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September 6, 2007

artist's way guided intent (september)

by gl. at 11:59 pm

it's september, so this means i'm officially no longer on a creative hiatus! we had our first event of the "new creative season" wednesday night and what a fantastic re-introduction it was, focussing on our strengths rather than our weaknesses. we made "creative blocks" to help keep us motivated and powerful when we get stuck. it was great to see familiar faces again and introduce new people to the studio. everyone had such enthusiasm for getting back to art!

i've started doing prizes for people who come to guided intent: linda won a pack of tiny sharpie markers, and everyone went home with a wish token in their pocket.

alliterationcube.jpg
[alliteration: click to see more creative blocks!]

people really did some amazing blocks, and several of them were much more sculptural than i would have ever imagined!

during these sorts of events i've often been impressed & pleased that i've been able to make art while faciliating the event. even if it doesn't come out perfectly, i can often see what it means and how it represents a fragment of my Self. but i'm baffled by this. it doesn't speak to me at all. i'm much more interested in what i wrote about it than the object i created.

before we started modifying the blocks, we wrote about our strengths & things we like about ourselves. it seemed like i had a little unfair head start after responding to shu-ju's 10 things i like about myself meme a while back. but it turns out i didn't write about any of that. instead, i wrote about how my creative block usually doesn't keep me from doing stuff, but it does keep me from feeling anything about it, especially joy. afterwards when we wrote down six words that might help us overcome our blocks, i was delighted to discover mine all began with the letter A:

that's poetry waiting to happen. now that i can work with! :) so despite how i feel about my finished block, i still feel i got a lot out of the exercise. and it was great to see what everyone else made!

--*--

the next studio event is our casually creative collage night september 20 (which is already full w/ a waiting list). then we're offering a fun improvisational storytelling workshop, "generate, create, communicate" (perfect for animators -- or gamers! ;). then artist's way begins! next month the guided intent theme will be "integrity," where we'll visually explore the people, places and events that have shaped us. rsvp now!

posted by gl. | September 6, 2007 11:59 PM | categories: artist's way