Quinn McDonald's Blog, page 58

Niji Design Team

It was a lot of fun to demonstrate Splash Inks in all five locations of Arizona Art Supply. Doing demos gives you direct exposure to the audience that wants to know about the product. And I was thrilled beyond belief when I was chosen to be on the first-ever design team for Niji–the company that makes Splash Inks.

The box with contents hidden. You can tell I live in the desert by the xeriscaping.

And the box of goodies arrived this week! Inks, watercolor paints, papers. The paints are Asian formulations, so they are not the transparent watercolor, they are more opaque, like gouache. I can’t wait to start up and experiment. The Splash Inks are a lot of fun all on their own.

I rarely post my artwork here–as any more than side illustrations. But now, those ideas for Niji will appear on the Niji blog as well as here. Of course, the second I think that, the Inner Critic shows up with a truck full of relatives and unpacks the picnic lunch of worms and crow. Sigh.

But I’ll be sharing them here. It’s time to show that, as a creativity coach , I work on creative projects steadily: journals, art journals, collage, alternative journals. You’ll be seeing more tutorials, too.

Surface decorated papers that will be re-worked into the cover of this recycled book.

I’ve developed some new in-person art classes and will be showing results and class photos. My proudest recent moment is that Madeline Island School of Arts has invited me back–for June, 2014. I hope to see some of you there this coming summer. We’re going to. . . well, that’s for another post. With photos of  art sample art work that each class participant will create their own version of. It’s starting to be an exciting New Year!

–Quinn McDonald loves surface design and is including letterforms and colors into art journal pages.

Filed under: Coaching, Inner Critic, Journal Pages Tagged: art journaling, creativity coach, journaling, Niji inks, splash inks

The Cycle of Years

September is a month of knowing. Summer is over. The days become visibly shorter, by about three minutes a day, early in the month. Leaves turn a defeated green on their way to orange. Summer, the time of year that reminds us of laughter and fun and childhood, is over. Fall, with the hint of the knowledge of death, with its cool dawns and promise of fog, steps up from the horizon.

That is a memory.

My reality today is different. September is a promise that the white blazing heat of summer won’t last forever. September is a shadow that falls across the pool, cooling the water in tiny increments with with a steady determination. The water goes from tea-warm to body temperature, to cool, to crisp. By the end of September, there won’t be long swims, there will be fast daring dips, to prove we can swim till October. In September, I can start to walk again, free of the gym and the equipment. September is the gate that opens the door to the world again.

Fencepost cactus, about to bloom. The flowers are so large and generous for the climate.

And in September, the New Year starts. I know, New Year comes in the middle of winter, in January. But not for me and the tribes that follow the calendar of the moon; whose sons and daughters were slaves first and nomads next. For us, the summer signals the end of one year with the harvest, and the beginning of the year in the fall, when the fruits are canned, the grain in the barn,  and the hard work of the fields behind us for the year.  And still, I live in a city, where there are no fields, except in the memory and in the thread that connects the tribe scattered across the globe.

Tonight, I lit candles, covered my eyes and said the prayer that brings in the New Year, ” Blessed is the Creator of the universe, who has kept us alive, sustained us and brought us through the circle of the year to reach this season once more.”

For us, the next week are the days of awe, a slowing of time, a stretch to think about the certainty of death and the possibility of life. It’s a good time to think about the next step in life. What do we choose to bring with us? What needs to be put down, to no longer burden us with a weighted soul or regret? In the next week, the Book of Life is open, and our destiny is written. It doesn’t matter if it’s a metaphor, the days are getting shorter and reminding us of our limited time.

Death cannot be avoided, so it’s best not to fear it. And better still to plan a rich, generous and creative life for the days ahead.

To the nomads among you, Happy New Year. Celebrations are not exclusive or limited. They are for anyone who wants to be more fully alive and creative. The Creator of the Universe is not some unknown, it is you. We create our own universes. Create well and live well. May the coming year be sweet and generous to you.

