A Bouquet for You (Detail) - Greeting card of conte, and pastel drawing, Copyright © Attaining Creativity 2008  

Sometimes, it is the simple things that get us moving at light speed. Things like:

• Waking up at the crack of dawn, willingly and eager
• Enjoying a quiet hour in the morning, in the light of dusk
• Completing a set of business tasks (uploading products to website) by the time everyone else is driving into work
• Chatting with friends and making new ones

What is your inspiration for today?

Dad and I (conte, and pastel drawing), Copyright © Attaining Creativity 2008  

Today has been a productive day, in the sense that even though I don’t have a “timeline” for the day, I have been utterly productive and timely in my productions.

I am attempting to set weekly goals, and dedicate days to certain tasks. My hope is that by grouping tasks, I’ll see movement and also be able to focus on creating one day, producing another, selling another day, etc. etc. The outline for this blog was started during my lunch break, which I enjoyed on my back deck, surrounded by the grape vine that is growing beyond control as we finally hit the summer heat. It is inspiring to see this vine simply reach for the sun, reaching for life, attempting to grow and reach and just be so lively! I’ll follow its lead and keep reaching for my goals. Actually, this grape vine has been inspiring me for months. I have seen it change from dry wood to a vine that is taking over the deck chair, a leafless plant that now carries budding grapes (perfect for snacking but not wine). It is also a perfect reminder of the seasons – come fall, this vine will have fruit that will finally have reached its peak. The tiny seeds that began their life in March will reach full maturity in October – and I’m thinking maybe my attaining creativity will reach some form of maturity come October. It’s a nice little story I’ve created here.

On another note, my attempt in this blog is to combine the psychological and business elements of someone who is attempting the journey to attaining creativity. It is not just as simple as following business rules and seeing success come your way. The spirit and dedication are also elements necessary for this journey. The psychological aspect is that there are days when I’m down (when trying to leave a voicemail turns into a 60-minute drama because the wrong phone number is listed on a website) and then there are days when I put on my “good” shoes (symbolically) and just tackle the day and end up talking to the cheeriest person on a Monday morning that leaves me with a smile all day long.

Part of this journey is also realizing that the longer I let myself feel beaten, the less I produce or create or enjoy my life. So I may be somber for an hour, frustrated. If so, I give myself time outs – work in the garden, play with the cat, whatever – and then I hit the studio again and create and research where I can sell, etc., etc. If you are working for yourself, perhaps hidden away in your studio, how do you deal with slump or somber days?

Alongside that realization, that I can simply choose to be somber for just 15 minutes and then go on simply with my tasks, I was hoping to provide a link – but it seems like the show’s website I was attempting to link to is skimpy! So to paraphrase: Going into business, or starting the journey to attaining one’s creativity does not have to be hard. Let me continue. The business idea does not have to be rocket science, the start-up fund does not have to be in the millions, and I don’t have to be a genius. If you boil it down to doing something you love, everyday, doing what you love is easy. It’s putting in the effort and time that will be hard (but worthwhile), but the idea itself is simple. You can start a business with $100 and network with your 5 friends to make a go of it.

Another way of looking at it is that I can make going into business difficult (I can butt my head talking with people who don’t understand me or are not providing me with answers to simple questions) or I can go into business and follow the paths that are simple (dealing with people who are attentive and are so good at their jobs that for a split second I think of going back to the “real” career world). I do have a choice in my success and if I wanted to be frustrated every day, I would have stayed put in my cubicle.

If I can share just one thing I have learned in the last couple of months is that once I set my mind to a particular task (for now, let’s say selling in weekly craft markets), I have been bombarded with e-mails from people I don’t even know or have come across articles giving me tips on how to sell at craft markets, or any type of insurance I might need, or names of managers for craft markets. Sure, the difficult part has been following up on all this new information. But I have had so many different solutions become available, that it actually has been fun! Sometimes it is just as simple as putting a thought out there and seeing what comes back. I am usually surprised and wonderfully happy with ALL that comes back.

