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breakTHROUGHArts Thanks to all who have passed breakTHROUGHArts on to other artists! To share this newsletter with friends who want more creativity in their lives, use your e-mail Forward button. To subscribe or schedule your complimentary coaching hour click: connect@dianereardon.com..
June
2005
Contents
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“I don’t think I have a great gift. It isn’t just talent. You have
to have something else. You have to have a kind of nerve. It’s
mostly a lot of nerve, and a lot of very, very hard work.” ~ Georgia O’Keeffe. From Roxana Robinson. Georgia O’Keeffe. 1989 |
II. Energy Management: Translations from the Psych
Research Lab, the Board Room and the Shrink’s Couch
Bepko, Claudia & Krestan, Jo-Ann. Singing at the Top of our Lungs.
Women, Love, and Creativity. Chapter 6 – Artists: The High Creative
Pattern. 1993.
How are single-minded creative women different from creative women who
juggle many roles? Out of 300+ creative women, Bepko and Krestan found
that about 40 (13%) put creativity first in their lives, ahead of
relationships and caretaking. They differed in a number of ways,
including linking their creativity to spirituality more often and
feeling that geographical location was important twice as often.
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“She has made choices about the potential distractions of being in
a large city….she exposes herself only to those aspects of that
community that feed her rather than drain her.” ~Bepko & Kreston. Singing at the Top of Our Lungs. 1993. |
One major issue was the risk of being seen as selfish or narcissistic.
Another was the fear of actually going for it. From one artist, “Our
friend gave up her love for watercolor painting because she knew if
she let herself “go”, she wouldn’t want to do anything else. Men and
women both fear this immersion.”
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III. Friends in Print: When you feel like reading
McMeekin, Gail. The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women. 1993. Chapter 5 – Committing to Self-Focus.
McMeekin is a good listener and a polished writer who interviewed creative women on many issues, including Secret #5 – Committing to Self-Focus. She shares her own choices (“I’ve had to learn to … live with closet chaos.”) as well as synthesizing the choices others make between their art, their homes, and their families.
As one respondent put it, “I find that I remain torn between the deep pull of work and the equally deep pull of family. And yet from the depths of this division, new work continues to emerge.”
The discussion of managing solitude, caretaking, boundaries, and distractions is a thoughtful one; the book is well worth your time for this one chapter and the eleven other “secrets.”
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“O’Keeffe’s position continued to be one of passionate
concentration on the experience, with a determined disregard of
art theory – simply minding your own business…”. ~ Roxana Robinson. Georgia O’Keeffe. 1989 |
Robinson, Roxana. Georgia O’Keeffe. 1989.
Robinson has woven biographical detail and aesthetic analyses into 500
plus pages that kept me interested the whole time. The author moves
between the outer details of the O’Keeffe’s life and the parallel
changes in her painting in a way that illuminates both. For example,
she describes the artist painting from her car in New Mexico, moving
it to the scenes she wanted to capture. The painting was then
continued in the studio, adding reactions and responses in a separate
second phase. The timing of this approach is parallel to both the
increased availability of reliable automobiles and Georgia’s courage
in learning to drive. A good summertime read.
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IV. Creative Links
Although visual artists can use domestic scenes as inspiration,
songwriters can be more direct, turning their household chores into
lyrics.
www.pegseeger.com The sister of Pete Seeger offers her CD An Odd Collection that contains two songs of how housework affects the creative artist, “Housewife’s Alphabet” and “Leftwing Wife”.
www.reillyandmaloney.com/ Reilly and Maloney - A Collection
is a 2000 rerelease of many favorites of this venerable Northwest duo
including “Did Beethoven Do the Dishes?”
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V. Newsletter Info
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This material is included on the breakTHROUGH Creativity
Coaching website (www.dianereardon.com).
All material is copyrighted ©, 31 May 2005, Diane Reardon. All rights
reserved. Visit the website for back issues and details on
scheduling a complimentary one-hour
coaching session.
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