–-Quinn McDonald loves the solemnity and joy of Rosh Hashanah.

Filed under: Creativity, In My Life, Nature, Inside and Out Tagged: death, desert life, fall, life, New Year, Rosh Hashanah

Sometimes There is No Plan B

Your job isn’t satisfying anymore. It’s worse than that. It’s scorching the last few drops of water in the oasis of your soul. Soon you will be a dry husk, whisking across the barren landscape of your career. You want to do something that feeds your soul. And this current job is not it.

You planned your escape. Step by step. On your spreadsheet, it was perfect. In real life, it’s not working out that way. You wanted to keep one foot in the corporate benefits and one in the free world of your own business until you had a six-month income cushion.

You wanted to keep your on-the-job career going full blast while you also signed up new clients. You would keep everything separate. But that’s not how it turned out.

And now, one foot is on the ledge at work, and the other is just not touching security in your new life. You are frantically looking around for the safety net.

It’s not there. It may never be there. All those people who told you about the perfect, smooth transition? Staying at work part time while building the new job? The reason that sounded so fresh and wonderful is, well, it doesn’t happen very often.

It’s like the poor kid who fights and struggles and makes the news as the new Supreme Court Justice. It’s the first-time novelist who publishes a book using an ebook apps and suddenly gets a contract from a big publishing house. The reason the story is so appealing is that it is so rare.

For most of us, we have to leap. There is no net. You don’t blend perfectly from fully-vested career mogul to fully-booked freelancer, artist, or entrepreneur. Yes, a few lucky ones have a support system–a successful, wealthy, indulgent spouse, friend, benefactor, or parent who will  weave you a net of money and support. Bless them.

For the rest of us, we leap. We leap because staying in that soul-scorching job is not really a choice we want to make. And we want to believe that our research is right, our decisions were well-grounded and our hard work will pay off.  Mostly, we want to believe in ourselves.

Yes, you can crash and burn. If you didn’t do your homework, if you built your new career on a half-baked idea, if you are grabbing a fork for a pie-in-the-sky plan, plans can collapse. And sometimes, even when you thought you had it figured out, you can still struggle.

Sometimes, there is no Plan B. You have to trust that this leap is better than staying. You have to know your ability to suffer and your ability to succeed. Here’s the important point: you already know what will happen if you fail. But do you know what will happen if you succeed beyond your wildest dreams? Have you created a plan for that? If not, you aren’t ready to leap. See your success. We create our own reality. And then live it.

—Quinn McDonald has leaped several times and is taking another run to leap again.

 

Filed under: Creativity Tagged: entrepreneur, making the leap, new career, solopreneur, your new career

Working Space Quandry

As long as I’ve had a studio, I’ve had the following unanswered questions. Let me know if you have an answer:

Michelle Allen’s workdesk. Mne is no better. Her site is Close To My Art.com

1. I’ve had big studios and small studios, but no matter how much space I have, when I’m working, I’m using  about one square foot of space. Everything else is filled with ink, glue, and papers. I swear, if I worked on the surface of an aircraft carrier, I’d be working in one square foot and the rest would be piled up with stuff.

2. As soon as I buy something and put it away, it disappears. I can look till my eyes cross and can’t find it. The instant I buy another one, the first one appears. Jumps out of the closet.

3. Finally, in an effort to reduce clutter, I decide to get rid of boxes of supplies I haven’t used in months. The instant they are gone, I desperately need one of those supplies and have to re-buy it.

4. I own four or five aprons. But there is never a clean one in arm’s reach.

Not at all a studio apron, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were hanging behind the door.

5. Putting on an apron does not occur to me until I have a lap full of glue or gesso. This has been true for the last 30 years.

6. The book with the instructions that I need right now is no longer in the book case, where it has been for 12 years. It is now gone.

7. The book I do not need smiles at me from the book case. In fact, both of them do. I ordered that one at least twice.

8. My favorite tool is the one that has just been discontinued.

9. I stop reading magazines to have the time to work out a project problem. Takes me weeks. I finally brag about my clever solution on Facebook. A dozen people tell me the article that solved the problem was in last month’s Cloth, Paper, Scissors. There’s a video, too.