My challenge to you: do you follow on a business path that has been marked with disaster (unresponsive vendors, delays in customer service, etc.) and hope that in the end things will turn out okay or do you turn your back on negativity (it’s their loss, not yours) and opt to follow the business paths that lead you to helpfulness and attentiveness and stress-free success?  

 Flowers, Anyone? (conte, and pastel drawing), Copyright © Attaining Creativity 2008  

I started the day early (thanks to a couple of women who worked together to help me start the day at 5AM) and have just kept going.

I have passed through the emotions of elation (for completing a simple task within a designated time) and extreme fear (I’m considering joining a weekly craft market in Monterey, CA and I am shaking in my boots at the thought). And now, as I have continued to just keep plugging along, the fear of actually selling my wares (and myself) have lessened – but only slightly. 

In the interest of keeping myself sane, at least for the next couple of hours, I am refusing to keep thinking of the possible obstacles. Obstacles like “do I have enough variation of things to sell, how will I display my creations, who will buy my stuff, can I do this by myself?” I am simply deciding that with each nagging thought, I will take a deep breath and think of a solution. It may not be perfect, but as long as I remove the obstacle, I can keep moving forward. And the good thing is that within the next couple of days, as I program my mind to keep thinking up solutions, the perfect answer might just arrive at my door, and I’ll be ready to greet it.

On another note, as I continue to research and read blogs and books and ask other creatives out there for guidance, advice, and feedback, I’ve come across an old acquaintance. Alyson Stanfield, the Art Biz coach, was someone I found on the web years ago (when I made my first attempt at attaining creativity). Through the beauty of the web, where I go to one page and then jump from one link to another page to another page, I found the Art Biz coach again.

And so I’ve been checking out her blog and trying to find the time to enact her suggestions and comments. Today’s topic has to do with blogs, so it seemed appropriate that I dwell deeper into the article and see what I needed to do to “liven” up this blog. The suggestions and comment s are good, and along the similar lines of other “pimping up your blog” entries. Although one of the suggestions is to link up (and I’m doing that right now), the reason why I bring the article itself up is because we can get so bogged down with suggestions and spend time reworking everything that in the end, we don’t get anything done.

I’m more than willing to follow the suggestions the Art Biz pointed out – because they work. But this is something to do moving forward, and to check in with myself and make sure that this is the type of blog that I would like to keep up, and for you to visit. I do know that putting in links will result in more traffic (all those trackbacks, permalinks, etc.) but I don’t want the entries to be just highlighted linkable text either. And since this blog is about a journey to attaining creativity, sometimes there may not be links to put in, since everyone’s experience in regards to attaining their own creativity is just that: their own.

I do look for blogs and websites that inspire me, and by inspiration I mean that they uplift me, or the blogger may be going through a rough time, but they are still expressing themselves so well that I am inspired by how they are still progressing through a dark time. There are of course plenty of websites and blogs that give tutorials and tips about the business of attaining creativity, but I’m not sure yet that I want to overload this blog with all of the “textual” side of creativity.

I am resolved however, to insert how I integrate the non-creative side of this business with the creative journey itself. With keeping my mind open, and in looking for solutions, I bumped into this TV episode and caught at just the right time to hear that I should be saying YES to just doing, even if they are unknown, scary, dark, unknown, scary. Being in the journey to attaining creativity means that there will be plenty of unknowns and if I am to properly continue on this journey, I need to say YES to fear, to doing things outside my comfort zone.

The challenge for you today is: are you willing to say yes to the scary parts of attaining your own creativity? Share your success story of overcoming a fear, big or small.

Photos of today’s inspiration: two bouquets of flowers from around the garden, a scarecrow in the vegetable beds - albeit a bit early for Halloween, Martha the white paw cat makes her blog debut, and what better way to enjoy the late afternoon sun than with a sweet rose wine and some 7-up? Photos by Pia Walker, Copyright © Attaining Creativity 2008    

Sunday again (or maybe not), simpler (but not so easy that it’s boring), easier (this one is a keeper), etc., etc.

