Category: Art

Tuesday, The War of Art, and Wow

BooksInTheMail

Yes, wow and The War of Art in the same sentence! I know you will want to know why and I’m about to explain. As you’ve noticed, I’ve been re-reading The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, to get my mojo back in action. It’s not an easy thing to push aside resistance and overwhelm. It’s the bane of an artist’s life. Mr. Resistance drops by with Mrs. Overwhelm and they end up having a party at my place without my permission. They’re lousy house guests, too, leaving all manner of distress in my house.

My quest for artistic sanity began quite a while ago when I decided I needed to purchase and work with The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. Breaking through artist block with various tasks was a welcome relief to the drudgery that comes with the fear of making a mess of a lovely, perfectly white canvas.

Read it, did it, passed the test. I hummed along quite well, for a while, working on my paintings in small segments of time, mostly twenty minutes. Worked well until it happened one day that it didn’t work.

What are you going to do? It happens.

In comes another great book, The War of Art. The kick butt writing style of Steven Pressfield and how he over comes resistance helped me get back on the horse, so to speak. All good. Until it happened again. Dead stop.

I don’t know how that works, but it works really well to stop me from getting anything worthwhile done. Yeah, Mr. and Mrs. Pain-in-my-neck show up and it’s over. But lately, they don’t stay as long as they had in the past. With my copy of Pressfield’s book close by, and writing about it here, I’m back.

So for the Wow part: Here I am, writing my little blog, working hard on developing this new platform, discussing my displeasure with Mr. Resistance when I received an email to my brand, spanking new dot com email address. I didn’t think it even worked. Mr. Pressfield’s literary representative contacted me saying she read my blogpost about his book, and would I like a few copies of it along with two others he wrote.

Would I? I was doing back flips! Yes I would, and thank you so very much! They arrived last week. I was so excited I couldn’t even think straight to start reading.

I need to breathe.

I’ve decided to have a little fun with my lovely gifts by spreading the love, the words, and wonderful direction these books can bring artists of all stripes. First I have to figure out the what and the how of the idea in my head. And if WordPress acts nicely and cooperates, we can enjoy a little contest of sorts.

Stay tuned.

Resistance, the Brain, and the Process

Developing a new website is a big deal. If this WordPress thing doesn’t kill me now, nothing will. And for that I’ll be grateful. In the midst of my mess here, figuratively and physically, painting happened. Imagine that? Actual work took place at my studio table. A day of productivity is a welcome thing. Needed, and necessary.

Putting aside resistance, trying to keep myself in the now instead of thinking about what I should’ve done, and what I could do tomorrow, the moment came. I grabbed it with both hands. The paints were available. The watercolor block was on my table. Photos I took in the fall were strewn across my table too. All I needed was to feel a pull toward one of them. Motivation is such a difficult thing to capture and the brain is a strange friend.

My brain talks way too much, and says things to me that I wouldn’t say to my worst enemies. Why do we do that to ourselves? The brain goes on and on about hurtful thoughts, talking such trash. And we listen to it, ingest and digest it, and spit it back out by doing absolutely nothing.

Someone come and kick it out! Guess what? That someone has to be one’s self. Get with the program, already!

Enough with the trash talk, let’s get to the art.

The first step of new work
The first step of new workç

In the next photo you can see how I started adding shadow and trying to define the areas. The last photo is the second day of working on this watercolor painting and it’s starting to look like something I could be pleased with.

You may or may not remember, but it’s the process that is really the focus. Kicking out Mr. Resistance is part of the gig. Returning to the painting is the second part. Resistance has to be toppled to make time for the work. But, and the but is a big one, then I have to get back to work. It’s such a long story.

Adding color and shadow
Adding color and shadow
Continuing with more detail
Continuing with more detail

Back to The War of Art

RESISTANCE IS UNIVERSAL
“We’re wrong if we think we’re the only one struggling with Resistance. Everyone who has a body experiences Resistance.”
from The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield

Isn’t that wonderful? So we are not alone. Everyone, not only we creative types, experience our own kind of resistance. Maybe other people don’t call it Mr. Resistance like I do, but it’s safe to say it happens to the best of us.

The thing we most want and need to work on or at, is exactly the thing we seem to avoid doing. Amazing isn’t it?

Art Language is Easy, Computer Language, Not so Much

Navigating to a new blogging platform is becoming a “thing.” There’s new language to learn, first off, and working is ridiculously difficult if you speak English and “they” speak Swahili, if you catch my drift.