10. I proofread my business card three times. I show it to a friend to proofread. It’s fine. The package of 500 cards arrives, and the one they company used as a label has a typo. I see it before I even register what the box is. Yep, a missed typo. On all 500 cards.

-–Quinn McDonald thinks her studio is haunted. Or possessed. Or possibly just over-run with supplies that know how to vanish and appear at will. 10.

Filed under: Inner Critic, Recovering Perfectionists, The Writing Life Tagged: art supplies, managing art supplies, studio space

Surrendering to a Wabi-Sabi Life

Wabi-Sabi—Appreciation of the Imperfect and Impermanent

You are looking watching the big harvest moon rise in the September sky. You remember seeing this special moon–as big as your head–when you were a child and asking if this moon was the bigger brother of the regular moon. You smile at the recognition of the wonder of this moment.

That fragile moment of recognition is part of the Japanese concept of Wabi-sabi– the beauty of things impermanent or incomplete. It contains a profound appreciation for things modest and humble. As an aesthetic, it honors things imperfect and impermanent.

A Different Approach to Success and Abundance

Wabi-sabi is the release of control. It avoids beating up the creative soul for not achieving perfection. Recognizing and embracing our imperfections allows room for growth. The only result of demanding perfection is certain failure. Perfection is impossible, and while we live in a culture that loves people who are “passionate” and “give 110%,” we seldom feel passion for our daily lives, and it is impossible to give more than all. Perfection is a cruel boss. It leads to giving up, depression and anger rather than eagerness for growth and improvement.

Standing up for yourself, from Annie’s Ink.

Living a wabi-sabi life means letting go of the stress of competition, relentless achievement, and replacing them with a willingness to let life find its own pace. It allows for space to trust that opportunities will appear, and a willingness to let the world unfurl without having full control over every activity. It is a life stripped down to what is valuable, rather than randomly acquired. It is not living without, but rather within.

In a wabi-sabi life, you recognize all things are impermanent, imperfect, and incomplete. Once you open the door to imperfection, a creative force rushes into your life, making it possible to risk, to try different solutions, to explore your creativity fully. Which leads to living a creative life–work and business combine to create a full, rich and abundant life.

How to Live a Wabi-Sabi Life

One of the hardest things to do is live in the moment. We are always planning—what to have for dinner, what time to pick up the kids, what to do if that promotion doesn’t come through.

We live our lives in the past, reviewing our mistakes, and in the future, planning

From Lady Employed, in a post about standing up for yourself.

on contingencies and how to handle what will happen next. The current moment is empty as we rush to control—ourselves, our lives, the lives of our children. We try to control our creativity, what we make, even our intuition.

Certainly planning helps organize our time and leads to action. But when we begin to plan for every possibility, guess at every motive, fill every second of the day with planned activities, meetings and obligations, we exhaust ourselves and our families.

We don’t know what will happen tomorrow. Often we can’t influence the future. What we think of as failure is simply a lack of knowing. You don’t always have to know. And you don’t always have to be in control. Take off that heavy obligation of knowing and controlling and take three deep, slow breaths. Then decide right now. In this moment. To live and grow. And leave perfection behind. And let creativity take root in your life.

—Quinn McDonald is renewing her determination to live a wabi-sabi life.

Filed under: Coaching, In My Life, Inner Critic, Wabi-Sabi Tagged: control, in the moment, perfectionist, release

Expressing Yourself with Tape

Scotch® Brand Tape has a new kind of tape rolling off the reel. (I could not help myself, I had to say that). It’s meant, I think, to be a competitor to washi tape–the Japanese-made tape that uses thin but tough washi paper and sticky tape.

A package of three rolls of tape was sent to me to try out, and I was thrilled. I’m a fan of Scotch Tape, and this was the same smooth-finish tape  as the frosted tape, but in rich color. I was smiling. Until I opened it. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The tape comes in several colors, in packs of three. You can use them in tape dispensers. The impression I got from the commercial is that it is tough, durable, opaque and strong.