Without a normal routine (I seem to get in and out of routines and can’t make one completely stick), my weekends have become part of my every day workweek. And I don’t mind that, since I’m doing something I enjoy and I’m passing the hours doing fun and creative things. But it also means that if I come across a creative mess that I can’t seem to get out of, I’m not allowing myself to just veg out for a day of rest (or 2 or 3 days of relaxation).

In my attempts to find my creative path (and the joy there is that I am on the right path and have figured out my style and the colors that make my mouth just smile) I keep bumping into technology. Eons ago, when technology was new and supposed to be helpful, I became one of those semi-geeky people who learned everything there was to know. And I kept learning and adding to my repertoire of technology knowledge for years after.

But now, in the spirit of being more connected, I find it ironic that as I attempt to do everything wirelessly, I am surrounded and strangled with cords! As I move around my drawing desk, grabbing for pastel pencils and different colored papers, my elbows play tango with the earphone wires of the iPod (never mind what happens when I’m dancing solo around the house) and I feel the little earplugs pulled from my ears. As I attempt to transfer digital photos to my computer, my knees need to remain perfectly still so that I don’t knock the camera over.

I recently read another creative’s blog entry about being overwhelmed with technology. I had to reply to her, and smile as I did so, because in this journey to attaining creativity, I find myself spending way too much time keeping up with technology, time that I could and should be spending actually creating. When did this technology, that was meant to be so helpful, become a hindrance? I do find myself, again in my attempts to create a daily or weekly routine, trying to dedicate a day to just techie stuff – blogs, websites, uploading photos, online selling. Otherwise, I find myself remaining stuck to the computer, plugging and unplugging devices, and inside the house, instead of outside getting inspiration for my drawings, my creations.

It could all be as simple as my drawing on a piece of paper and setting up a chair and a table on a busy street to sell my wares. And yet that would be so “unprofessional,” wouldn’t it be? Yet for just an hour or so, I do wish it were that simple and easy.

Here’s to wishing and moving forward regardless. 

• A boy dressed in red rain boots, enjoying the 70-degree sunny day
• A woman walking away from the farmer’s market with 6 bouquets of flowers, so many that I could hardly see her face
• Three children playing violins and violas with all their might, and producing a mighty fine tune
• All sorts of flower bouquets for less than $5, freshly cut and fragrant
• Fresh strawberries and all kinds of berries, planks of produce fresh from the farms, smelling like fresh ground soil and intriguingly inviting me to make a delicious meal
• The beauty of a sunset by the coast
• The surprise of buds finally peeking through the dirt in my vegetable garden

A challenge for you: what 5 things did you experience, hear, see, taste, or touch today that motivated and inspired you?

I have found that whenever I am feeling so out of sorts that I can’t see upwards, a day comes and arrives with a windstorm. The kind of high energy winds that move your hair no matter which way you face and shake your soul. I think of those days as personal gifts, just for me, with the purpose of shaking me loose from my depressions, my fears, my confusions. The more time I spend outside, surrounded and encircled by these powerful winds, the more their force blow away all doubts and clear my mind so that I may see the way out of whatever maze I have found myself in.

As I am just starting out in this journey of attaining creativity, I find myself wavering, over and over again, not knowing of the response towards my work, and at times not knowing what my work should be. And so the last couple of days, after putting together a simple business plan and some financial projections, I have felt beaten. How could I ever think that this would work? How would I dare jump?

And today’s winds came, from the ocean all the way up the mountains and over the century old redwoods and into the valley and my house. As an astrological water sign, you’d think that water would be my source of inspiration, of movement. And yet it is only when those windy days arrive that I feel rushed forward, propelled into action. Isn’t wind what makes water move, what creates motion and is the start of waves in the ocean? So it makes sense, then, that strong winds would create the perfect days to clean house and get moving.

