Tuesday, July 20, 2010

What is beyond this disorganization?????


My reoccurring theme for personal growth and happiness lies in the practice of simplicity…dare I call it my current “issue”..no…how about growth opportunity….as the decades unfold there has become a poignancy…almost an urgency…to live life fully….to the edges and depths…to peal away the superfluous…to get to the heart of the matter…in love, in communication, in right livelihood and right relationships…I remember a cosmic moment around my 40th birthday. I wrote on my studio wall, “what is beyond this disorganization,” and I knew in that moment those words were a key to happiness and personal and professional success. More than a decade and a half later I am getting to the place where disorganization screams louder, demanding vigilance for it to be overcome or at least tamed (not an easy task for a wild woman).

I recently took Kelly Rae’s class, Flying Lessons: Tips & Tricks to Help Your Creative Business Soar. The class is” creative buz thriving fuel on steroids” and totally exploded my mind and continues to push me into all new places…Kelly is generous beyond belief…a brilliant and beautiful woman sharing her wisdom and gifts. I wish I’d “met” Kelly when I was a fledgling business woman and yet there were still volumes to learn from her richly designed course. What I have learned is helping me so much to prioritize my creative business and stay true to my creative spirit.

The day Kelly’s class finished, on a whim I signed up for Home with Claudine Hellmuth. Claudine is sweet, angelic and all around precious. The introduction of her cat, Stanley, won me over. I didn’t look at the curriculum before I signed up...the decision was intuition lead….as was Kelly’s class now that I think about it. If I had read the curriculum what I’m learning wouldn’t have been listed in the syllabus. In addition to the great techniques presented, I am learning simplicity from Claudine. She operates joyfully and efficiently in one small room. She has her modest collection of scrapbook papers zip-locked bagged and arranged by color. Claudine buys books of scrapbook paper one reason being they are cheaper than individual sheets. She says maybe they aren’t the prettiest…but they work. I thirst for this simplicity. In sprawling spaces I have a tendency to collect and collect. I think many of us artists are actually junk collectors and hoarder…lol… (come on...admit not wanting to use that last piece of your favorite scrapbook paper). My homework from Claudine’s class is to use what I have…to remember that more is MORE…more to spend money on, more to organize, more to confuse my mind and give me so many creative choices I design a million lines of product and only produce seven…o.k….I need to go back to Kelly’s class and remember to rejoice in what is already accomplished and take time to smell the roses.

9 comments:

  1. Love this post - SO TRUE! My husband calls me an "organized hoarder" :-) I just cannot bring myself to throw anything away - hey I could use it somehow in a project right????

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  2. Thank you for visiting my blog. Your's is gorgeous. I read your article in Somerset. Beautiful work. I like the way you combine the industrial elements with organic ones. Wasn't the cover art, with Fearless featured, serendipitous? Look forward to seeing more of your work and reading your blog.

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  3. great post
    I had to reorganize & downsize when we moved - YIKES! I think mixed-media is a term to get us to buy everything. :) Oh. Wait. I already did that. And picked up everything off the street. And...

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  4. So true more is more... I'll have to remember that when the next temptation hits me. I donated of 3 decent sized things today and I felt 5 pounds lighter. It makes you want to clean out more.

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  5. This is a good post. It's hard to live simply when you're an artist -- because yes, we are all hoarders. I occasionally challenge myself to make art (especially jewelry) with the supplies that I have. We need to not think of everything as being so precious that you don't want to use it. You bought it to use it. Just remind yourself of that. Now, I can't wait until I get back from vacation to use some of my stuff!

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  6. I just love your blog and can relate so much with this post! We are hoarders of sort...if we see something that looks interesting to use in art, we have to have it. And then it sits there and we buy yet more paper, art stuff, whatever. I have enough paper right now to last me a long, long time...and don't need to look for more.

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  7. oh, my...we all seem to be cut from the same cookie...I love it Suzanne..we bought it to use it!!!! Why is it so darn hard!!! and, Lori, we have enough paper to last a life time...and yet it's so darn hard to pass by a scrapbook store!!! we just need a sabbatical from life to lock ourselves in the studio...no distractions...and produce...thanks for connecting...

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  8. I love this entry, yes hoarders....but I have even a stronger confession, I've put what I've hoarded to wonderful use!! Most of my family thinks I'm nuts...and most of them hoard but toss after a couple years. I'm using things I've held onto for 30 years, it's exciting when I'm thinking thinking thinking and then remember that cool old ratty organza curtain that is the yummiest buttercream color that hung up 4 houses ago; torn, it makes the most marvelous statement in a mixed media piece, and oh it shreds and ravels soooooo wonderfully, so transparent, so aged and so perfect! So are we saying this is a bad thing I have?

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  9. This sounds so close to home! And the class sounds absolutely wonderful! Thank you for sharing this.

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