Words of Worth for Gauche Alchemy

In The Studio

This month’s project for Gauche Alchemy is up on the blog today. I had fun getting back to some simple basics of paint and collage and I have to admit I’m itching to do more.

jvanderbeek_wordsofworth_teaser-1

Right now The Abyss is in chaos, and the roller coaster of the house purchase is sapping a lot of my energy. Putting together a big canvas of words reminded me a bit of what’s important. This is just a hill, a wall to climb, and what’s on the other side may look a lot like where we are now, or it might look totally different. Experiences help shape us, if we let them (and I’m of the mind that that’s a good thing), but they don’t have to change our core.

Oh, and happy Pi(e) Day! Hope you have some tasty dessert lined up, and if not, maybe get into the kitchen and create a special treat for your loved ones?

 

Happy New Year! Let’s Make it a Good One!

Creative Business

A lot of starting points are completely arbitrary, but there’s something so awesome about flipping open a new calendar or planner that just holds out so much hope, you know?

New month, new year, new planner!

New month, new year, new planner!

Okay, it might just be me. I can live with that.

If you’re stopping by because you saw my Project Planner download in the Januar DIRT from Gauche Alchemy, welcome, and thanks for poking around a bit 🙂 If you’re one of my regular readers and you don’t get the DIRT each month, then you might want to check out that link, there, so you can download a free, printable project planner I designed.

My custom-designed weekly planner spreads.

My custom-designed weekly planner spreads.

For the past couple of years I’ve been using Planner Pads as my weekly planner system and it was working, for the most part. The only thing was that I found myself shoe-horning in the bits I wanted into one version or another, and that gets to be a bit tiresome after a while. So this year I decided (early enough to actually make it happen, I’m proud to say) I would design my own planner so it would be perfect for my needs.

Granted, I did a pretty thorough search of what was available out there–both pre-printed as well as downloadables–and just couldn’t find the right fit.

Some things I learned about designing my own planner and putting it together:

  1. It really wasn’t all that hard. I wish I’d done it sooner. (I actually had a custom planner in mind several years ago, but I thought paper planners were becoming passe, and I just never got around to it. The format I had in mind back then wouldn’t fit me, now, but I still wish I’d gone ahead with it. Maybe I’ll give it a revamp for next year!)
  2. Paper is really important. The first go-round was on your average copy paper, but it was a little too see-through, especially with certain pens. 28# copy paper may be harder to come by (I had to order mine online, nowhere local carried legal size in that weight) but it’s worth it for the final product.
  3. A black-and-white planner doesn’t have to be boring: fun pens and washi tape tabs can liven up any page. I found a set of scented glitter gel pens while standing in line at Books-a-Million and they are ridiculously fun to write with.

    jvanderbeek_14planner-1

    I used some of the leftover cork-patterned fabric and a few heart-shaped eyelets to make the covers for my planner.

  4. You can never have too many binder rings. While I did finally find a source for small binder spines, using the last 2 holes of my 3-hole punch and 2 binder rings totally does the trick to keep this planner together. My next cover attempt might include a built-in elastic cord and a pocket on the inside cover, but other than that I think it’s perfect. I also considered using my Bind-it-All to spiral bind it, but I really wanted to be able to insert extra pages on a whim, so binder rings win!

I’m only one week in, of course, so I look forward to tweaking my layout and components over the year to find a really workable set up. And then, maybe I’ll design the 2015 and put it up on Etsy next Fall. It could happen.

How are you planning to organize this year? Are you a paper planner or strictly digital?

 

Wedding Blinders On!

Everyday Adventures

Which means blog posts around here are probably going to get spottier and spottier. We’re now within 7 weeks of the wedding and I would dearly love to have all projects completed one week ahead so, really, the clock is ticking with less than 6 weeks to get a LOT of thing knocked off the to-do list.

But all of this mania has made me think of some potentially pithy remarks on

Delegating Creativity

A couple of folks–including my mother, most recently–have offered to help with some of the wedding crafts. While I do appreciate the offer, it’s more than the usual amount of difficulty in accepting the help.

