Week 5, Recovering a Sense of Possibility

Hello there,


I'm slowing making my way through the Artist's Way.... I think some of my weeks are lasting as long as 10-15 days? hence... I'm only starting the Chapter marked Week 5...


I decided at the start it was going to take as long as it took.. so long as I stick with it til the end.  I am happy to say it's made all the difference to have a check-in buddy, my friend  Xanthe who's joined me for this adventure she's into the Dramatic Arts and a prolific writer of reviews and articles and attending performances and acting, directing and teaching... and a Mum to a dear little girl... she has her own blog http://www.xsentertainme.wordpress.com Xanthe has her creative plate very very full, and I admire her tanacity and courage to follow her dreams.


So.... how am I doing with this 12 week course?  I'm enjoying it... and well... failing a little bit too... eg. last week was meant to be 'reading deprivation' no reading... of anything!!  And while I can see that could actually be very helpful for my creative self... it seems I'm a bit too insecure in myself at this moment to rise to such a challenge, I'm addicted to my self help books and astrology newletter info, not to mention email and friends on facebook and affirmations by Louise Hay.. or any number of the various books I have surrounded myself with... and the Color Wisdom Cards... the list .. goes... on....  mmm, I may have to try it a day at a time... the thought of no reading for a week just freaked me out.


and the Artist Dates? I'm not really having much of a go at those either!  It's interesting to be telling 'the world' this... as I reread my words I am reminded to not be ripping myself off so much!  I'm doing this course for my own benefit... not to prove anything to anyone else... so when am I going to show up for myself?  


... with that... I think I'll sign off,


here is a few pic's of our new little family memeber, "Aura" a 2.5 year old Chihuahua x Foxy.  

Aura and her best friend

 she's very well behaved in the car

sitting on the towel after a big run around at the beach.

 bye for now creative ones,


Love,
Denise xo

... Puppy Love...

We've got puppies... well dogs on our minds at our place, we're looking into fostering a little one which will then become part of our family when we adopt it.


This is a new painting I've been working on all last week ... and I actually took some snaps of it with my iphone along the way... and you can see how much it changed... I could have painted two paintings.. but instead there are half a dozen underneath the one!  

I quite liked this chair, but it looks too much like one of those 

egg shaped ones.. in which case her head would not be 

in that position... I did't quite figure that out early enough....

 

 

It'll go into the gallery soon... once it's completely finished and varnished.

bye for now,

love Denise xo

 

sadness.... and inner critic...and sea gulls

Today I felt plain old sad... a bunch of things happened in the morning to throw my time into a bit of chaos... so after I had done the things I needed to do for others, I took myself off to sit by the seashore to write my 'later in the morning' pages.


I felt agitated and knew that if I didn't stop and write it out first I would just continue to bring my agitation throughout the day and into my painting... which I really didn't want to do.  So while having a deep chat with myself, and hearing the sound of the crashing waves and the fresh salt air.. i had a bit of a funny thought... 

"Darling Denise... how about you take those awful inner critic comments, the ones that beat you up and make you feel like a hopeless artist and write them all down.. and put them on a little raft or boat of their own and send them out to sea where the sea gulls can shit on them!"


the visual idea of this gave me a smile on my face as I thought about what that would look like, having bird sh*t all over my pieces of paper with negative self talk on them... if that's not creative then what is I thought!! 

The day actually turned out much better than how it started... I have made progress on a painting, a friend called and I met her for a chai and one of my dear daugters is cooking dinner for us tonight.

Life is good really.

love,

Denise xo

Woodford Folk Festival street friends, Dec 2010

Recovering a Sense of Power

I'm up to week 3 of The Artists Way. . .  "Recovering a Sense of Power"


 So far I'm doing morning pages most days... sometimes at all different times of the day if I didn't quite make it for the 'morning'.  I listened to the tail end of a podcast Cheryl Richardson interviewing Julia Cameron and she really does strongly encourage first thing, stream of consciousness writing in the morning before doing anything else... well... I like to go for a beach walk first thing.. so aside from getting up at 5am... I can't quite see my way around this one.  


last week I painted a lot more than I have been able to for ages, so that's a bit of a shift.  


If you'd like to hear that interview, go to "Change Your Life with Cheryl Richardson".. in itunes.  When I've got time I'll find the link... 


I love what Julia says about anger : "Sloth, apathy, and despair are the enemy. Anger is not. Anger is our friend. Not a nice friend. Not a gentle friend. But a very, very loyal friend. It will alwyas tell us when we have been betrayed. It will always tell us when we have betrayed ourselves. It will always tell us that it is time to act in our own best interests.
Anger is not the action itself. It is action's invitation." p. 62


A significant part of me has been dancing with the enemy for a bit too long (sloth, apathy and despair) it's time to harness that anger and get the hell on with it!


I'm off to see "Hereafter" , the movie with Matt Damon as a psychic, I laughed when I heard him interviewed recently and he said there are more psychics per capita in LA than anywhere else in the world, .... probably joking, but yeah. 
..... I thought the movie was 'ok' nothing, nothing like I'd expected, a bit slow in parts and quite sad.  Would totally be ok to wait for dvd in my opinion. 


bye for now,


love Denise x

clean...clear....spaciousness... not

I'm currently endeavouring to find some sense of order and clarity... so I think to be in a well organised space will be so helpful...


Maybe if I speak it out loud... I know I've told the Universe... and actually.. while I think of that I send out a prayer... I NEEEED HELP.... no, not physical help really... but that elusive inner strength and get-up-and-go stuff that makes wonders happen.

Contemplation Corner
(those are some canvas prints hanging behind)

Contemplation Corner with groovy hipstamatic app :0)

I've bravely shown you the BEST first haha... so below it's not quite so 'acceptable' but there you go.

Chaos ...

and more chaos!

I am reminded of Oprah shows with the groovy Aussie guy with the blue glasses, if he were to look into this room right now what would he say (haha, he wrote a book called "Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Big?") Well, to that I'd say...no... but it does 'p' me off!

I've been working on the first week of Julia Cameron's book... 'The Artist's Way" and am uncovering some of the creative monsters that lurk in my memories and subconcious.

So ... I guess I better get back to it.. hopefully I'll bounce back on here very soon and show you the rest of the completed lovely space... what next.... a clean clear desk space is always nice.

love Denise xo

The Artist's Way... again

... The Artist's Way... by Julia Cameron   http://www.theartistsway.com/

I was gifted this book many years ago and it was definitely a road map that got me on the path to follow the dream of being an artist.  Last year I feel like I lost my way.. and am no longer sure where I wish to head, and whats happening on the inside to make me feel this way.  So after a year of struggle and some challenging health I have decided to take the little 'life changing' course again.


I've got a travel buddy.... so we hope to encourage and support eachother along the way.


I forgot how hard it can be to drag three pages of long hand writing out of my head each morning... and still want to fit in a beach walk... and return to my yoga/well-being class at least once per week.


the Chinese New Year began this week.. year of the Rabbit  so I am very curious to observe the changes that brings.


I've also found a very helpful naturopath.. and will recover my health too!  


Week 1 - Recovering a Sense of Safety.


love Denise xo

Salt Magazine Article... the first Solo Exhibition

I've tried several ways to publish this to my website, but as yet have been unsuccessful, 

Salt Magazine did this gorgeous feature article which kicked off a very successful first solo show held at Tiffany Jones Fine Art Gallery, on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland.  

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