My journal is a Strathmore Mixed Media Journal, with a black cover.

This seems like a nice canvas for bright tape, so I got started. First I put on a green piece of tape, top to bottom, then added a turquoise. So far so good.

But when i tried to remove a piece of the patterned tape, it tore off the roll unevenly. I carefully found a piece where it was whole, and tried again. Another piece sheared off to the edge. In the end, I cut triangles off the pieces because I hate wasting the nice pattern.

The inside cover was much harder. The tape is not opaque. You can see the black through the tape. If you overlap the tape, you can see that part. The tape is re-positionable which means that it does not stick permanently. If you are decorating, this is not mixed media, it’s mixed messages.

While some of the patterned pieces stayed whole, it was only through very careful manipulation. Most of the pieces tore off at angles.

I was disappointed. Perhaps the tape I had was defective. But as long as the patterned tape doesn’t work as well as the solid colors, as long as the colors aren’t opaque and don’t stay permanently in place, I’m not going to use it.

Disclosure: I received the tape for free from Amazon Vine program. I write reviews for the products.

–Quinn McDonald likes the idea of decorating a plain journal. She just wished she could get a tape that works well and easily.

Filed under: Product Review, Reviews Tagged: color tape, Scotch Expressions, Scotch tape

Write Your Own Manifesto

What’s a personal manifesto? A way for you to get back to what you are meant to do, to find your North Star, to re-align your compass. A personal manifesto is a call to action, a step forward, a no-excuses definition of your clearest, best self. After printing Jenna’s manifesto, I got some requests for instructions.

If you are a word person, a personal manifesto is the writing equivalent of a vision board or a video statement. Use what resonates as true for you.

You can write and then design your own manifesto. The Holstee Manifesto is a very popular one that made the rounds last year. That’s it over on the upper left.

Long before they were popular, Frank Lloyd Wright wrote a manifesto for his apprentices. Mr. Wright (never call him Frank in Scottsdale) had a winter studio and school in Scottsdale, and although he himself had an enormous ego (and many, many mistresses, including the wife of a client), his manifesto was simple and clear. There are a lot of big, muscular ideas in this short list:

1. An honest ego in a healthy body.

2. An eye to see nature

3. A heart to feel nature

4. Courage to follow nature

5. The sense of proportion (humor)

6. Appreciation of work as idea and idea as work

7. Fertility of imagination

8. Capacity for faith and rebellion

9. Disregard for commonplace (inorganic) elegance

10. Instinctive cooperation

How do you write a manifesto? There are as many ways as there are people, but here are some suggestions to get you going:

By Sandra Belegi from her website http://theartofgreatness.com/the-artists-manifesto/

1. Write down some statements about life that you know are true from experience. Here’s one of mine:  “Half of being smart is knowing what you are dumb at and not doing it. The other half is knowing what you are smart at and doing lots of that. Don’t confuse the two.”

2. Write down a list of things you believe (or know are true). Write down another list of things you don’t believe (or know are not true. At least for you.)

3. What do you want your life/world/work/studio/art to be? That question is hard to answer, so you may have to ask it another way: I want to live in a world where. . . .  or By the time I’m [fill in our age 10 or 20 years from now] I want to have [made /read/ created/ achieved / learned. . .

4. Pick a topic for your manifesto. It can be as focused as "how I want to manage my disappointment" to "I want to be an artist." Distill the items in steps 1 to 3 and make them into simple, powerful statements. Don't cut them short just to be short, but make them powerful.

5. Use speedy verbs and muscular nouns. No traveling to mamby-pamby land [ya jackwagon]. No “I’ll try” or “I’ll do my best.” Be strong about what you believe about yourself. Step up and step out.

6. Write it down. Use a pen and paper, it makes it stronger and requires more effort. What you write by hand travels there from your heart.

