Creating for Happiness....

7/13/18 Just a Note...I have had this blog written for basically 5 months, but just haven't put the art in it.  I have no idea why, but I finally did, so here you go and a friendly reminder, if you want to see a larger version of the photo, just click on it.....I hope you enjoy it :)

my small art journal where all of this took place...it's about 6 x 4 inches

I saw an evolution in my art during this...

During the month of January, I set aside at least 15 minutes to do something creative.  I thought it would be just a fun way to use some of the art supplies that I had purchased and gain some value out of them but as it progressed, it turned into something more--this is the story of how it happened ..

Signing up for Creating for Happiness was a....

Almost every Tuesday evening, you can find me at Purple Flamingo Studios, owned by my now friend Marti and run with another pal Melissa,  for open studio.  It's part art time and part time with some amazing people I have the honor to call friends.  We range in age, talent, background and almost any category you care to put us in....the one thing we have in common, we love to create.  This is a fairly new concept for me to describe myself as creative and yes, even, an artist.  The group on Tuesday gets quite upset with me when I say I'm not creative or an artist and making the switch in my mind has been a process......

this was day 2...about letting go of my fears of doing art

Near the end of December, Marti posted on Facebook that she was going to participate in something called 'Creating for Happiness' and invited everyone to join.  As I am a big fan of mini challenges and had been wanted to use my art supplies at home, or quite frankly open some of them up, I jumped at the opportunity and signed up.  It is free and is done thru a daily email and facebook.

a page about taking time for the things that matter

"Creating for Happiness is a gentle program to get you creating, build happiness and set a solid foundation to your daily creative practice.  It provides daily motivation and tips that help you build creative habits.  Just be warned - gentle does not equal easy, superficial or frivolous.  This will be a rich, deeply personal and rewarding experience."  From the guidebook for Creating for Happiness.

finding your own personal style.

As I read the rest of the guidebook, I soon realized that this was, like most things, not just about one thing.  You needed to look at why you wanted to do this, and while I'm not going to share my reason with you, let's just say it surprised me.  The reason you do anything is so important, because when your inner critic jumps up and down saying you can't do something, your reason can say, OH YES, I CAN.  Your reason will also help you eliminate all of the reasons you may not make time for creating.   Now onto the guidelines of the program.

            Number 1.  15 minutes, just start with 15 minutes.  There were some days I barely made the 15 and others I went WAY past, but having a minimal time requirement took the pressure off.

I love this quote and wanted to do a page with it...

            Number 2.  Figure out your route.  I was a bit confused by this for a moment, but quickly understood.  Eliminate the prep of gathering supplies, figuring out what you are going to work with or on, because if you have ever taken on a creative project, you know that just getting everything ready can take a while and poof your time would be up.   Have it ready so you can just start.  I chose a small art Journal and bags of my different supplies.  I chose the bags of coordinating supplies to figure out what I liked and what I didn't.  To be technical, you are supposed to only have one supply group, but when I explained to the facilitator what my goal was, she said,  go for it.

Travel as often as you can.....even within your own city

             Number 3.  The flexibility.  You got to chose when, how, and why you were doing this.  There was someone in the group that pieced together an amazing quilt, someone who drew variations of a blue bird, and someone who did a little bit of work on large painting; I could go on and on and on with how each individual approached this.  We varied in skill, artistic medium, age, nationality, and just about every other category you could find, but the one thing that we had in common, we were and still are very supportive of each other.

And that's it....for instructions at least, now it was time to start my Creating for Happiness challenge and I did.

about a week in, this literally went off in my brain...

Some days I doodled, essentially, and others were layering and playing.  Some pages took 2 days to do....

inspiration...Japanese ink drawings.

I was tired of all the senseless talk that day...

got a little braver in my drawing that day

It kept building and I got braver as I went...

This one just made me smile...

a doodle day...

we had been having winter weather and I just wanted to get outside...

my own version of something I had seen.

As I finished the first 30 days, I decided to continue on, but by practicing my Lettering/faux calligraphy and I did.  When that was done, I did something I didn't think I would ever do, sign up for a drawing class and found out something quite amazing.....I can draw.

You never know what will happen when you try new things,

I'm just happy I decided to Create for Happiness....

Melissa