I was just reading a post on an acquaintance of mines' blog. She's a talented artist and creative soul who lives in Fernandina Beach. Her name is Wyanne Thompson and you can peruse all her creativity via her blog http://wyartjewels.blogspot.com/ or Etsy store http://wyanne.etsy.com/. I became aware of her work through my friend Kelly Warren of Happy Shack Designs http://happyshackdesigns.blogspot.com/. On Tuesday of this week Wyanne posted about "Louise" Syndrome. Here's what that amounts to in her own words; I'm not sure why we feel that we have to put things off until a better time. We let our best jewelry sit in a box, that no one gets to enjoy...not even us. We buy expensive art supplies that sit on a shelf, only to be used when divine inspiration strikes...for fear that we might waste it. We worry too much, we are too cautious, and therefore, we lose a lot of time.
Now to my point, it all hit home with me in a big way. You know, for the first time I could say that I had an "Aha Moment" like the ones that Oprah's always talking about. For me it was the line about the expensive art supplies that people like me amass and never use for fear of wasting them on something that I haven't even attempted. As a matter of fact over the last 2 years I've been purging art/craft supplies, most of which had never even been opened or used for that matter. The reason they hadn't been utilized was that fear that Wyanne spoke of, the one about wasting. I think the biggest catalyst of that fear for me is that ever present, nagging, negative internal dialogue that goes on in my head every time I walk into my studio. You other creative souls might be familiar with it, it's the one that tells you your art stinks and will never measure up or it tells you why waste ink or paint on that you're gonna end up not liking it anyway. So, you put down the paintbrush or the rubber stamp and you move on to something you know that little voice can't sway you from, like washing dishes or laundry.
I guess the best way around all this is to learn to quiet that lousy internal dialogue some of us have. I heard the other day that meditation can do that. They say that just a few minutes of quiet time a day can help you refocus your thoughts. I may try that and see how it goes. Although I'm not sure when I can find that kind of peace with a 3 year old and 6 month old in our house. Quiet doesn't exist at our place... :-) Moral of this story for me is that Wyanne's post has made me think big about who I am as a creative soul and how important it really is for me to find my creative voice and use it to quiet the lousy one that says "your just wasting your time"...
Now to my point, it all hit home with me in a big way. You know, for the first time I could say that I had an "Aha Moment" like the ones that Oprah's always talking about. For me it was the line about the expensive art supplies that people like me amass and never use for fear of wasting them on something that I haven't even attempted. As a matter of fact over the last 2 years I've been purging art/craft supplies, most of which had never even been opened or used for that matter. The reason they hadn't been utilized was that fear that Wyanne spoke of, the one about wasting. I think the biggest catalyst of that fear for me is that ever present, nagging, negative internal dialogue that goes on in my head every time I walk into my studio. You other creative souls might be familiar with it, it's the one that tells you your art stinks and will never measure up or it tells you why waste ink or paint on that you're gonna end up not liking it anyway. So, you put down the paintbrush or the rubber stamp and you move on to something you know that little voice can't sway you from, like washing dishes or laundry.
I guess the best way around all this is to learn to quiet that lousy internal dialogue some of us have. I heard the other day that meditation can do that. They say that just a few minutes of quiet time a day can help you refocus your thoughts. I may try that and see how it goes. Although I'm not sure when I can find that kind of peace with a 3 year old and 6 month old in our house. Quiet doesn't exist at our place... :-) Moral of this story for me is that Wyanne's post has made me think big about who I am as a creative soul and how important it really is for me to find my creative voice and use it to quiet the lousy one that says "your just wasting your time"...
2 comments:
welcome to the blogosphere, cristi! great job getting started!
SO THAT's what I have!! My Oh MY, I'm not the only one to suffer from this affliction! What a relief!
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