Quinn McDonald's Blog, page 44

Checking in on Your Word of the Year

It’s time again. How is your word doing? Is it directing you? Helping you? Slowing you down? Do you remember it? Do you wish you had chosen another word? There is no rule that says you can’t. If you can’t remember your word, or wish you had chosen something different, try that. A word that is not serving your creativity is a word that needs to be updated.

Your creativity needs to be nurtured and encouraged. With words, with actions, with the best help you can give it.

This is the banner of Morigan Aoife’s ‘s blog: http://thepowerofwordsonpaper.blogspot.com/ Be sure to read her review of The Night Circus. Link is below.

 

My word for the year is “scatter” and I’m doing it. If all went well, I am flying home after filming the DVD this week. I wrote blog posts ahead of time, so if I came home tired, I could rest and not beat myself up for not posting a fresh idea.

I’ve never done a DVD, and I did it in support of the Inner Hero Creative Art Journal book. I was hesitant. But writers have an obligation to live what they write,  so I had to stand up and support my own inner heroes and support others in the creation of their own inner heroes.  If I don’t create a tribe around the book, no one will be able to warm their hands by the fire of creativity.

I’m also creating a new class for my corporate clients. I rarely talk about my life as a corporate trainer, but it’s a big part of my life. And I’m stepping up and creating a class on innovation and change. I see the need for it when I teach business writing. So I’m creating it. Gulp. Will it sell? Will clients ask for it? Is it risky? Well, sure, but if I chose “scatter,” I better try the risky things.

How is your word doing? What are you doing with it? Does it need to be changed, updated, brought back into your life? Leave an answer; you’ll help others.

-–Quinn McDonald remembers that her mother-in-law used to say, “Do it now. You are a long time dead.” So she’s doing it.

I’m reading The Night Circus, which is how I found Morigan Aoife’s blog on the book. It’s interesting.

 

Filed under: Coaching, Inner Hero/Inner Critic, Links, resources, idea boosts Tagged: changing the word of the year, Word of the Year

When the Universe Ain’t Talkin’

We have questions. A lot. We want the universe to provide answers. Sometimes, we think the universe does. We see signs. We understand them. Then again, we think the universe is silent on some questions we have.

What are we supposed to do? We need an answer now. Is that a sign? How should we take it? Is it a yes? A no? Why isn’t it clear?

Frankly, I don’t know. But the more you need an answer, the quieter the universe gets. And yes, when I say “the universe,” I’m talking about some greater power than just one person on their own. Whether you call that God, or Spirit, or Universe, it’s hard to figure out what to do when we want an answer. Some prayers are unanswered, some answers come unprayed for.

I have an answer: wait. The universe does not work on the American Business Model. And just because you want an answer, doesn’t mean one will be spelled out for you. Sometimes waiting is an excellent way to spend time.

Most of us don’t like waiting. We want an answer now. But often, answers can’t be forced, and waiting is an excellent thing to do while we are thinking and deciding and choosing. And sometimes waiting helps to develop an answer.

—Quinn McDonald isn’t rushing. She is spending time waiting, and doing it without fidgeting.

 

Filed under: Coaching, In My Life Tagged: waiting as a way of life.

Inner Hero Accordion Folder

Yesterday, I showed an accordion folder for one of my inner heroes, the Protector of Flight Feathers. Only part of it was visible. Here’s how it was made:

1. Cut a piece of heavy paper, about 8 inches long and 3 inches high. (This happens to be a page from a constellation atlas).

2. Paint the paper on both sides. I used a Gelli Plate to monoprint this paper, front and back. I used a texture plate from an architectural kit. The black side (constellation atlas, remember?) had some gold added.

3. Fold the piece of paper in half, to make a piece 4 inches by 3 inches. Fold each side to the center mark, to create a 2 inches x 3 inches high. Re-fold to create an accordion fold book.

4. Choose short pieces from your stash for additional pages. These will be folded and fit into a crease of the original book. They should be shorter and smaller than the original accordion fold.

5. Stack the pieces together to make sure the original accordion can still fold. Trim any sheets that create a problem.

6. Stitch the pieces in place to create a wild, multi-sheet accordion book.

Now the fun begins. You could have written in the book first, and assembled it afterwards. I assembled it first, thinking about my inner hero. Until the book was complete, I didn’t have an Inner Hero at hand. Once I knew her name, I drew the feather images and added the words.

