The Creative Call: Inspiration

Getting inspired to create artistic products is the theme of chapter 5. The chapter explores the source of inspiration -- the Holy Spirit-- and how to access that inspiration: through giving up ourselves as the source of our own inspiration and relying upon the Spirit, through prayer, to achieve it. Sometime our creative blocks come from our trying too hard. Sometimes we just have to be patient and wait. And if we are open to what the Spirit has to offer, it will come.

Waiting for inspiration does not mean we sit around and take no action. We need to be attentive to the world and people around us. The Spirit will work through our experiences to bring us ideas and motivate us to act upon them. We need to do our "breathing exercises" as Elsheimer urges. We need to spend time out and about on a regular basis to "prime the pump." This would include not only getting out and experiencing the world, but also studying what other creatives have done that we would like to emulate. If you paint, study the great masters. If you write, study your favorite writer.

Also, we need to start thinking of ourselves as writers or artists or chefs or bellydancers... whatever mode our creative expression takes. When we do this, our eyes will open and we will start stumbling across the ideas the Spirit tosses in front of us.

Finally, the author makes the practical suggestion of carrying around a notebook or sketchbook to capture those observations or ideas as they occur or record those inspirational dreams that may wake us up. I leave you with this example: I have been thinking about one of my creative mentors, Hildegard von Bingen, a medieval woman who was an artist, theologian, musical composer, medicinal healer, and adviser to many powerful people in her world. I thought of a painting I might do of her and I put down this quick thumbnail to capture what flashed in my mind's eye. I may not act on this, but at least the seed of the idea is down on paper and on the way to fruition.

The Creative Call: Listening

I have been working through the second chapter of The Creative Call. At the heart of this chapter is the theme of learning to listen to the Spirit and the assurance that the Spirit listens to us. One way, according to the author, that we may listen to God is through the reading of the scriptures and, conversely, the primary way God listens to us is through prayer. The main thing I learned from this chapter is that it is not only right, but essential to ask God how He wants us to exercise our creative gifts and to ask for the means by which to do that. I need to learn to listen for the answers.

The main thrust of this chapter is the emphasis on daily journalling. This is how we as creatives can actually dialogue with the God. The issues that cause our creative blocks can be dealt with in the pages of our journals, and insights and ideas for our creative work can come through the pages of our journals as well. Our prayers can be written if we so choose and the responses may come through our own writing. It is imperative, the author asserts, to journal at least twenty minutes every day, first thing in the morning if possible.

I don't want to go too much into prayer and journalling here. The author covers all of this very well in the chapter. I want to share today my own observations about communicating with the Spirit in a way that diverges a bit from what the author presents. I think another way that the Spirit communicates with us is through dreams. Every time I start one of these creativity programs, I start having bizarre dreams. This time is no different.

I recall two powerful dreams this week. I'm not going to share too many details about my dreams. I am sure the symbolic language in the dreams would have meaning only to me anyway. Let me just say that the messages that came to me in both of these dreams is this: I spend more time taking care of others than taking care of my own well-being, and that I feel excluded from the mainstream creative community. However, that being said, I am still being taught many things by the Spirit that I would not be able to learn from anyone or anywhere else.

There is one thing I do want to share in hopes that someone can give me some insight. In one of the dreams there was a white dog that looked like a husky or a malamut or some sort of Alaskan/Siberian breed. An elderly Asian man in the dream said that the dog's name was "Tzi-Chi" and that it was important that I learn how to pronounce the dog's name. Does anyone have any idea what the words "tzi-chi" may mean? It sounds Mandarin to me. I googled the term but nothing came up. A similar word, "Zi", comes up with the meaning "beautiful" and I know "chi" means "life force." Does this mean that I have a "beautiful life force?" Or that I don't have it and I have to strive towards that? Any insight would be helpful.

So I am trying to listen in all the ways the book's author suggest plus one of my own. I think, though, I need some help in interpreting what I hear.

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This chapter's key scripture verse is: "In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly." Psalm 5:3. And here is my visual response:

"Psalm Five:Three"
Photo Manipulation

ljgloyd (c) 2012

The Creative Call: Beginnings

I’ve been journaling my fingers off since last Wednesday in response to the first chapter of The Creative Call. There’s a lot of stuff already emerging having to do with blockages, annoying people, and inner critics – the same stuff that always seems to come up when I do a program like this. The difference, though, is that through it all the voice of the author comes through time and time again in this chapter: You are a creative person because God made you that way. And He made you that way so you can be a part of His continuing creation of the world.

One of the exercises in chapter one was to write my own definition of "artist" by completing this statement “I think an artist is….”

Here is my definition: I think an artist is a conduit of God’s grace through whom God exercises his role as Creator. God does not need us in order for Him to be the Creator, but He desires to share that role with us and the blessings that come from it.

Creative people are compelled to make art, make music, write, act, cook, garden, build furniture, design websites, fix computers, et cetera because they are wired to do so. Since we were crafted that way, then it is obvious that to not develop our talents and exercise them is, at best, not living up to our potential, and at worst – to use “churchy” vocabulary – living outside the will of God.

So this chapter offers an amazing affirmation to all creatives. With this, you would think we could just close the book and get on with our work.

No.

The chapter goes on to ask pointed questions about the obstacles to creativity. For me, namely, it’s other people and my own self. Okay, it’s mostly my own self, but I can go on and on about both me and them.