Last week I had done research on weekly craft markets and had remembered the Old Monterey Market Place. So to check it out in person, today I drove down the coast towards the beautiful town of Monterey, California.

The drive, swirly with the winds (those winds really were strong), started the clearing of my head, and I found myself thinking about my ultimate goals, and how I had defined success (remember that I had hinted it was not associated with loads of money or celebrity type fame). I may still now know the full way of how to meet my financial projections (yikes!) but I have to be thankful for something I wrote out last week. It does help to have focus on what I want the end goal to be, and with that, everything else, I still believe, will fall into its rightful place.

The hours spent at the craft and farmer’s market were well worth it and I walked away with an amazing amount of notes, all pertaining to the customer base that would be at the market, comments about displays, weather and how it would affect displays. Above all, however, I had fun, and with those winds, and a feeling of youth and excitement, I found my brain clear, refreshed. I felt my spirit lifted, engaged with my daily life, and willing to continue to move forward.

As I drove home with my first basket of fresh strawberries of the season, I sat in my quiet car (no music, no radio) and as I listened to the winds hissing through the windows, I kept thinking, I kept plotting, I kept progressing forward. How could I not feel uplifted as I drove along the sand dunes of Sand City, and saw the beginnings of the foggy haze that would cover the strawberries field of Castroville and Watsonville, and looked out onto the wild ocean being colored by the descending orange sun?

Although it was a successful day just because of the thoughts and notes that I was able to produce, I acknowledged that as an artist or any entrepreneur who is working for themselves, and probably at home, it is so essential to just get out of the house, at least for one afternoon, once a week, and just interact with life – other people, other experiences. The feelings of failure can accumulate so much quicker if I also begin to feel stuck physically in my house. If I want inspiration, although the redwoods around me provide me with plenty, I also need to change my habitat, see children smile, men buying flower bouquets, teenagers playing violins, and enjoy fresh strawberries!

A Flower for You (conte, and pastel drawing), Copyright © Attaining Creativity 2008  

In the later part of this week, I’ve been experiencing:
- Having a constant feeling of being overwhelmed. I find myself having tons of ideas – not only creative creation ideas but marketing ideas, selling ideas, promotion ideas – but having no idea on which way to go. This con is all about having a lack of focus.
- Lack of direction – since there are so many ideas, my energies are directed everywhere and nowhere. Again, this con is all about having a lack of focus. Am I seeing a pattern here?

Although I’ve been drawing and creating pieces this week, I have not put up anything on my shop or done much else to actually begin to sell my wares. I began to realize that I was simply just drawing and hoping that everything else would fall into place. Well, I kind of knew that nothing would fall into place on its own, but I was hoping that my momentum would direct me to the right place and time.

And in its own way, my momentum has. It has focused me on actually penning down my ideas and focus, and now that I am seeing my goals written down, I know much better how my creations fit into place, and I know how to create work that ties into my goals.

I spend what I call an administrative hour each morning dealing with e-mails and checking out other people’s blogs (the only negative about that is that most people haven’t updated their blogs by 7:30AM!) but I use that time to get inspiration for the rest of the day, figure out new tactics on networking and promoting my work, and get rearing to go for the remainder of the day.

At Creative Everyday’s Springy Inspiration blog entry, I found out about The Boss of You blog and got immediately to doing the first list of exercises on their book. I got so excited after doing the first three exercises (and Lauren and Emira finish the chapter off by telling to give yourself a treat – how much better can finishing up business objectives be!) that I did a quick search of where I can buy their book locally (doing what I can to help keep things green). So this weekend, while I’m getting more art supplies, I’ll also be cruzing down to Bookshop Santa Cruz and picking up their book.

I also found some very creative and simple marketing ideas on how to promote my work – the ideas there were so neat that I have been thinking about how to implement them nonstop this morning.

