving a sense of peace in my life. Thank you for finding the words to explain this feeling!