It had been raining the day before, and I wondered where the birds go. I know they sit in trees and under eaves, but I rarely see them. What I do see a lot of is feathers. And I began to think that one of my strengths is thinking of details, and one of my weaknesses is that sometimes I forget how all those details piece together and make a glorious whole.

The image of the birds’ feathers and how they serve different functions, but all come together, came back to me. If all I do is pay attention to details; I’ll forget the purpose of the whole.

So the last page (sort of) says, ” Don’t spend time wondering which feather lifts you–they all do. Practice flying instead of counting feathers.”  The Protector of Flight Feathers has a lot to teach me. The details are important, but so is the big picture, the goal. Without knowing how to see the goal, I can’t really grow toward it. And rather than thinking of the place of each feather, it makes a lot of sense to fly.

—Quinn McDonald is working on more Inner Heroes. A girl can never have enough of them.

 

Filed under: Coaching, Inner Hero/Inner Critic, Tutorials Tagged: Inner Hero Art Journal

Let The Inner Hero Do the Talking

I was just so damn clever. Fitting in a coaching between a client meeting and a busy afternoon,  I researched and found a peaceful park where the conversation could be undisturbed– a perfect mix of privacy and outdoor beauty.

My hand fished into my purse for the phone and headset and out came the headset. No phone. The hand went back in, a bit more frantically. Still no phone. The phone was charging peacefully on the desk in my office, 35 miles from the park, silent and hidden, filled with unusable power.

I went frantic. A beloved client would phone and not get a reply. How careless could I be? How stupid was I to forget the phone, when it was the most important thing? I shouldn’t be a coach. Maybe this is senility creeping in. Alzheimers!  I’m an idiot! An embarrassment to the entire coaching profession! Maybe I should stop coaching, if I can’t remember the phone.

If you are smiling in recognition or shaking your head that I’m not seeing my own inner critic, you are smart. The inner critic uses the spiral of guilt and embarrassment to twist emotions to crisis level. The inner critic manipulates a useful emotion (slight anxiety, which makes me alert) into global statements and crises (which is non-productive). I even wrote about it two weeks ago–our best characteristics, turned up too loud, are our worst faults.  I had traded attention to detail  (timing the drive from client to park and choosing a non-bark part) for missing the big picture (taking the fully-charged phone).

There was nothing to do but drive home and phone the client and apologize, but the feeling of guilt and stupidity stayed. This is exactly why I wrote the Inner Hero Art Journal–it’s fine to feel every emotion from joy to anger to frustration and self-flagellation–but it is not useful to hang on to them past the productive portion, which was long over. I knew what I did wrong, and knew also I was likely to meet it again. We do repeat our mistakes. Often.

Here’s how I got in touch with the Inner Hero I needed: I went to the studio and using a small piece of monoprinted paper, I folded an accordion book.

The whole point of working with inner heroes is not to create images of them, but rather call forth the healing spirit, the wisdom that’s needed at the moment. In this case, it was recognizing my care for the client in arranging a quiet place to do deep work as well as recognizing my attention to detail.

Also worth recognizing is the fragility of planning. And idea can be well-thought out, but without all the steps, it can fall apart.

I thought of all the feathers I see when I walk. They help a bird soar, escape from danger, keep warm, keep cool, keep dry. But they are fragile and easily torn apart. I called on the Protector of Flight Feathers, an inner hero made up on the spot.

Inner Heroes don’t have to be grand, or easily understood by the world. Compassion, Generosity, Kindness, Happiness are all great, but what was needed at that moment was the Protector of Flight Feathers. So I would not be stuck on the ground, easy prey for spiritual raptors.

–-Quinn McDonald knows her Inner Critics, but she depends on her Inner Heroes.

Filed under: Creativity, Inner Hero/Inner Critic, Journal Pages, Nature, Inside and Out Tagged: creativity coach, inner hero, inner heroes

Water in the Desert

Spring often brings rains. And rains, when you live in the desert, are most often violent. Caused by warm, wet air rising up over our cold air, the edge where they meet triggers downpours and high winds. In the summer, we wait for the Monsoons, but in the Spring, they are thunderstorms of threat and high water.