7. Post it where you can see it every day. Read it out loud if you feel scared or drifting.

Reading it isn’t enough. You may have to make a list of what you need to be that person, conquer that fear, take that risk. A list of what you need will give you another action step. Manifestos are not about calling yourself to action.We go where we look. Look at what you want every day and move toward it a little more.

What is one thing you would include in a manifesto?

–Quinn McDonald has written a total of 8,000 words today, for others and for herself. She is not as tired as she thought she might be.

Filed under: Coaching, In My Life, Inner Critic Tagged: believe in yourself, getting traction, personal manifesto

Power in a Manifesto

Jenna*is one of those artists who surprise me time after time. She has a real grasp on the throat of her inner critic, and she has big plans. That’s always a good combination.

What surprises me is not that Jenna never stumbles, falls, makes mistakes, slides into the morass of crankiness or wraps herself around her axle–she does all of those things. What surprises me is that she doesn’t make up stuff. She keep her life and her place in it in focus.

She does the three thing that makes coaching successful:

1. She gets up again, after every slip, trip, and stumble. People who stay down discover that others step over them on their way to their own plans.

2. She doesn’t make excuses for herself. She analyzes her situation and learns from it. That doesn’t mean she won’t do it again, but she will learn something different from it. The more you learn the more tools you have to move ahead to your goal.

3. She starts the fix with herself. “What do I need to do here to make my situation better?” “What do I need to do to move my plan forward?” No waiting for the magic wand. Choosing your own moves allows you to feel in charge of the direction and speed of travel. I’m pretty sure that’s a law of personal physics.

Here is her Personal Manifesto she wrote last week. Right underneath it is her

*   *   *   *   *

I want to be an artist.

I want to live somewhere so beautiful that even in the wind and rain I am drawn to go outside and revel in the sights, sounds and smells and take those into my studio to inspire what I do.

From whipup.net

I want to have an abundance of time to sketch and refine and develop my own ideas so that I produce art that is meaningful to me.

I want to develop a discipline and a regular habit of creating art.

I want the company of a mentor or teacher who can help me improve and encourage my achievement.

I want my art to be good enough to sell in an upmarket gallery, not a market stall.

I will be confident and able to put myself amongst other artists whose work I admire.

I want to feel passion at the colors of a sunset and joy in the colors of pebbles.

I want to continue to explore and play, but I want to find my niche, my craft, my calling.  I want to develop my skills and get really, really good.

And I want to feel so caught up in the moment that the act of creating art is almost a spiritual experience.

I WANT TO BE AN ARTIST: This is my manifesto.

What do I need to get there?

 A space
Discipline
Practice
Encouragement
Financial support
Customers
Determination
Health
Belief
Persistence
Energy
Courage

The Result:

 Happy
Energized
Fulfilled
On purpose
Worthwhile

*   *   *   *   *

That’s a lot to want. And a lot to demand of oneself–to know what you need and what you have to do is a brave first step in getting it. But it takes courage to declare yourself. And even more courage to declare yourself to yourself.

What would you declare about yourself?

On Wednesday, I’ll give some pointers for writing a personal manifesto–and how to make it happen.

–Quinn McDonald needs to work on getting more sleep and choosing her commitments more carefully. That is what she is declaring.

* Not her real name. Coaching clients are promised anonymity. I have her permission to use her manifesto in this blog.

Filed under: Coaching, Dreams, Inner Critic Tagged: goals, personal goals, personal manifesto

Your journal, your legacy

Are you afraid that someone will find out your journal secrets? That when you die your life will be there for all to see? If this is keeping you from writing in a journal, could you reconsider? There are steps you can take to protect your privacy, and some things to think about before you cut off your connection to the past.

If you feel strongly that your privacy not be invaded, you can rent a safe deposit box at a bank. Put your completed journals in this safe deposit box and give the key to a trusted friend.

Julia Cameron, the author of  The Artist’s Way, and the proponent of writing three pages of whatever you are thinking every single morning was asked at a book signing if she keeps her journals. She said she did, they fill a storage locker. She has an agreement with her daughter, her executor, that she be cremated. “But first, burn the books. Then burn me!” Cameron said.

