What Do You Want To Make Today (Go For It)

What Do You Want To Make Today? (Go For It) 

journal spread 

stamp, ink, pitt artist pen, acrylic paint 

 This week I needed a reminder that it was okay to just go ahead and make stuff, and it didn't need to be so important or I didn't need to get caught up in all I "should" do. I could just make some stuff. If I wanted to.  I needed a reminder to allow myself to do something just because I wanted to.

So the first thing I did was play with my scallop cork stamp and filled a page with green scallops.

 Then I painted in the center, so I'd have a place to make something.  Then I wrote out what was really on my mind. I colored it in with my Pitt artist pens and then outlined it in polka dots.

Just because. I liked polka dots.  Honestly, I still need to practice using the stamps, figuring out what I want to do with them and how to use them. Creativity is a process and trying to build it back up or learn something new or get involved in a new project, well it generally requires us to deal with rough ideas, incomplete concepts, wobbly motivation, and imperfect technique.

Starting is hard. At least for me. Sometimes it takes weeks of scruffy journal drawings before I can get into "the thing" that fires me up.

Building up the creative practice is also difficult. Depending on where you are starting from (I'm starting from the winter doldrums and fallow period) it can be quite tough to get to the place where you are committed to crafting or painting or writing or whatever it is you want to be doing on an every day basis.

Luckily, I've gone through this process often enough that I trust I can get back to the place I want to be creatively. The trust is very important, I think. You have to trust the process so that you can get through all the bumps and bruises of starting. I want my creative habit. I want my indepth projects. I start to feel wobbly if I don't have that focus. So I'm trusting the process. I'm starting off with my here and there projects, trying to figure out where it is all heading this time around.  One thing I know most of all, though. If you want to do something, you have to start it.

So that's why I drew this page. Go For It. Don't forget to take the risk of maybe not doing it perfectly. Take the risk that you might fail, might make mistakes, might not get as far as you want. If you trust that your process will get you somewhere in the end, you can handle the steps backwards and stumbles and not so pleasing sometimes results.

Me, I think I need better ink colors. And maybe I need to practice making backgrounds. And maybe I want to add more layers. But really I probably want to go back to paint. Sometimes I feel like my art is not complete unless it's painted. It's not true, but it's feeling I have. I want to paint. It's intimidating sometimes, it's a commitment, it's messy, it means I have to sit down and take everything out and follow it through to the end, whether or not I have kids yelling a blue streak around me.

But that leads back to the "Go For It" statement. I'll never get where I want to go if I don't go for it. I'll just feel unsatisfied and rather failurish (it's a word because I made it one).

When I think about it, this post about process is not just about the creative process, this is about any in depth  project you want to take on, whether it is that neglected novel or wanting to eat healthier and lose weight, or declutter your house, or start school again or whatever.

Starting is hard and is made of failures which teach us where we want to go and what we want. But commitment to the project and faith in the process keeps us going.

Onward and upward.