Yes, part of it is my long-standing need to do everything on my own. Call it stubbornness or the never-ending quest for bragging rights, but it seems to be ingrained over the last 37 years and it’s a tough habit to break. But putting those habits aside, that’s not the only reason I’m having trouble asking for or accepting help. And it boils down to this:

It’s a little hard to tell you what to do when I’m making it up as I go along.

It’s not like I don’t know what I want to achieve or how I want things to look. I’ve thought about pretty much every facet of the look of the day and thought through how I think I’ll be able to go about getting there. More times than not, though, little things go awry and if I’ve sent someone home with a project I won’t be there to troubleshoot or creatively solve the problem.

And yes, I definitely need to be involved with each step.

Also, by the time I’ve tested and trouble-shot an idea, chances are I’m far enough in that it’s just as easy for me to finish the project than put it aside so I can show someone else how to do it the next day.

Looking at it like this, my wedding is starting to sound like a giant piece of DIY performance art. I swear that’s not the focus, I just want the details to enhance our experience, not detract or distract. Minutia-level involvement is my way of assuring myself that that will be the case.

But the point I’m getting at is… Is it possible to delegate creativity? Can our art become a truly collaborative project?

Sure, you can collaborate on a concept or idea, and everyone’s been part of a group project in some form or fashion, but delegation is a hand-off, less of a hands-on. Can we still claim it as ours?

Which brings up the whole question of ownership in general. Can art really belong to any one person?

Now I’m not talking about copyrights and trademarks, I’m talking about that intangible thread between the artist and her creation.

The Great Master painters had apprentices. You hear tell of the Rembrandt “school,” for instance, but it’s in-the-style-of the teacher, even if the project may have been begun by the big cheese himself. Who knows? But art historians can tell by studying the brush strokes and other infinite details who actually painted it. I finished reading The House Girl the other night, a fictional story about (among other things and themes) antebellum paintings attributed to the mistress of the plantation but that were actually completed by one of her slaves and who has rights to those works. Whose name goes on the back of the canvas. Who gets the proceeds, be they money or bragging rights.

In this day of Pinterest and rapid-fire inspiration sharing, where does the inspiration stop and the appropriation begin? Where does imitation cross the line into impersonation?

And does it even matter?

I think it does. Matter that is. It matters where our ideas come from. It matters what came before us. It also matters how we put our own spin on things. Some people aren’t interested in personalization but focus on replication, and I suppose that’s okay for them, but I want my thumbprint on what I lay claim to. I don’t mind sharing the spotlight if I was inspired by someone else, but I could never take credit for someone else’s work, either, even if it was my instruction that served as the catalyst for the finished object.

Hah! I brought it back around to delegation. (I wasn’t sure how I was going to get there, to be honest.)

So, what do you think? Can we delegate creativity or does trying to place us in the position of muse or catalyst, but no longer artist? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Creativity Shared

Everyday Adventures

We’ll tackle the next art on Thursday, but first I wanted to catch up on some projects that I’ve been working on away from the 64 Arts.

In this month’s installment of The Dirt (Gauche Alchemy’s newsletter) I shared a little bit about the faux terrarium I made out of found objects:

UpCycled Terrarium

UpCycled Terrarium

Then for the blog I made this (I think) very cool Cocktail Clutch out of an old book mailer and the Shaken Not Stirred Mixed Media Kit.

jwalker_cocktail_clutch_upcycle_altered_art

And then before that I got to play with some more outstanding Helmar Glues as part of a swap Gauche Alchemy and Helmar hosted.

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The grape clusters and vines are glue applied directly to the glass and (in the case of the clusters) dusted with shimmery glitter.

And speaking of swaps, I participated in a Button Fairy swap with the good folks at Viva Las VegaStamps. This was my first introduction to the concept of Button Fairies and I put together this girly, delicate, pink & pearl fairy for swappin

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I received a fun and funky button fairy in return and am contemplating make a few more just for fun.

Of course, there are plenty of other projects still waiting for their turn. Unfortuantely both the antique desk and the bedroom redo are in limbo–the desk still needs a couple coats of varnish. The bedroom, on the other hand, did get a new bedspread and throw (both from West Elm and our trip before last to Jacksonville) so the pink and grey is creeping in, but I haven’t gotten any farther than that.

