In the artists' community (for lack of a better term) that I'm a member of, one of the practices is to write a weekly piece on and share it with the group. It's optional (everything is optional) but I decided to start doing it straight away, as once a week didn't seem too much of a commitment. (There's a daily one too, but I can't see myself keeping up with that one.) I've kept up with it happily so far, and always write more than I meant to, which is always pleasing. I thought I may as well share it here on the blog. Not the whole piece -- I don't want to give away the magic secrets! -- but just the section where I wrote about what happened during the week. It's mostly related to creativity, but a little too personal to share on my art/craft blog, so this is where it will go. (Sorry if I refer to some things that don't make much sense -- it was originally written for the other circle members who know what the terms are.) Here's this week's one:
What happened in the last week?
Nothing happened, and so much happened at the same time! I started out the week really wanting to draw every day, but I didn’t end up doing it until Friday. I had my Hobonichi with me at work, and I decided to listen to some CDC videos while I drew. When thinking about what to draw, I decided to do something that expressed how I felt about my injured knee and all the Stuff that’s been coming up around that. It’s very rare that I make art based on my feelings, especially negative feelings, but I thought, why not? So many artists do it. It was a small drawing that didn’t take long, but I felt a lot better after it and moved on to my drawing challenge piece. I didn’t have as long as I would have liked to do that one (lunchtime was nearly over) and I really botched it up, but I didn’t care.
I’ve been quite depressed this week. I’m pretty sure I get Seasonal Affective Disorder, and it’s just hit the time of year when it’s dark when I get home from work each night, and I can’t spend any time in my garden. I’ve also had the knee thing, and been getting headaches again. Also, the dress code at my work is very conservative, and I’ve been feeling more and more sad about not being able to express myself through the way I look. My shift at the shop on Saturday was cancelled though, so I got an extra day off just for myself.
I’ve started thinking a little bit about the next exhibition. Fox is sick at the moment, so it might not be for a while, but she did mention a while back that it might be on the subject of Fatness. I had a few ideas about it this week. (I really must start noting them down!)
(I have to say, I feel like a total faker talking about “my next exhibition”! But technically it’s true: I’ve been in one before, so I should take the credit for that.)
The Basquiat painting that went for $110 million dollars!! Wow!! I was yelling at the TV, “I could totally have made that!!” But he died of a heroin overdose and never got to enjoy the money. The pricetag on an artist’s work always skyrockets after they die, and he had the added mystique of living in the 70s street scene (street art is much more accepted now than it was when he was alive). They showed some of his other works, and I thought, if my art is weird then that’s 100 times weirder! If I don’t demonstrate much technique, his art doesn’t either! It was another sign from the universe that I don’t need to worry about those sorts of things.
Yesterday I did Lesson 6 of the Give Your Dream Wings Course. While I didn’t feel like I really connected with my dream, it was okay. I felt like, with practice, I will be able to. In this session, I had the feeling that I was still working out the venue for the dream, in a strange way. My dream needed to have its environment sorted out before taking the next step. Is it best for me to visualise me and my dream being an actual field, for example, or a nice cosy room, or something else? I would like to do the meditation again in a few days and see what comes up.
I wrote my blog post comparing several different online platforms for selling handmade items. I first did the research late last year when I was first thinking about re-opening my Etsy shop. With the controversial changes that Etsy have just made, I thought it was a good time to revisit it. I didn’t come to a conclusion in the post, but secretly I’m leaning towards Tictail. It was even kind of exciting thinking about sharing my art and zines! And right now, it just occurred to me – even if I don’t make any sales, Tictail is free, so it’s a bit like having a free online art gallery where people can see my work.