Greek Dish, 9×10 Watercolor ©Dora Sislian Themelis

Managing this present blog is easy. However, the look of the new site is much nicer, and a bit more professional. If I could figure it out I’d be golden. It’s going to take some time. Learning a new language isn’t as easy as they say it is.

The language of art comes naturally to me. Thank goodness, or I’d be toast. The vocabulary I need to learn are the words that will kick out Mr. Resistance from my space.

Now that’s a tough cookie.

Resistance, Distraction, Unbearable, Oh My

Resistance is in full swing here this winter. Coming out of this one is going to be like wrestling with spaghetti: messy. “Doing” was a good idea, but doesn’t look like one that’s going to get a lot of traction. 

Apples on Cloth, Watercolor,  9×10 @Dora Sislian Themelis

Goals? Resolutions? Doing? All a distraction from actually working on anything.

It’s the end of January already. Is this what the year ahead is going to look like? If so, it’s going to be a rough ride. Better buckle up.

Ground hogs, bears, and all manner of beast that hibernate through the winter have the right idea. Let’s just sleep through the whole thing, and wake up when the sun is high in the sky making the weather bearable. I have had enough of winter.

However, Mr. Resistance likes to visit in nice weather, too.

Like I said, better buckle up. Mr. Resistance is very chummy with his good friend Mr. Distraction, and they like to get together often, it seems.

I am going to need ammunition, tools, plans. 

The Last Minute Holiday Shopping Event

At the last minute I decided to throw my hat in the ring and participate in this holiday shopping event in Long Island City, NY. LIC is a neighborhood that is evolving and becoming very chic with trendy restaurants and shops, a stone’s throw from Manhattan, but in the borough of Queens. The Museum of Modern Art re-located in the area a few years ago while the Manhattan location was under renovation, bringing awareness and people.

I liked the idea of showing my work in an art gallery space, and thought this would be a good opportunity. It was a nice event, with lovely co-vendors, organizer, and shoppers. People admired my handmade work and paintings, and I was lucky to sell a few pieces.

Ten10 Studios Carriage House, LIC, NY

My table of items

Close up of my items for sale

Another view of my table

The studio space

The highlight of the day for me was when a group of young brothers came to shop for Christmas gifts. One of them wanted to buy my watercolor painting of tomatoes for his grandmother. When he asked his mother for the money, she said to try finding something a little less expensive. Okay.

He then chose a colorful painting of a coffee pot, pepper, and sea shell. Imagine that? What boy decides to buy art as a Christmas gift? I was impressed.

A Holiday Shopping Event

The holiday shopping event was interesting. It was organized by a women’s imaging office in my area and if you can think of the warren of rooms in a medical office with a reception/waiting room and narrow hallways with little consultation rooms, that’s where this took place.
I might have been the only person with really handmade items. Other vendors had plenty of merchandise to offer, mostly mass produced jewelry and accessory items. 
My corner was next to a couple of book authors in the consultation room. 
Eventually I filled the wall with artwork next to my table. Otherwise it would have been hard to show paintings sitting flat. Anyway, I did the best I could with the space I had.

The people were lovely, giving great comments and compliments on my work. Most of them asked if the paintings were made by hand. Huh?

I’m not sure if they thought they were photos or what, but they were surprised to learn that, yes, I actually used a brush and paint to make the work. Oy.

And I actually used needles and yarn to make the knit items. And I actually used tools to string or wire the jewelry. Geez.

Yeah, I did make all that.

The Dilemma

It never fails to amaze me how I can do such a good job of Not working. Just amazing. I thought for sure I’d get something done the last couple of days. Did I? I did not. Slacker. 

I sure do talk a good one, though, don’t I?

Shells ©2012 Dora Sislian Themelis
Watercolor on Arches

Maybe Julia Cameron was right? In her book The Artist’s Way, she says Don’t Read. You know what happens when the brain hears the words “don’t read”? The brain doesn’t hear it the way we think it will. The brain hears only the word ‘read’ totally ignoring the ‘don’t’ part.

And what happens? I end up reading everything I get my hands on.

The moral of the story is reading leads to Not Working. Did you get that? I’m doing all kinds of reading: newspapers, email, blogs, junk, among the how to break through resistance. Isn’t that nice? Reading about moving past resistance, instead of just moving past resistance.

It’s a dilemma.