Time is the answer for everything, of course, but with the wedding coming up in just 4 months (!!!) I think the bedroom might take longer to finish. I’ll stick to the shorter-term projects until then!

In what ways have you stretched your creative wings lately?

 

 

Always Something on the Horizon

Everyday Adventures

Otherwise known as 100 irons in the fire, half a dozen projects on the table…

So.

Mainstream comics fans were sent reeling this weekend at the news that Gail Simone–a major player when we’re talking women and comics–was taken off the very popular Batgirl comic in favor of another writer. Shows of support for Simone and protest to DC over the move have been making their way through my feed-reader and I sympathize.

But what I know about Simone tells me she’s one smart cookie and will bounce back from this set-back quickly. I’d be willing to bet she has a project waiting in the wings, just like most of us with more ideas than time to fulfill them.

And as I was thinking along that topic Monday afternoon, I was reminded of a scene in one of my favorite books growing up: Golden Slippers.

I went through a ballerina phase (I think a lot of girls do) but, unfortunately, after I’d already passed up dance classes as a tot (long story there) and well after my parents could afford them anyway. So, as a preteen and a voracious reader, I devoured YA books about dancers (among other subjects). I still have a soft spot for dance movies. But Golden Slippers was a book that I read and re-read until it was (is) falling apart.

It’s the story of a young dancer–not necessarily the best dancer, or the dancer with the ideal dance body, but she had a certain spark (and an aunt cum fairy godmother who helped her along as best she could)–who gets a part in a major motion picture and has dreams of Hollywood. She’s young, impetuous, but her friends and teachers keep her in line. Her dance partner in the movie teases her in that I-like-you-so-I’m-giving-you-a-hard-time way, but she only has eyes for the female lead’s partner–the usual schtick.

Anyway, to get to the point, as the movie finishes up she has the moment where she realizes she has nothing planned. After all, she’s only a teenager, not even out of high school, and everyone else is already talking about their next project, the next big idea, next. Next.

She’s adrift.

And I can’t think of anything worse than that feeling, can you? Un-tethered, at loose ends, no prospects.

Things turn out all right (no surprise there, but the whys and hows I’ll leave  you to discover if you can get your hands on a copy and are so inclined) but young me learned a real lesson somewhere between the first read and the fiftieth:

Always have something else to move on to.

Of course, as a boy-crazy teen the somethings were actually more like someones, but it was the same idea.

And now, as a so-called adult, I always have a lot of things going on and more ideas than I have time to execute–at least all at once.

Usually when I get the wide-eyed, do-you-sleep, why-do-you-work-so-hard, etc. responses I answer with, “I like to stay busy.”

If pressed, I’ll explain that concentrating on only one project or interest is a fast-track to burnout for me. And both of those are true representations of the situation.

But there’s a third that I don’t think I realized, except for maybe deep in the cluttered filing cabinet of my subconscious, and that is that I don’t ever want to feel at loose ends.

I worked full-time as a bookkeeper while I was also going to culinary school full time. I had a social life that I’d keep up with on the weekends. My roommates barely saw me. When I left the day job to start the internship necessary for getting my degree I remember it feeling a little odd to only have 1 focus, but it was still a pretty demanding routine, so life went on almost as usual.

But when that job ended, when I went back to bookkeeping and had nothing ready-set to fill my off hours, that’s when it set in.

I was adrift.

So I started watching television (for 2 years I’d been too busy to even think about such a thing), but that wasn’t active enough for me (plus we didn’t have cable–no one watched much television in that house, it wasn’t just me). And while I was still ass-over-teakettle as far as debt was concerned, I had a little bit of disposable income I could put towards the hobbies I picked up–some old, some new. And I started to get ideas.

Even though Husband #2 told me, once, that I was not allowed to pick up any more hobbies or bring any more “crap” into the house, I’ve yet to stop.

He’s an ex for a reason.

I will continue to welcome the ideas and interests as they come. I will continue to have half a dozen (or more) irons in the fire. And I will continue to learn new things and share them with others whenever I get the chance.

They are my anchor. They are me.