After writing down my goals and being amazed at what I actually wrote down as my measurement of success (hint: it’s not about money or popularity but about being part of another person’s journey to attaining their own creativity and freedom from having to live the “standard” life), I can see clearly one of the pros of simply jumping off:
- Having so many ideas and realizing that I can think, that I am creative, and that I am good and worthy of success.

Although I am one of those that despises writing goals down, I have come to the age and time in my life in which I realize the power of doing so: Having your goals and your desires stare you in the face every day is a powerful reminder of why you are following your passion, and a visual reminder that gives me focus and drive.

Have a great weekend, full of ideas, and goal setting, and creations!

Photo by Pia Walker, Copyright © Attaining Creativity 2008   

I find myself calmer, more centered, even though this whole journey is so unknown. I allowed yesterday to be a day of simply learning, of not rushing around and trying to push for something that perhaps was not true, or necessary, or even good.

I allowed creativity to fester in my mind overnight, simmering in my lengthy sleep, so that I could awaken this morning, to gray clouds and still find the sunshine, the desire to have a wonderful day.

And so it was. My mental list of things to do was accomplished in the unwritten deadlines I had given myself. And I found myself reworking a project, but from a different angle. I saw myself playing again, with simple lines, and I smiled.

A month or so ago, after my daily exercise of simply painting had allowed me to arrive at an art style that really was a compilation of everything I had drawn in my youth, I found myself creating 6 lines on a piece of sketch paper and crying. My sketch had few details yet it conveyed everything I needed to, at that moment. I was crying because I could not believe that after such rough trials, I had arrived at my calling in the simplest manner. I could not believe that after creating abstract drawings that started in darkness, for that is where my mind was at the time, I was sketching a simple landscape with waves of mountains and a simple character watching it all.

As I have mentioned in a previous blog entry, I have wavered from such a drawing, a style. Yet I find myself back there again and know that that is where I will remain, at least for a long while. I may tweak, I may expand, but if I can have that joy of simply placing conté lines on a piece of paper and seeing a woman be drawn with 4 lines, I will be happy and content.

And I have to give gratitude to my wavering, for I have found pieces of styles that fit well with my latest creations. It is as if I needed to waver to get some missing pieces. And so nothing has been for lost. The detour I took has gotten me back to the main road of my creativity and my style, and I have had some fun along the way.

I have spent this Earth Day just enjoying the whole process, not feeling rushed while still accomplishing. I have sat outside in the noon hour, to enjoy the last bits of sun before the rains arrive, and I have found a caterpillar wondering along the deck rail. This little yellow caterpillar will bloom into a beautiful butterfly, and the grape vine that he finally found already has tiny buds that will become actual grapes come harvest time. It is as if the Earth itself is reminding me that there is a time and season for everything, and that all the things that may feel small today will bloom at a later date and arrive at just the right time.

Enjoy this season of growing and expanding and continue on the journey to attaining creativity!

Starting Point (charcoal, conte, and pastel drawing), Copyright © Attaining Creativity 2008  

To say that today started with the march of a wrecking ball would be a light statement. Yet the whole day has passed, and now, in the darkening of the evening, I am not defeated.

Sure, I had a dark spell around noon, where I could have easily found myself bawling and filling the river ditch on the side of my house full of salt stained tears, but I quietly wrote about that, let the words describing the event simply flow out of me and away from me, and moved on.

I thought, then, in astonishment, that I had grown yet again. On any other day before today, such a minor (because in looking back, the event itself was a penance) event would have knocked me out. I would have found myself defeated, icky with the feel of unwashed hair, and sitting in front of the television for hours. It would have been a wasted day. And that feeling would probably have lingered for days.

Instead, I got up and away from the computer and the technology that should have made everything so much easier and had not, and took a really short, hot shower. I have to laugh because in talking myself down from the somewhat depressive edge, I began to clean the shower. It felt better than actually punching something and it got me moving, doing something simple and productive. And I rushed out of that clean shower and wrote up an ambitious “to do” list for the remainder of the day.

