Finding the Common Thread and Free Goodies

I was recently introduced to Whitney Freya and her book The Artist Within. Whitney is a creativity coach and art teacher with boundless energy. I'm going to give away a copy of her book and some artwork, but first, let me tell you a little about it.

           



    

The Artist Within extolls the virtues of creativity for everyone and references the brain science to back the claim that taking time for artistic experience can push you into new territory in every area of your life.

Robert Henri wrote in The Art Spirit; “When the artist is alive in any person, whatevers his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressing creature...”

But how can you locate your artistic voice? Ninety percent of us spend our days in the left brain voice, which deals with practicalities, deadlines and the stuff of everyday life. Sound familiar? With creative exercises, Whitney introduces 8 principles of design that most artists intuitively know how to exploit when creating art. But they can also be used as a tool to help you see a new way of looking at your life and the world around you. The way we see things with our eyes and the way we think about and experience things are intertwined. The more thoughtful we are when creating, the more we are able to apply that same mode of thinking to our everyday lives. 

Through hands-on lessons, you'll see how to be conscious of where you place the emphasis in your paintings, quilts or drawing, but also your life. You can learn to be in balance and proportion, to ensure that you're apportioning your time to benefit your priorities. Many other small projects underline the need for harmony, rhythm, repetition and contrast. When you create art and life with unity, you'll find the common thread in your life. I love this metaphor. It's important, yet most of us never do the work necessary to refine our life's theme.

If you think you don't have a central thread running through your life, ask a friend who knows you. Sometimes it's easier for someone else to put things in perspective and isolate the central message that comes through in your art and how you spend your time.

According to William Butler Yeats: “People who lean on logic and philosophy and rational exposition end by starving the best part of the mind.” Strengthening the right brain is as simple as building small creative exercises into the small spaces in your life.

I decided to put The Artist Within to the test and chose the Creativity Workout on page 191. There are many fun and thought-provoking workouts throughout the book and it was difficult to decide on one. I took a large piece of watercolor paper and began creating a mandala by tracing a circle with a plate and then placing a dot in the center. From there I pulled out many kinds of art supplies, starting with acrylic paints, then moving on to oil pastels, marker and ink. I worked completely blissfully--not thinking about an outcome, but moving through the colors I love and not knowing what would be next until the path appeared. It was pure and unadulterated joy. The beauty of the mandala is that whatever you draw in the circle is what you are supposed to draw. It's as simple as that.

I have long been a proponent of play, but sometimes I need to be reminded too. Playing with all of my supplies without need to create something useful or even "good" was wonderful. When the mandala felt finished, I grabbed a small brush and some Tsukineko black ink and began writing across it with words that made me happy. I don't think too hard about these things....I just write as it occurs to me. That is the best way.

The next morning, when everything was dry, I cut the mandala into four postcards and then cut up the remainder into squares, strips and circles. I decided to stitch them onto the postcards to add layer and contrast--two of Whitney's principles. Out of a day of art play I emerged at peace, feeling super energized and with four lovely postcards on my art table.

You'll be encouraged to scribble and draw directly into The Artist Within, as you find your own symbols, map personal geographies, explore the language of color and realize that the opportunity to create is everywhere.

Creativity=Hope and Hope is where you want to live. 

Leave a comment below and I'll do a random draw on Saturday, May 21 to mail a copy of The Artist Within and also one of my postcards to a lucky winner. Please check back or follow me on Twitter to get the winner's name.