Starting off right...

Here is a fresh look how I go about getting my day started right.

Below is the episode that I just uploaded up to my you tube channel, and underneath is a basic transcription of the episode in case you'd rather read than watch. Enjoy!

I think it is prudent to dispel any myth of glamour or romantic ideas one may have about an artists life. At the end of the day, It is messy work pushing goop on a stick covered in hair.

Today's fast paced and busy lives, are full of immediate gratification, stained with bad news and pressured from every direction.  It seems Difficult for anyone to pursue what they love in life.......therefore persistence is key.

It’s not luck that I’m an artist. It is what I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid, I have geared every choice and every decision in my life toward pursuing this dream, no matter how ridiculous it may be. The same goes for talent, i may have been talented at 7, but 30 years later its a skill i've developed through my choices.

Take art classes, go to art school, travel abroad, read books, practice daily, teach, write, apply for grants, have a show coming up, a commission etc. congrats…. You are an artist!!! Now forget any financial security, a social life, health benefits, travel, holiday bonus, vacation pay etc. you are pretty much on your own now. Good luck!

In order to do what you love as much as possible you need to treat it like an obsession. Your single minded focus must be on the job. So Show up and do the work.

2% inspiration, 98% perspiration:

Paint paint paint.
Draw draw draw,
whatever it is that you do just do it. 
 Make it habitual and things will fall into place far more often. If you have a routine and keep organized, you will have more room to do what you want with your life. Time is of the essence, we only have a limited amount in our lives.

In my world no 2 days are the same, so i have to be open enough to ride the wave and be spontaneous while not losing sight of my goals while keeping some semblance of a plan together.

I’m a morning person. I get up early in order to beat the sun.

I wake up with the goal to get everything done right away, I do more before noon than most do in their entire day. To get more time in the studio i make the choice to go to bed earlier if i can.

When I get up I take a sip of water then write my morning pages, I learned them from the artists way, highly recommend it if you haven’t read it or feel your creativity blocked.

It is my morning puke, the part of my daily routine when I get out all the words and blocked up feelings, and clear the air of pressures, repressions and dreams before I even get out of bed. I’ve been doing these at least since the 90’s, Turns out I had to do them in school growing up too.

I never read them, but It is a record of continuity,  it may be fun down the road to look back on who I was in the past and contrast and compare. As for the obviously bad years I throw the whole book in fire at the temple at the burn.

When I’m done I hop out of bed, make it right away, because its much nicer getting into a made bed later on.

I have other parts to my early morning routine, shower, shave and shit, from feeding pets, put away dishes etc. basically I do the necessary stuff right away so I can leave it behind me.

 You need to ensure you give yourself enough time in the morning so that you are not rushing out the door. This way you are collected, calm and happy.

Not until after i get everything in order do i even consider looking at my phone or touching my computer. They are great  tools but also stealers my time.

A good habit to form when doing anything is to clean up after ones self. Constantly. It never seems to end, But get it done first so that afterward you can play.

The same goes on in the studio. I get in as much as I can while managing my life and often spend a huge majority of my time in the kitchen and tidying up as I go.  The other days of the week are for cleaning, grocery shopping etc is Sunday chores but if I can sneak it in somewhere earlier I do to free up more time on the week-end. The more time to focus without interruption from annoying and menial tasks then etter to nuture creativity.

So start off right, in life as well as in the studio.

So now you can look at your watch, hopefully it is still early, grab a cup of something hot and let the real art lifestyle begin…..

Until next time, my thanks and gratitude……

Out of chaos comes cleanliness!

It is usually a feat to get order out of chaos.  I've been on a roll lately since reading that book, see a few entries ago for more information. I've been doing pretty good but got busy with volunteering, Christmas parities and other things so I neglected finished the room until today.

On a whim, I turned my efforts to the kitchen which was in much need of love and organization.

My room mate let me know that this cupboard has never been cleaned. I could barely fit in the space without cracking my ribs a bit and now my back is super sore from it. I recycled a tonne of tupperware and cleaned all the shelving, it took oven cleaner and a metal scraper to get them looking like new.

Mid tidy, I took this picture then I had to take everything out and reorganize it. You'd be surprised how much one can fit in the cupboard and how much is less than necessary. I also emptied out every other kitchen cupboard and organized it as well, no sense in doing half a job.

I went back to Ikea for more bins and nicely labelled all my herbs and combined other cupboards into this one freeing up more space. It feels and looks good. I moved onto another room witht eh glow of achievement under my belt.

I keep my bathroom really clean, but went the extra mile removing the hard water stains.

I also picked up a unit that goes under the sink to place all my bathroom stuff and leaving the sink less cluttered. Its a joy to shave and sh*t in here now.

My new studio space is finally ready to be used, there is a bit more i can do but its functional enough to make me happy as I really want to get back to work painting! 

Getting my house in order

A little post about tidying.....

There is that saying "it takes a mess to clean a mess". It certainly has been true for me lately. I have been struggling with having a suitable place to create. I have been living in the same place for quite some time, and without a studio to create in. Mostly I convert my kitchen, but not any more. A good friend of mine recommended a book which helped jump-start my motivation to "get my house in order" and I want to recommend it here because it has really made a difference in my life in a short period of time.