I am, in all honesty, sitting back watching myself. I cannot believe it. And I have to think, and wonder, and be amazed, that this desire to attain creativity has actually brought me to this point, to the crossroads of where my passions lie. And since these are my passions, my willingness to give them life is pushing me to continue on, beyond anything that looks dark or tiresome or incomplete.

I can finally say that I have a passion about this, that I am driven to finish this off, to continue it and see where it goes. On the flip side, even though I may have a passion I still have no true clue as to where this journey to attaining creativity will go, but heck, I’m on my way.

And just writing that, well, that places a whole different perspective on today.

I have to give thanks for the small kind actions that have occurred today. As part of my list of to do’s, I have contacted many people whom I’ve never met – and a good percentage have replied, with more kindness and more information than I ever asked for. In completing my own personal blooming list of the day. I find myself writing this blog, and realizing that this ability to withstand this tiny storm is an achievement that I did not expect but I cannot help but hold it dearly, give it strength while it gives me strength.

I know that I am only starting on this road, and I have, for the time being only what I can call my own “success” of actually drawing, but I feel that outside the realm of my peripheral vision, attaining my creativity is lurking, hiding yet in the shadows but sending small ripples of achievement, accomplishment, and inklings that I will conquer all that I need to, in due time.

So to finish off tonight, I’m listening to a good grooving song, uplifting, and listening to my own internal register of everything that today has taught me. It has been a productive day indeed!

Photo by Pia Walker, Copyright © Attaining Creativity 2008   

I have been wanting to draw a lemon tree for a while. I tried to look through photographs on the web, in magazines, even at some lemon trees in my neighborhood. Once I settled on its shape, I did a quick sketch, in pencil. I think that because I knew that this would not be the final piece, I felt more relaxed and in the end, I was so happy with my sketch (colored oddly enough in lime green marker) that I felt like I had to give the sketch a name.

Before I could fully think it through, I wrote “My Lemon Tree.” And then I found myself staring at those words, but in particular at the word MY. I hadn’t drawn my small, weak lemon tree from my garden, yet it was MY lemon tree. The pressure of the pencil, the shape of the leaves, the details on the tree trunk, those were all my decisions. And then I fully realized why I was so wound up with this word, so happy.

This was my vision, my realization. Unlike any work or project that I had completed in a corporate workplace, this truly was mine, MY. In how many instances can that truly be said?

Sometimes we do labors of love, of art, but we compromise ourselves. In years past, I have designed greeting cards in a lower cost bracket, so that my handmade cards would not seem too pricey. And while it is always a good idea to have different price levels to offer consumers, I was doing it merely to gain customers. And my designs showed it. I wasn’t really into them and I put very little effort into actually being creative.

In throwing myself into this journey to attaining creativity, I have of course read a lot, tried to find mentors, the whole works (before I got so excited I just had to jump in). In the interviews of all the successful artists that I have found so far, all of them say, without a doubt, to not compromise simply to sell. In their attempts to find a paying audience they had tried different things, to no success! It was only when they put all of that aside, and simply created for their joy and for what they stood for, that they found success and that customers found them.

And so I’m taking the power of MY creative powers, of MY own view of the world, and moving forward. I have, since written my first blog, wavered in that journey. I thought that my work would remain in the abstract arena, which at times seemed too difficult, since how do you explain to someone the power of a simple red canvas? I had heard it say that abstract artists are sort of like conmen – they need to convince the viewer of something.

And although I tried different styles and worked out some creations that were “cute,” they were not truly pushing my spirit. Instead of continuing on my journey to attaining creativity, which is supposed to be filled with finding out who I truly am, I was finding myself along the path that I had wanted to leave behind: the path of simplicity, of wanting to please others, of doing what is expected of me and no more.

So I dare you to label something of yours MY – and see how much power it gives you.