August for me is usually a time to pull in and organize myself. To make decisions about what my plans, goals and focus is going to be over the next year. I’m usually coming off of a daily art challenge, such as ICAD (Index Card a Day). Which is a normal thing around here in August. You know historically the kids go back to school, the monsoons move into Arizona and Nina does the boring stuff. Traditionally in the past, this time between the daily art moments has been a struggle. I’ve struggled to make decisions about what I want to focus on during the up and coming year. As I started to look at this with some detail, I recall a Pablo Picasso quote that sparked an idea, which is ‘Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working’. Maybe what I needed to stay focused is to keep making daily art just on a smaller (not size but time) scale.

I started by cleaning my ‘arting’ space and putting away odds and ends I had accumulated over the last couple of months. In doing this I came across a huge stack of newsprint that I had received as packaging material that had been used around products for my Etsy store. The newsprint was torn in huge sheets. I felt an idea brewing. It was then that it came together for me. I’d cut down the newsprint into pieces I could manage and spend 5-10 min creating backgrounds that I could in turn use as #collagefodder. Maybe this would keep me inspired and focused on the task of planning. I can keep myself in that space Confucius spoke about where if you ‘Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.’ I’d do small amounts of time in a creative ‘arting’ space and immediately turn around and spend time in a creative ‘business planning’ space. So then came the doing…a job I love. Will this really work?

I have a part time job outside my art business, which is a job that I do purely to assist in supplementing the household income. It’s not a job I love, but it meets our family’s financial requirements, enables me to splurge on art products, and keeps me engaged with other adults. Truthfully, it is something that I plan to transition out of, in the future, and make ‘arting’ my singular and focused adventure…the job I love. I believe that this will happen. My focus is to make this happen sooner, than later by taking the time to plan and focus on my plan, to treat my art as a business. At one point this was completely daunting. It meant I would have to do things I don’t know how to do, much less like to do. I also know it’s only going to happen because I work at it and because Bob Ross inspired me to believe. “The secret to doing anything is believing that you can do it. Anything that you believe you can do strong enough, you can do. Anything. As long as you believe.” Quite profound Bob. I’d love to just let go and just art but I can’t have my art be a singular and focused adventure unless I do the rest, planning, goal setting, organizing, editing, and BELIEVING!

So, for the next 8 days I created for 5-10 min on these huge sheets of newsprint and then I moved to work on the mundane but important part of being a working artist. I planned, set goals, worked on my newsletter and guess what happened? I discovered that ‘arting’ could generate inspiration off the art table? I knew that my daily ‘arting’ was important to the creative parts of creating art. I’d seen a lot of that in my years as an artist. However, I did not realize what an impact it had in my life outside of creating. I’m really starting to see what makes me an Artist. It is the fact that art has such an impact for EVERTHING I do. It is my essential core. It is what I do. It is what drives me. It is what gives me joy. It is WHO I am!

Love that crunchy paper sound. These newsprint backgrounds prompted another installment in the Art Therapy Series on YouTube. You can view this here.