Focusing on Life Week 4: Create Art

"Realize that now, in this moment of time, you are creating.
You are creating your next moment.
That is what's real."
~Sara Paddison

I am participating in a weekly photography challenge called Focus on Life hosted by Sally Russick of The Studio Sublime.  

I have a mug on my desk that says, "Do something creative Every Day." It is a credo that I live by. So I was very excited to read the prompt for this week: Create Art.

But here it is Saturday, and I am admitting defeat.

I actually did nothing creative this week.

Okay. That isn't entirely true.

I am frantically trying to design a piece for Halcraft/Michaels for a last minute assignment this month and it is turning out horrible. Sort of like Pocahontas-octopi meets hobo chic. Later today I will be tearing it apart and hoping like heck that something will rise from the ashes of this charred pile of ugly.

But that isn't exactly creating art, as Miss Sally prompted us. I guess I would define creating art as doing something that is just created for the sheer joy of creating, perhaps in a medium that I have never worked before, getting my hands dirty creating glorious messes.

Truth be told, it was all I could do to cruise on auto-pilot this week. Or maybe this month. You may have noticed a profound lack of posting from me this week. I only post when I have something to say, and I guess creating with words has eluded me, too. And truth be told, I had a bit of a gloriously messy meltdown last night. In my car. On the way to pick up my daughter from dance and head to see the basketball team play, missing my son's few moments on the court completely, while wrestling with the overwhelming annual sales tax prep.

It took a long time for my chest to unclench last night. I even tried wine, and that failed, too. But I did wake up with a renewed sense of calm. Remember last week when I felt so blissfully relaxed? I have added a few knots but the good news is that I will be back for a massage on the 7th which can't come soon enough now.

But you didn't come here to listen to me whine.

I joined in Kerry Bogert's Aspire to Wire eCourse. There is nothing that Miss Kerry does that I wouldn't want to be a part of. She inspires me in so many directions, not the least of which is jewelry design. It is a 30 day eCourse that is on something like Day #21. I have been following along, reading all the instructions, jotting notes on how I will make the projects my own. But I have yet to pick up a tool, a spool of wire, a bead and make something. Miss Kerry is working so hard bringing us the freshest, most creative projects, so I feel like a bit of a fail on this front. But at least I can come back to it when my head is in the right place. I fear that if I tried right now my wire would get all tangled and I would break my tools and it wouldn't be good.

One of my goals this year is to learn something new. Heck. That is my goal every year. But this year I thought that I would pull some books off the shelf, dust them of and teach myself one project or variation from each of them. I have about 100 books in my resource library so this in itself was a bit daunting. Every time I see a new one I can't help myself. I have to have it. And I find that it doesn't matter what the subject matter is, even if it is something I have never worked with or might never tackle, I do find something of inspiration in it. I never use a tutorial in a book or publication verbatim. I am always spinning my own twists and turns.

I happen to have a lot of books about working with metal. And it seems that every class that I take has a bent toward metalworking. So I decided to pull off 12 or so books and publications that I have admired but never used that focused on metal. And I have paged through and pre-selected a project or two that will get me going. January may be all but over, but I will make good on this idea to make art for the rest of this year.

I could have just skipped this week, but as I told Miss Sally, the planning for creating and researching for me is part of the art. I know that I will be a bit sheepish to post this amidst all the great art that I know will be shown on The Studio Sublime blog this week. But I also want to be faithful to doing the challenges no matter how challenging they may be. Who would have thought that the command to 'create art' would be the hardest for me?

But maybe today is the day. I am headed to Hobby Lobby this morning to pick up some materials to practice for the Project Day class I am doing using shrink plastic for the middle school my daughter attends. So maybe I will get my fingers messy after all.

Please go to The Studio Sublime to see all the other participants in this week's Focusing On Life.