On Focus and Organization

Here is a little more of the journal that AnicaAnscott and I are making together. The journal is about what keeps us from being as creative as we'd like, and learning what will help us achieve our creative goals. 

I have always fought disorganization and distraction. But lately, while I'm trying to pare down on clutter and get organized, I'm learning to embrace my distractibility....to a certain extent. I have several projects going at once and move from one to the other as the mood strikes me.Working this way seems to keep things interesting and fresh, and improves my concentration. I also learned that I'm not the girl to be painting with oil paints or other media that take a long time to dry. I'm just a bit too impatient for that, and lose interest.

This page started with an illustration of a closet from a children's book that AnicaAnscott put in place when she created the journal. I took it from there. I should start taking pics of how it looked when I started, and then when I finish. When the journal is full, I'll post an album with all our pages together.

Time lapse of Doodle Drawing...

If you ever wondered how those doodle drawings (or zentangles, as some call them) develop, here is a wonderful time lapse video showing Sandra's beautiful drawing as it develops. Enjoy!

Plate Lunch...yum.

I'm not much into drawing my food, but Hawaii has some interesting local favorites. The plate lunch comes with lots of rice and usually macaroni salad, though it the second side could be any number of things. Various meats are used also. My favorites are huli huli chicken, pork, or chicken katsu. I never would have thought of having mac salad and rice together, but it's a pretty darn delicious lunch!

Glossary of Hawaiian Words...

...and some beautiful tile depicting Hawiian life long ago. These tiles are on the side of the visitor center at the "Place of Refuge."

 Here are the actual tiles. I wish I knew the name of the artist, but haven't been able to find it.

Circus

This is part of a beautiful little journal, handmade by AnicaAnscott (the link leads to her flickr photostream). We are working together to fill it with pages about our art, and some of the things that sometimes keep us from spending the time on it that we think we should. When she sent the journal to me it had the background of blue and red and the circus viewmaster reel, and I embellished from there.

I believe through some years of my life I've been so busy with other things (like childrearing, for instance) that I focused on that and not my artwork. And that is OK by me. Spending time with the kids was important to me and I throughly enjoyed it. During those times I was creative, but in a different way...decorating, painting sets for church plays, projects with the kids, sewing their clothes, etc. At a conference once, I heard a speaker say you can have it all, but sometimes it's better to not try to have it all at once...to enjoy the different seasons. Maybe if you have lots more energy than I, you can have it all at once, but I think I'll take mine in stages. Even the circus has 3 rings!