Last night I started on a short art project called kickstart your art. It’s a series of prompts and short videos intended to get you moving in the direction of creating art every day. My friend Stacy is doing it and suggested I join her. It’s a 10-day program consisting of 10 minutes a day. Because I started today, and the program kicked off yesterday, I had to double up. I’m curious to see where the prompts go. So far, the first two were things that I practice when I try to write. One was called a download – in which you create a wordmap about what inspires you. The theory behind the download is to get some of the inhibitions out of the way, to get you thinking about what matters. The second exercise was to to go for a walk (outside or around the house) and really pay attention to something – and then sketch it. The hope is that by paying attention and trying to capture something, you learn to see inspiration in everything. Several months ago, I did a similar practice by trying to describe the sky everyday, or going for long walks and listening and seeing with intention. I have to admit, I feel a little validated in that I had already been practicing some of these approaches.
I’ve noticed that the more time I spend writing and the more often I spend my time writing (about anything), the easier it is to do. In my experience, there’s a lot of truth to the notion that by paying attention, it becomes easier to pay attention. I can remember days when I might have several story lines, or scenes, or poems pop into my head on a walk or while sitting outside observing. I’ve also noticed that the more often I “download” or journal, the more I feel like I’ve cleared some mental space to be creative.
I don’t know if other people experience these things – the benefits of paying attention or the mental engagement that sometimes follows clearing out. For me, it’s a little like how I feel after a decent run – a little lighter and little jazzed.
I like, and am intimidated by, the idea of trying something more visual. I know my preference is to work in words – and while I could create and describe a scene from scratch in my head and in narrative form, I can’t seem to do the same thing with visual representations. It’s both strange and frustrating because whatever I could describe in words, should be able to be done in a painting or an image, but my brain doesn’t seem to work that way, or it doesn’t know how to translate the words into an actual picture.
Two nights ago I poured a beer, put on some music and kept the lights low in an attempt to focus on mood and lighting. I sat looking around at the reflections and thinking about how I’ve always been drawn to bright colors in dark light – the scatter dust of the stars on a dark night, the magical glow of the light bright, disco balls and fire pits. This morning I wrote a new poem (only one of two new pieces in many months). For as often as I complain about time not being properly apportioned and getting out of practice, I’m happy with regaining some of this observational mojo. I’m hoping that kickstarting my art will influence other habits.
It’s gonna get in to the mid-30s and is sunny. A slight thaw is long overdue.