The author, however, is quick to point out that even though the Critics in our lives may be a hindrance, we will learn in future chapters how to stop blaming them and begin forgiving.

Forgiveness? Oy! I think I need to buy a lot more paper to journal on.

This first chapter opened with some verses from the Gospel of John: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made. Without Him nothing was made that has been made (John 1:1-3). This seems an appropriate verse in a discussion about the creative action of God and artists, so in response to this passage, I felt compelled to make this image:

"John One:One-Three" (Digital Painting)

ljgloyd (c) 2012

Art Journal: Weekend Spread, Do Not Fear Success

This weekend's spread is all ready to receive writing which I think will be white gelly roll on the left side. I don't want to put in any writing on the right, but I'll have to see how much room I need.

The first layer of the background was gesso over blue watercolor crayon followed by several layers of green and blue tissue, art papers, and a computer printout of the female figure. The image is embellished by glitter glue. (I don't fling glitter, I squirt it! :)

Creating the image was a project in itself. I found a vintage image of Mata Hari. I am not particularly interested in Mata Hari herself, but the image presented to me all sorts of possibilities in terms of manipulation and embellishment. It took about an hour to colorize the whole image in Photoshop, resulting in about a dozen layers to achieve the final effect.

So what is this spread about? A couple of weeks ago during a meditation time, the words "Do not fear success" popped into my mind. It was an interesting insight that made me consider that my lack of progress in certain areas of my life may not have anything to do with a fear of failure, but rather from a fear of being successful. This insight is something that I am going to have to give some considered thought.

I debated with myself as to whether I should rephrase the title of the spread into a positive affirmation such as "Welcome Success". But since those were not the words that came to me, I stuck with the original statement.


ljgloyd (c) 2012

Art Journal: Weekly Spread January 16 Onward

Here is my spread all ready for my multi-day journaling for this week. Nothing fancy: just gesso over watercolor crayons, then stampings, followed by a drawing. I will handwrite my entries in black Pitt pen.

ljgloyd (c) 2012

Mosiac Spread: It's All About the Journey

This is my full weekend spread for January 14 and 15 (awaiting text for the 15th). It employs the mosiac and "hidden" tab prompts from earlier this week. I created the background by laying down some white gesso, fushia acrylic paint and black gesso. The mosiac tiles are cut from a paper I made of light wash of the fushia paint rubbed over by a thin layer of copper metallic acrylic paint. The labyrinth is a computer print out. I embellished with glitter glue. At first I was hesitant about using too much glitter but then I thought "You can never use too much glitter!" Woo-hoo.

ljgloyd (c) 2012

Art Journal: First Week

Here is the front cover of the journal:

The journal itself is a 9 by 12 soft-bound sketchbook. I painted over the cover in cerulean blue, green and copper metallic acrylic paint. I pasted a photo that was taken in a low-light setting by a friend. The friend who took the picture was going to delete it since it was so blurry, but I just loved the effect and knew it would someday show up in a piece of art. Here it is. Finally, the text is stamping on a piece of blue tissue paper.



This image was created for my January 8 journal entry (January 7 also had a similar image). I just didn't know what to make as a focal point image so I just traced my hand and started doodling in it. I painted black gesso around it for contrast and wrote the text with a Sakura white gelly roll pen. A number of people in the Book of Days group have commented that they too have used the motif of the hand in this week's journaling. How synchronicitous is that?

I am working on my multi-day spread for this week. I want to incorporate a mosiac effect into what I have already started, but that may not work so well and I'll have to use the mosiac effect on my weekend spread.

What I find interesting about this project is that I have had the discipline to do it every day thus far, even if it is only a word or two. We'll see how long that lasts.

More to come.

ljgloyd (c) 2012

In the Studio: Creating a Mixed Media Painting

My thanks to those of you who gave me mostly good feedback on my post of a couple of days ago. The point I was trying to get across is that persevering in achieving a goal is as important, if not more so, than one's psychological frame of mind.

Yesterday, I was fooling around with a visual interpretation of this concept. I decided to document the process of creating the painting in this video. Thank you again for your support.



ljgloyd (c) 2011

If I said "Yes"......

"The Botanical Shop"

Montage of vintage and found photographs

This is a response to an art journaling prompt which asked what we would say "yes" to if given the opportunity. In this imaginary life (with unlimited resources and time), I would say yes to being educated as a master herbalist or a naturopathic or TCM doctor. OR I might say yes to starting my own business as a manufacturer and purveyor of hand-crafted botanical skin care products.

Hey, it's a fantasy, okay?

Anyway, this image may end up being the study from which I render a painting. We'll see... since I do not in fact have unlimited resources or time for art-making.....or anything else.

ljgloyd (c) 2011

Inhabiting My Story

The first art project in the Life is a Verb journey is to illustrate our lives within the drawing of a house. I don't really have a house so as long as I have to fantasize, I imagined my life inside a castle. I created this first in my art journal as a mixed media piece but then I went back and created a digital version.












ljgloyd (c) 2011

Mixed Media Journal Entries

For the past year, I been doing a lot of mixed media painting and collage. Here's a couple of examples from my art journal.

"Ungrounded"

"Hope is a Star in my Hand"

ljgloyd (c) 2011