Setting goals

Do you set goals? I do. I don't always write them down,  but I thought I would share my current creative goals with you. I'll even go so far as to promise I will follow up with how many I have accomplished.

Goals are like a map. You get out the map, plot your journey and off you go, hoping to reach the place you intended to go. Sometimes you end up in a different place and that's okay. With art, things have a way of evolving on their own journey.

Once I set a goal, I then think about the steps I need to take to get me there. After all, a goal with no action is just a word.

So here we go:

• Finish my new doll costume pattern
• Make a fox hound to go with my fox figure
• Finish my Steampunk journal
• Start my Spring journal
• Get 500 more followers on my blog
• Write for other blogs

So there are my latest goals. Get some things finished, start others. Now I will think about the steps I must take. Like finding some images of fox hounds. Think about how I will get 500 followers for my blog.

You see? Goals are the start of the journey; the map. Now I will fill in the map, with a few steps towards those goals. It was Confucius who said "A journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step."

What are your goals for your creative self?

Art Journal

My husband was away for a week. Not one to waste such an opportunity, I got out my paints. The dining table was covered with a picnic cloth and I laid out my freshly purchased sheets of water color paper. I was inspired by an article in Cloth, Paper, Scissors on how to prepare an art journal. Sorry, can't recall the author. It may have been Dawn deVries Sokol.

So I sprayed on paint, rolled and marked away, following the directions. I had in mind an art journal to celebrate Creativity, which you know is a favourite theme of mine, and then a steampunk Journal. You could have guessed, right? Enamoured with Steampunk, this journal will seek to answer the question: What is steampunk?

So above is a picture of the Steampunk journal in progress. It's primarily blues and steely grey. Then I decided to age the pages, so edged each one with Burnt Ochre. I've added various images, here you see a diver, I added steam trains and there will be some fashions too!!

The Creativity Journal is yellows and greens, with the odd butterfly and leaf to denote growth. Spring is coming, after all!

This will be such fun to complete. Now Hubby is home, the paints are away. I plan to stamp it this weekend, then get out my pens. Our doll club is having a morning of play, to work on whatever. Sculpting is planned, but maybe I'll take my journal...

Has anyone else been inspired to make a Journal like this?

New Year contemplations

I've been reading "Taking Flight" by Kelly Rae Roberts. It's a book about finding inspiration from your life and following through on your creative wings. It's well written, interspersed with projects and interviews with other artists.

I've enjoyed reading it. There are some wonderful quotations in it: "When you follow your bliss...doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors, and where there wouldn't be a door for anyone else." - Joseph Campbell. That speaks volumes to me. It's all about following your bliss when being creative, isn't it? Why create to suit anyone but yourself? If it doesn't please you, who will it please?

The projects set out to help you explore various aspects of your creative self. They are well laid out and quite inspiring. I may soon be getting my paints out again! I love a book that's well presented and this one certainly is.

I'll finish with a very profound quote: " The moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never have otherwise occurred." - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

So this New Year, don't just make resolutions. Ask yourself what it is that you really want. Is it to be more creative? To commit to one piece of art per week? What do you need to fulfill yourself? We all have such thoughts and New Year is the perfect time to begin a new journey. Embracing creativity and striding into 2011, I wish you all the happiest of New Years and my best for the coming year.

Edwina