breakTHROUGHArts
a free newsletter for visual artists

Use your e-mail Forward button to share this
newsletter with friends who want more creativity in their lives. To subscribe, click: connect@dianereardon.com.

November 2004 Contents

I. Channel Surfing
II. Energy Management: Translations from the Psych Research Lab, the Board Room, and the Shrink’s Couch
III. Friends in Print: When you feel like reading
IV. Creative Links
V. Newsletter and Info: Share this newsletter, subscribe, or unsubscribe

I. Channel Surfing
            A quote from a choreographer caught my eye…..
“I hesitate to say this but I’m beginning to think all of my work has been channeled. .  .  .If that’s the case I need to have a lot more respect and discipline, to honor what is being given to me.”*
          If we think of channeling in this general sense, authors talk in a similar way about how their characters have minds of their own. It may not be that characters appear full blown but that they unfold in their own way. It’s the writer’s job to notice when characters don’t go where the author planned, and then decide when to give in to them. This is a kind of channeling I’m interested in.
          Visual artists speak of their initial visions — are these channeled? Others let the materials guide them, being led by eyes and hands. This, of course raises the question of who or what is leading those eyes and hands.
          Each of these approaches is different from the kind of work we all do when we use our thinking muscles to wrestle a concept or technique into some sort of visual form. Example: I have an idea about the symbolism of a floating panel being necessary for a fiber art piece but the edges do not work. It has had me on the ropes for three unsuccessful experiments so far. It feels like my ego won’t let go of the idea and I’m trying to think through to a solution, not a bit like the receptive attitude of channeling.
          As much as I enjoy the thinking process, I’d like to be a bit more of a channeler. I was recently reminded that working in a small scale is a useful antidote to overthinking and a way to make room for channeling. A class with Lesley Riley introduced me to her spontaneous collage techniques. She calls her quick pieces “Fragments” (click on her link below to view). After a day and a half of the class, my normal amount of thinking just popped my circuits. I could feel the thinker part of me give up and go to sleep. At times, it grabbed onto logical decisions about things like framing, but it left the design process alone because rapid critical judgments were happily taking care of building the pieces. I may not have been channeling but I was a little bit closer.
*p. 53 interview with Sarah Shelton Mann. In Lloyd, Carol. Creating a Life Worth Living. 1997.
(Return to Top)

II. Energy Management: Translations from the Psych Research Lab, the Board Room and the Shrink’s Couch  
Instead of my regular update from folks who think for a living, I thought this would be a good time to share the only song I know that’s directly about creating. It links the idea of higher powers to what artists do in its own way. It can be found on the album Zero Church, by two of The Roche Sisters, funded by The Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue, Harvard. Words by Priscilla Dewey Houghton, quoted with permission:

God Bless the Artists
God bless the artists and keep them safe,
Praise the creator and those who create.
Touch the senses, strike the chord
Sound the trumpet, praise the Lord.
Guide the potter’s mystic touch
The painter’s brush, the actor’s heart,
“Dance the steps” to magic music’
Grace the motion, move the spirit
Guard the artists’ cosmic gifts
May they proclaim
God’s great creation.

God bless the artist and keep them safe,
Praise the creator and those who create.
Touch the senses, strike the chord
Shout for joy and praise the Lord.
Amen, Amen.
(Return to Top)

III. Friends in Print: When you feel like reading

Nolen-Hoeksema, Susan. Women Who Think Too Much: How to break free of overthinking and reclaim your life. 2003.

Even though I have been known to overthink, I’d like to believe I’ve tamed earlier demons of ruminating and worry. For those occasions where I fall into such chasms, this author provides straight-forward self-help steps. She makes it pretty clear when thinking is actually problem-solving and when it is a kind of avoidant merry-go-round.

Cloth, Paper, Scissors.
A new magazine focusing on “collage, mixed media, and artistic discovery,” is for beginners to seasoned artists. Heavy emphasis on book arts including visual art journals. Check it out at www.quiltingarts.com/cpsmag/about_mag.html
(Return to Top)

IV. Creative Links.
www.roches.com This site is a source for past and current work by the Roches, a women’s trio with fine-honed harmonies who have been singing since 1979.  Discography covers work by all three sisters, but also their solo work and projects they do two at a time.

www.lalasland.com Lesley Riley’s work uses many quotes from text and poetry as well as photo images. The site includes her Fragments series and provides a good model of a personal and informative artist’s website.
(Return to Top)

V. Newsletter Info
E-mail changes. To change your e-mail address, subscribe, or unsubscribe please e-mail connect@dianereardon.com. If you use a spam filter, please add this e-mail address to your list of approved senders. This material is included on the breakTHROUGH Creativity Coaching website (www.dianereardon.com). All material is copyrighted ©, 31 October 2004, Diane Reardon. All rights reserved. Visit the website for back issues and details on scheduling a complimentary one-hour coaching session.
(Return to Top)