A Time for Play

I have been itching to try printmaking for years now. Our local community college doesn't do these classes, but I found a new place called Roots+Wings that is a preschool as well as offering adult classes.

I have become a firm believer in the importance of spaces that are pleasant to be and work in. This school immediately had me in love. It smelled of art supplies, was full of art stuff but was tidy, modern and spacious. It was a treat just to look around at the projects the children had been doing, I almost wanted to go home and wake my daughter up to make something. 

The atmosphere inspired a sense of play in me and the other students. You can keep your spas, this is how I find time for me. Imagine how different the world would be if we made more time for this kind of play instead of sitting while someone painted our toe nails...

Throwing Spaghetti at the Wall

Illustration, instructional design, blogging, video art, digital design, motion graphics, articles, books, activism. You name it, I have a hand in it. It may seem a lot but they are all interconnected, fun to do AND its all building for the future. It's like throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks.

I have always been one to jump from one thing to the next and I have decided to embrace it rather than see it as a flaw. I have one book to thank for this, and here is my shameless plug: Art Thinking: How to Carve Out Creative Space in a World of Schedules, Budgets, and Bosses by Amy Whitaker. In this book she talks about how to have a more creative life that is successful and fulfilling. It's worth read whether you are an artist trying to make it happen or someone who works in an office that wants to be more creative. This book has been hugely liberating for me. It has given me permission to pursue all my passions and with that has a sense of control and focus.

With this has also been a low tolerance for the things that I realize are wasting my time, as well as increased discipline. Time on task has been a problem for me in the past; I tend to jump around all too easily. I am now beginning to see my triggers for this and coming up with ways to nip it in the bud.  Part of that I think I can thank meditation for. True, I don't practice as much as I should, but I have done some workshops recently on meditation and the technique of focusing the mind has helped me in other parts of my other life too.

This is the closest I have ever been to the productive, creative life I have always craved.  Here's a little run down of all the things.

Illustrated Food - Socially conscious food blog with recipes and my illustrations.
Crave - Illustrated food memoir with recipes.
The Coven - Social activism blog
Crude Reform Store - Society 6 store of my collage and altered images.
Freelance work - Articles on art, illustrations and instructional design.
Innovation Curriculum - For my day job, a whole curriculum on how to be more innovative in our work.