Sunday, June 20, 2010

Living The Creative Life

I have spent the past three days in my studio making Gracie's Love Story Necklace. It has felt fantastic to be locked up in my creative space, surrounded only by other artists working, amazing art everywhere I look, and my own creative ideas flowing.

I am sooooo close to finishing Gracie's Love Story Necklace. It's turning out fairly amazing. I was hoping to have it finished today, but I figure two more nights of final touches and I will be able to show it off.

Being able to spend the last three days focusing only on my creative passion, making jewelry, has felt incredible. Sometimes it is easy for me to get caught in the tunnel of "I shoulds", I should be blogging more, I should be tweeting more, I should have more facebook fans, I should have more stores, I should be doing what everyone else is doing.........It is an easy place for my mind to get stuck in, but it is a tunnel. It keeps going around in circles and the only way for me to get out is to physically do something about it. Picking myself up and moving my whole body to my studio does it. I start to tap on some metal, I start to play with some stones, sketch some designs and I remember what I am doing. I remember that life is about finding the things that you love to do and to keep doing them over and over again. It is so easy for all of us to get stuck in our "I shoulds", but those things will happen. I will get more facebook fans, I will get more stores, but to get there I need to keep doing what I love, what I'm good at, and what feeds my soul. I need to keep creating.

A fellow artist and blogger, Lori Koop shared this video link on her blog this week and I thought I would pass it along. It is Elizabeth Gilbert speaking about nurturing your creativity. I found it insightful, funny, and honest. Definitely worth the watch.

8 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 21, 2010

    She's hilarious (Elizabeth Gilbert)! Thank you for this! I totally feel that all I'm doing today will amount to nothing but I'm trying to (whenever I remember) to enjoy the doing without thinking of success because I think it's the idea of success which is a killer -- the expectations!

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  2. Man, she is so well spoken and intelligent and funny. The ultimate super woman. thanks for posting this, Patsy :)

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  3. Yes, she is pretty amazing. Very funny. I would love to meet her.

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  4. Ole to stubborn-ness and showing up! That was great,thanks for posting it.

    and yes, I get caught in the "shoulds" too. I like what you said about it.

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  5. Thanks for sharing this video, it's a gem! A funny & insightful look into the creative side of life :)

    p.s. watching while drinking coffee=choking hazard & messy monitor

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  6. AnonymousJune 23, 2010

    i find that my studio helps so much when i start getting brain fog from being on my computer so long. i totally know what you mean about running in circles and feeling like you never really accomplish anything.

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  7. The 'shoulds' are the biggest detractors from doing the things we love. If we spend more time on the shoulds, then that wouldn't leave us much time for creating the things we hope will draw fans and followers. Then where would we be?

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  8. Thank you for such an amazing reminder. My actions will feed my soul!!

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