Spring storm coming.

Every arroyo has been running since it started raining this morning. These dry river beds fill up and race at amazing speed.

The same path that I walked down a week ago is now six feet under racing brown water, so heavy with silt and trash that just eight inches of it on a road will push an SUV off a two-lane highway and 200 feet down the arroyo before anyone can get out.

Octotillo buds set and bloom quickly once the plant soaks up rain.

We still need the rain. It would be best if it were not three inches in 24 hours, rain that falls that hard can’t be captured successfully. The wildflowers will benefit, but sadly, the orange blossoms are getting beaten off the trees, so that crop is as good as gone with a frost.

Pencil cactus in growth phase.

This pencil cactus, planted so it gets hit with rain from the roof, is already starting to put out new, red growth.

And one of my blue agaves is setting pups. It will take eight years till I can use this plant for tequila, but until then, I’m enjoying that it’s going to hit a growth spurt with the rain. Hose water keeps them alive, but rain makes them grow.

One of the few shrubs with thinner, larger leaves also has large, white flowers. It’s a type of primrose, and it blooms frantically in April (usually).

The fig tree, bare three days ago, leafs out at the first rain. In a few weeks, I’ll be glad that the big leaves will shade the side of the house. Now I’m hoping the fig wasp will not drown. No fig wasp, no figs.

As with all things, the rain brings delight and pain. I’ve heard fire engines and ambulances most of the evening. Much of our neighborhood doesn’t have storm drains–we really don’t need them. In a heavy rain, the streets, particularly those with speed bumps, fill with water.

As the water washes off the roof, it carves arroyos in the xeriscaped yard. It’s a harsh climate, but still beautiful.

—Quinn McDonald is a naturalist and journal keeper.

Filed under: Nature, Inside and Out Tagged: desert rain, Phoenix rain, Spring in Phoenix

It’s Not Over, It’s Just One Down

Senate Bill 1062 got vetoed by Governor Jan Brewer, and we can all breathe a sigh of relief and. . . not so fast.

Arizona is not out of the woods. And while I rarely write about politics, it’s time I did. One of the reasons I moved here is to work on social justice issues, of which there are many.

One of the scary facts in the story of SB1062 is that the three original proponents suddenly were against it when the “media made a fuss.” Which, in my humble opinion, is what the media is supposed to do.

All of us are complicit. As artists, we have an obligation to be involved in politics. Too many artists I know don’t watch any national news. I mean real news. Instead, we share bumper-sticker slogans on Facebook and think we’ve done something.

The excuse for not knowing what your own legislature is doing is “so much violence,” or “it’s all the same.”  The result of ignorance is far worse. It’s a lack of ability to see consequences and prevent them. If you are not informed,  you get a legislative clown car that is about to drive the future of your state off a cliff because they didn’t have a clue to what their action was making possible. And no one stopped them.

Think I’m on a senseless rant? Here’s what Maya Angelou says on art and politics:

“All of that art-for-art’s-sake stuff is BS,” she declares. “What are these people talking about? Are you really telling me that Shakespeare and Aeschylus weren’t writing about kings? All good art is political! There is none that isn’t. And the ones that try hard not to be political are political by saying, ‘We love the status quo.’ We’ve just dirtied the word ‘politics,’ made it sound like it’s unpatriotic or something.” Morrison laughs derisively. “That all started in the period of state art, when you had the communists and fascists running around doing this poster stuff, and the reaction was ‘No, no, no; there’s only aesthetics.’ My point is that is has to be both: beautiful and political at the same time. I’m not interested in art that is not in the world. And it’s not just the narrative, it’s not just the story; it’s the language and the structure and what’s going on behind it. Anybody can make up a story.”

“All politics are local.” –Tip O’Neill

—Quinn McDonald is a writer and social justice advocate.

Filed under: Links, resources, idea boosts, Opinion, Quotes Tagged: politics and art

Cleaning Up (Start With the Desk)

Some days you are the pigeon. Some days you are the statue. And some days you have to clean your desk, table, studio space. You just have to.