This little book, "the life changing magic of tidying up" by Marie Kondo was around $15 on Amazon and worth every penny. I began reading it the day it arrived, its an easy read, I completed in a leisurely 3-4 days in between tidying spurts. Some of the advice she gives if you follow are habit changing, for the better.

First step Discard! It all started with respecting the things I have and discarding what I no longer need. Here are 2 of the 4 bags of clothes I donated, I still have too many clothes in my closet to process.  I also filled my garbage can 2X with irrelevant things that just kept hanging around. I was surprised by the amount that was easy to get rid of immediately after reading the first bit of the book, this ignited the flame and kept me going.

Then I started in on my drawers. The book recommends getting rid of stuff first then re-organizing. It works. It explains how to fold and store clothing efficiently. You can see what each thing is because it is standing on its side. I managed to not only clear out this drawer of unwanted clutter but I was able to add in a box of hankies, pocket squares and all my ties rolled up, my box of watches (I got rid of 3 watches for various reasons) and my extra wallets and day timers. I enjoy opening it to this pretty sight.

I closed that drawer and moved down to my socks. She calls those little rolled up balls that stretch the elastic band potatoes that roll around. I have been doing it that way my entire life. Up until this point I had such a full sock drawer it was difficult to close. I turfed every extra sock I had, and only have new zombie, dress and soft winter ones now. These too are folded on their side to maximize space and so you can see them. I managed to create 2/5 more space where I took my previously hung up scarves and neckerchiefs and got them in the drawer too. I continued down the remaining drawers and still have the bottom most one completely empty at this point. It works!!!!

I started in on the closet, which is not done yet as I got out of my room to tackle some larger areas next.  She recommends doing stuff quickly. Piling everything of like category together in one room, hence all the boos are getting stacked on my empty shelf for now but will be dealt with soon enough. My biggest burden is the thousands of books I've read but still store. Back to the closet, I have a lot of suits and tailored shirts. It is recommended that you hang the longest clothing items to the left and then allow it to gently rise with shorter stuff tot eh right. In this way, my suits are hung far left, followed by jackets, sport coats and blazers. Then sweaters, dress shirts to jeans etc.  I cant wait to show the finished pic.

My studio space. Until now, I could not get in here let alone paint in here. It is basically a place where I store art supplies so I am ready when inspiration comes to me. It is still pretty disorganized even though I have clear labelled bins, I still want to get this area handled.

One thing is I am a Lego maniac, and I have all the boxes from my many kits. I decided I had my fun with them and I doubt I'll sell any of these so I might as well reduce the cardboard the pieces are delivered in. I was surprised how much room this freed up once I flattened them down and put them in the recycling.

All of this allowed me to move a shelf I had in the room into the newly cleared closet space in my studio. It was a squeeze but it fit. I had to take out the make shift clothes rod. It was put up so poorly I nudged it and it fell out on its own. i also took out the shelf that rested on it which housed my empty Lego box collection.

Oh yeah, in order to do all this I also had to empty out 5 totes of miscellaneous stuff. Admit it, we all have it. I returned these plastic bins to their owner, washed out and empty. Boy, am I glad to be rid of that excess. I am beginning to feel happier and freer, which further motivates me to continue this "spring cleaning" type journey. Its been log overdue but at this point the challenge is becoming quite enjoyable. i want to see what else I can get rid in the process.

I slide back in the totes that were on the shelf, the contents of which I will sort and discard and refill with other things at a later date. Some stuff here like all my paintball gear can be sold on craigslist, while the paperwork etc will have to be discarded at a later date. For now this clears up a tonne of room and then that leads me to clear off the metal shelves and completely re-arrange the studio layout entirely. I like the clear bins because you can see what is in them.

I discover a huge box of DVD's and CD's which is falling apart and I don't care whats in it so rather than open Pandora's box, I gift the whole thing to someone who appreciated this sort of thing way more than me and has a fantastic library to choose what is wanted and throw the rest away. My disk drive on my laptop has been dead for a year so there is no point in me keeping these. Besides, I rarely watch a movie twice as there are new things to see, plus I have Netflix, who needs hard copies anyway?! I am sure there are treasures in there, they have gone to a good home.

It gets difficult deciding what is worth keeping etc. The book really lays it out well. I decided to invest in about $160 of matching clear bins from Ikea for all my creativity supplies. I like everything to look uniform and match so to me it's worht the cost. It is no secret I collect all sorts of art supplies, often when it is on sale I pick it up.You never know when inspiration will take over and I want to be ready to be able to make anything at a moments notice. I have every manner of creative tool. Now its a matter of getting it organized and into the right place.  While doing this I decide to challenge myself to get rid of 1 of the two shelves and everything on it. Concentrate. Thank goodness for portable audio.

Here is where the studio has gotten to this fine morning, awaiting more. It's been tough at points. Piles of stuff to be sorted everywhere. You have to make a mess to clean one and I can tell you its good I have a rec room and a living room to spread everything out. The book is all about lightening what you do have to essentials and things that bring you joy. Why else have the stuff?! It has been a lot more work that it looks and I didn't take pictures of every shift, every step, every piece of furniture I moved or dismantled.What I can say is that there is a noticeable life improving shift that I have been experiencing since I began this project. I highly recommend the book and tidying up to change your life.

I'm on a roll still, much more to come!