Before you choose to keep your life such a secret, let me encourage you to let go. Once you are dead your past is not going to haunt you. And it might help others. My mother’s life was a mystery to me. I was born late in her life and only knew her as angry and manipulative. Sure, she had bright moments, but they were short and quickly dispensed with.

From TheArtofManliness.com

After her death, I found a packet of love letters she and my father had exchanged. So strong was her hold over me, even from the grave, that I seriously considered destroying the letters, unopened. When I read through them, another woman emerged. One I had never known. A young woman, the woman who was the mother to my brothers. She seemed eager to live her life. She never talked about the events that   shut her down, although she had many reasons.

Without those letters, I would have never had a chance to see this other person. This person with hope and humor. This woman who suddenly had more in common with me than I ever believed. It was a generous gift to discover.  I’m sure she would have hated my prying into her past, but now that I know, it is also easier for me to be easier on her.

Before you lock up your past, think about the help you might be. That event you are ashamed of might help someone else, might change their mind, might leave a word of encouragement. Once you are gone, your life in this world is complete. Leave some clues for the next generation. You might create a picture of yourselves for people who are not even born. Give them a view into your life, and into the status of life in a time period they never knew.

–Quinn McDonald is a certified creativity coach who teaches journal writing.

Her upcoming book helps people confront their inner critic by creating cards that capture the wisdom from their inner heroes. The Inner Hero Creative Art Journal will be released this December.

Filed under: In My Life, Journal Pages, Raw Art Journaling, The Writing Life Tagged: journal your life, relatives and your journal

The Travel Journal

Travel journals are a great way to remember the details about your trip. To go to Madeline Island, I wanted to take something flexible so I could draw or paint in addition to writing. Because I was teaching, I knew there wouldn’t be a lot of time to create a journal. So I chose a Stonehenge 90-lb paper pad, wire bound. Easy to carry, because both covers are heavy chipboard.

The front cover was plain, so the tags from my suitcase and the name tag for the first evening’s welcome event made a good graphic design. The colorful spot indicates that my suitcase was searched, tested for explosives, and approved for travel.

All my journals start the same way–the crossed arrows that indicate flexibility and love of change. In this case, it also showed the two destinations–Phoenix, where I live and Madeline Island, an incredible retreat location.

On the first spread, I always draw a map of the area I visited along with the sights that made the trip unique. In this case, I saw lots of corn fields, roads edged in cord grass, and a huge eagle sitting on a small tree, bending it over at the tip. The first night, I stayed on the mainland, and had a great coffee at the Black Cat coffee house in Ashland.

The way I decided to use the journal was to remember what we did in class each day. The first day we made Monsoon Papers, and we hung them on the clothes line to dry. It was a trip from the second floor studio, across the balcony and into the field. The weather was sunny and mild, and as long as we remembered the clothes pins, the trip was a plus for the view. There are two samples of Monsoon Papers, and of course, the clothespin.

One of the most amazing experiences was seeing the moon rise over Lake Superior. The lake and sky were shades of blue and the moon rose in a salmon slice of color, reflecting in the water. I had to remember it as we did tissue collage the next day.

On one day, we made mosaics from photographs. I used pieces of Monsoon Papers, some other paper pieces other people used, and the stamps that were used to ship the boxes back home.

There were other pages, including a map of the island and some other class projects, but these pages brought me back to that wonderful classroom overlooking the farm fields and the prairie.

A travel journal doesn’t have to be a detailed schedule or a report of each move. When I finished paging through the book, I was smiling and remembering a special week. For me, that’s what a travel journal should be!

–Quinn McDonald is packing for a different trips–in the next few weeks, she’ll be criss-crossing the U.S. to teach business writing courses.

Filed under: Creativity, Journal Pages, Quinn's Classes, Raw Art Journaling Tagged: designing a journal, memory journal, monsoon papers, travel journal