Either that or plow it under and call one of those reality shows where Ryan Seacrest shows up with 50 cat carriers and has a desperate housewife fire you and send you to rehab. I’m sorry, I don’t watch TV, so it all sounds alike. Back to cleaning.

Here are some tough love tips for cleaning that worked for me today.

1. Don’t look back. I tried being serious about saving all those articles I’ll read someday. Then I realized that if I really had wanted to read them, I would have. In the time that I’ve collected the articles, I’ve read four books. So I’m not really motivated to read the articles. Toss them.

This is a perfectionism stumble. “If I were a really good X, I would read, file, remember, sketch, write, use this article, image, scrap of ephemera.” Deep breath. It’s a perfectionist thing. Toss it.

Yes, you will probably need it within 10 minutes of the trash truck vanishing down the street with it. Toss it anyway.

2. You won’t buy it anyway. Catalogs marked with turned-down page corners for storage, filing, clothing items. Largely waiting for a windfall. When windfall comes, will need something else. Toss catalogs.

3. Compare and act. Two of the items I wanted in the winter catalog are now on half-price sale. Pick up phone and order. Done. Move on.

4. Even if you teach, throw it out. I have a huge stack of magazines, catalogs, flyers that are “perfect” for that collage class that I’m not teaching this month. Or next. More stuff will accumulate. Toss it out.

5. Start where you are. Don’t try to catch up. More paper is mistakenly saved because you are scared to throw it out, for fear of forgetting, falling behind or forgetting. Unless it bank or tax stuff, make NOW your starting point. Easier and saves the nerves.

–Quinn McDonald wishes she would clean up more often. The desk has a nice wood grain she rarely sees.

 

Filed under: In My Life Tagged: cleaning your life, cleaning your studio

Working on the Competitive Spirit

Nothing against ambition and competition. Nope. They can be very useful. But turn them up too loud, and they become a burden. But I have an unbidden competitive streak that I’ve been working on for a while. It seems to be the cousin of the perfectionist tendencies I’ve been working on, too.

Competition can be healthy and lead to brainstorming and creative blasts. But that’s not what is bedeviling me. Mostly it overcomes me when I’m doing research. I go from “that’s interesting,” to “how is that done?” to “I can do that,” to “I can do that better,” to a growl of:  “I T ‘ S   M  I  N  E  BWAHAHAHAHA!” Not attractive. Worse. Not useful. I don’t even notice the mindset until I feel cranky and hot.

With that feeling comes the need to be best, to excel, to climb the charts, to . . . be ruthless and uncaring. And that’s not at all who I want to be.

Now what? I am working on tiny steps. When someone shares an achievement, I say, “I’m happy for you,” even if I’m not sure I’m happy.  It’s the right thing to say, and I’ll let my meaning it catch up with me later. If I feel my inner critic nudging me and saying, “you could do that too,” I call up my Inner Underdog Hero and say, “I have enough on my plate right now.”

When someone sends an email that says they are too busy to teach that class we were going to teach together; I let it go. OK, I work on letting it go. I’m not the boss of them. They get to make their own decisions. I do get to feel a tiny bit of hurt, but only for 20 minutes, then I move on. When I later see that they are teaching with someone else, I do not immediately assume it’s my fault. They got a better opportunity. Truly, if they do not want to teach with me, the class would not work out. I breathe through it. (Sometimes I have to use a paper bag. You know, a Trader Joe’s bag, till I feel grounded again.)

It’s hard not to be competitive in an ugly way. The way that says “Winning is the only thing,” which I don’t believe. But there is that old, deep trigger. That desire to be best, first, and skilled.  I respect many of my competitors, respect their talent and the skills they have worked on. What I really need to work on it setting my own goals and steadfastly working toward them. Not get distracted by the flash of attention. I admire most the artists who dedicate their attention to creative work that enriches them and makes meaning for them. That’s my model. But it’s not easy.

—Quinn McDonald is minding the high road, which seems a bit empty these days.

 

 

Filed under: Coaching, In My Life, Inner Hero/Inner Critic Tagged: competition, competitive spirit, winning

Last Page of Your Journal

You already know what to put on the  first page of that new journal. No more staring at blank pages for you!  Once you get past the middle, you can decide how to end your journal.

How do you  end a journal so you don’t have to continue a thought, a project, or a story into another journal?

