Alphabet plate, Authenticity, and Adventure

Now that is something isn't it...three "A" words. 

This is one of four alphabet plates for my new class I'll be teaching in Naperville, starting second week of January on Tuesday's.  I bought a package of letter from Achievers and they have all different sizes and font styles..Tim Holt's stuff.  I glued it first with a glue stick, so they would hold in place till I got them all on there. Then I coated it with polymer medium to seal it in. Don't even know if it will work but got to take that risk and give it a try.

Now with my readings this morning out of many books...I'm dyslexic and I gather information and store it and process it an a way that might scare others off but I've found what works for me...and that's a little bit here and a little bit there and put it into action, feel it and know it...then move on to something else. So I'm still re-reading, The Gifts of Imperfection it's on Authenticity this morning... I have to share this part...I really would like to soak this in and make it part of my being..

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards: they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want so that they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you really need to do, in order to have what you want.  ~Margaret Young~

Brene' shares.... Before I started doing my research, I always thought of  people as being either authentic or inauthentic. Authenticity was simply a quality that you had or that you were lacking. I think that's the way most of us use the term: "She's a very authentic person." But as I started immersing myself in the research and doing my own personal work, I realized that like many desirable ways of being, authenticity is not something we have or don't have. It's a practice-a conscious choice of how we want to live. (great!, Awesome)

Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It's about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen. 

Call me crazy but I could read that every morning like a cup of coffee to jump start my thinking and my day.

A sense of Adventure...for week four in Artist way's "Walking in this World" 

I will try to keep this to the point...but honestly I'm just loving the thinking journey I've been on through the winter season already so I'm just going to continue and see what happens. 

In short the begin Statement for this week is Focusing on Self-acceptance and a route to self-expression. 

From the book-When we avoid risk, we court depression... Depression is emotional quicksand. Once we get stuck, it's hard to pull free. Our struggles exhaust us and depress us further. It is easier to avoid depression than overcome it and yes, we avoid it by taking risks.    this is the part that I relate to Authenticity up above...for me it's not about having a lot though I've accumulated a lot over the years but there are areas in my life that...say I would love to be in a loft style cabin in the upper states with two pole barns one for me and one for the husband.. but reality is...that's going to take a long time to get three...so I take the risk and with my mind I imagine I'm there in my space... From Julia books- the one young women feels a bit stifled in the big city and longs for the western heart she has...making the best of it and taking action...Adele feels too dull and too domesticated, she gets on a horse and feels like she's sitting  a lot taller in the saddle, living in a world of risk and adventure.   You see she found out that there was a Claremont Riding Academy and she had reserved the horse to go riding.. it's not about having it as much as taking a small action or adventure to live it as best you can...

As you can see from the pictures above..My space and the Man's space...or the husbands space.  Mine is a mess but I'm in heaven when its like that...I am creating, playing, taking small risks to try something new and that's been bubbling in the creative attics of the mind...waiting and waiting for the moment to burst out and spill on to the studio surfaces all over...I hear a lot in my classes...Oh Laura how do you keep it all organized...Well I do have space for things but when I'm in the moment of good creating time...I don't let that stop me, I even have to kick a censored first couple of thoughts out of my mind when I'm in the mode...because it can stop a flow of fun honest playing around that involves taking risks and adding a bit of adventure to the creative time.

Now in this section Julia shares more about getting a way from it all in smaller increments. Taking some little adventures...(like going horse back riding one afternoon) Which I love to do too but for me after reading the other morning and making it to the studio,  I have to say a sense of adventure was felt...

She goes on to say..It is one of the paradoxes of the sustained creative life that the more lightly we take ourselves, the more serious work we will probably be able to do. the more we bear down on ourselves, the more constricted we will feel, and the more vulnerable we will be to creative injury.  Taken a cue from the Great Creator and develop a playful appetite for life itself.

Here's what I like about God: Trees are crooked, mountains are lumpy, a lot of his creatures are funny-looking, and he made it all anyway. He didn't let the aardvark convince him he ad not business designing creatures. He didn't make a puffer fish and get discouraged. No, the maker made things and still does. 

Small blips...from the book,
 Rather then enjoy the process, we become focused on the result, everything else is just foreplay.
 It becomes about perfection and other people's perception,not the joy of creation, the play of ideas.
 When our art boils down to a calculated career move, we ourselves tend to become hard-boiled and calculated.
 If we treat the creative self like a young and curious animal, we will get the right idea.
 The greater your appetite for adventure, the more adventuresome the creative elements at hand when you turn to working on something.
We all have adventurous lives, but we must see them to know it. 

Summing it up....doing what I do, and living the way I do, adds to my sense of adventure...I don't need to climb mountains to enjoy them...I can go out and hike around the woods and let my imagination explore...That is if I don't have the a lot time and money to do that I don't have to sit and get depressed about it I can take a small risk towards it and one thing leads to the next and with that open mindedness I feel that I'm making choices in my life that help me be true to myself...which then leads to authenticity for me...  I show my studio space like it is...Yes a mess...As put to society in the ART magazines that are out there, you're to have this spacious space and all things in a row...well for me that would be living in some other perception that wasn't real to me.  Here's a picture of a awesome space and look a the pure joy and sense of adventure on her face.

This is Dale Copeland, an artist in New Zealand..that also hosts the ICE exchange. 

Like she has shared on her site...it really is about the process...and all the messy bits in between that add to the sense of adventure that we each have in our lives daily...that is if we only look for it.
No comparing just answer to your calling, your real self and you can see it happen right before your eyes.