Step-cut of last three pages. The page that binds the signature to the book is left untouched to keep it strong.

Create a table of contents of favorite pages.  I like to come to the end of a project or idea flow in my journals. I don’t mind having a few blank pages in the back. Over time, I’ll fill those blank pages with dates of pages I keep looking up or those with favorite quotes or poems.  I don’t number my journal pages, but I date each page, so sometimes I write the start and end date at the end of the journal. It becomes a useful index to the contents.

Decorate the end pages. If there are a few blank pages left, I also cut steps into them. I trim the last page about an inch from the end, the next one two inches, and the third one three or four inches in from the book edge. Using a craft knife, I cut a wavy line and create a three-page landscape. Remember to put a cutting mat under the page you are cutting.

Tinting the page edges gives it a nice finish. I use a water color wash to keep the color pale. You could tear the pages straight down or give them a deckled-edge look. I like the curved look better.

Use stickers or postcards. Daniel Smith, the art supply house, puts a sticker on small or lightweight packages in larger deliveries. The sticker is bright orange, about 4 x 6 inches and says “Don’t throw me away.” It strikes a chord, so I often use one on the final page of a journal. It seems about right. You might be done with it, but there is lots of meaning to be made.

Add a photo of yourself, your children, your pets.  That way, when you look back over them in the years to come, you’ll have an evolving view of what you looked like. Adding a photo of your house shows how it changes over the years. A photo of the kitchen is always fun with advancing technologies changing what our appliances look like.

The last page of a journal doesn’t have to be an ending. For a powerful last page, flip back to the beginning, and read the first post or two. End the book with a recognition of how far you’ve come.

–Quinn McDonald keeps journals. She’s also the author of The Inner Hero Creative Art Journal, and keeps loose leaf journals.

Filed under: Inner Hero/Inner Critic, Journal Pages, Links, resources, idea boosts, The Writing Life Tagged: art journaling, creativity coach, last page of a journal, what to write on the last journal page

Re-Use, Recycle, Rejoice

Note: Congratulations to Janice (aka Rubber Rabbit) who wins Gina’s book No Excuses Art Journaling! Thanks for reading and leaving a comment. Drop me an email (under “Contact” on the right side of the header) with your mailing address and the book will be under way!

*     *     *     *

Long before recycling had a name, my family was doing it. Every family whose parents went through either the Depression or a war in the country they emigrated from learned how to recycle out of habit. My mother cut down usable pieces of  my brothers’ shirts and jeans to make clothes for me.  When I wore through them, the shirts became dishtowels, dust rags, and doll clothes. We darned socks and sweaters and when they had too many holes, the sweater was cut, the yarn re-wound and re-knit.

It is part of my inheritance and certainly part of my DNA that I became a collage artist. Those pieces of paper don’t get tossed, they get made into art.

No surprise then, when I added another journal to my collection, I began to hunt through my papers for a way to hold it closed.

My journals get tossed into my purse, and if I want to pull them out in one piece, there needs to be a way  to keep the pages held together.

This journal is made in India out of cotton rags. I adore cotton paper, and this one had unlined pages heavy enough for watercolor markers. I purchased it with a smile, as the 5-inch by 7-inch size is perfect to take along in a purse.

How to hold it together? It didn’t take long to find a tag from another purchase. The tag was glossy light-weight cardboard with a thin elastic band through the hole in the top.

I cut open the elastic, put another hole in the bottom, and discovered the elastic was long enough not to warp the tag.

Next step, gesso the tag–both sides. Then brayer paint over it, making sure to add a bit of gold. Let each side dry thoroughly–about a minute here in Phoenix. Then restring the elastic and it’s ready to go.

The book is held shut comfortably. When the journal gets tossed into my purse, the tag gets moved over to the open edge to protect the pages from bending back. It also works nicely as a bookmark to hold the pages while I’m writing.

—Quinn McDonald had a lot of fun at her book signing Thursday night. She is trying to ignore the idea for the third book that keeps floating up. [Quinn at lectern,  Rosaland Hanibal (seated) and Traci Paxton Johnson (standing), both book contributors, helping the audience find their Inner Heroes.

Filed under: Art in Progress, Inner Hero/Inner Critic Tagged: art journaling, art on the go, book mark