Quinn McDonald's Blog, page 99

Simplifying a Complicated World

The world is not easy to navigate. It’s complex and drains a lot of energy from you. Complicated connections. Pull one thing and a whole lot of others come apart, too.

Lots of tangled wires, all connected.

Sometimes, when we don’t do anything except witness–watch and wait, take notes before acting or jumping to conclusions–we get more information. That step–being a witness instead of a fixer–holds the space for learning.

Choosing to be a fixer means we rush in with an answer, a suggestion, a solution as soon as we sense the connection is complicated. We want to simplify it, cut it apart, all before we are sure what  the problem really is. Because solving problems gives us a shot at being a hero. If we are a witness, and wait for information, well, time could be lost.

It’s a twisted fence, ugly from this view. Complicated, too.

Time doesn’t get lost. We do, but time does not. Time knows exactly where it is. When we stand still, stay calm, witness, take notes, don’t give advice till we know what we are doing, we catch up with time. We gather information. We don’t take on work that isn’t ours to do. We see what is ready to resolve itself without our help.

A simple pattern evolves.

And then, in the sharp shadow of understanding, the information becomes not only clear, but beautiful. Sometimes without our getting involved at all. The shadow of the fence on the sidewalk shows, not the complicated twisted pattern, but a simple light and dark outline of connections.

The other side of complicated is not simple, it’s waiting. So we can learn more.

—Quinn McDonald is a creativity coach who learns on her walks every day.

Filed under: Coaching, Links, resources, idea boosts Tagged: perspective, postaday2012, problem solving, wait, witness

Less Abundance is Enough

The negative self-talk gremlin was in full voice before dawn. I got up because the animals needed out, and my first thought was “It’s 4:45 a.m., and I did not get enough sleep.” Feeling sorry for myself before 5 a.m. isn’t a sign of a full-energy day. I fed the beasts and let them out, and while I waited for them to come back in, I staggered to the computer. it was not quite 5 a.m. and after looking at my to-do list for today, I thought, “I don’t have enough time to get all this done today.”

Agave blossoms on a stem . . .

And then I stopped. I had been up less than half an hour and I was already focusing on what wasn’t there, what I didn’t have, what wasn’t enough. The gremlin was in full voice, singing opera.

One of the emails on my laptop was a seminar on abundance. It promised increased money, respect, happiness, sexual pleasure and satisfaction in life. Not a lot was left out. They were targeting people like me, who wake up and are unhappy before they get dressed. And the word “abundance” seems like the answer to everything you lack.

“Abundance” has become a commodity–something we need to buy and own to make a good life. It’s dangled in front of us like a sale on shoes. Abundance is the new bag or car or something you are missing and you have to pay a speaker so you can get your abundance from someone else.

. . . can be too abundant, too much of a good thing.

And although I am not the sharpest tool in the shed at that hour of the morning, I had two really sharp ideas.

First: No one can sell me abundance. I have to make my own abundance. All by my ownself, as my boy used to say when he was three.

Second: Abundance isn’t a fixed amount of money, or a set salary. It’s not measured in cups, pounds, or bushels. If you ask just about anyone what amount of money it would take to make them feel they have “abundance,” they will pick a number far above the amount they have. Because “having abundance” translates to “more than I have now,” or “I don’t have enough.” Abundance is now seen as lack. And that’s the gremlin’s territory.

I looked at my to-do list. “I have enough time to do what I need if I choose the most important things to do,” I said. Then I made a list of all the things I needed to do so it was clear. Next, I made a list of the three most important things to do. That was my new to-do-now list. Until they were complete, no other work would get done.

And about that lack of sleep? The beasts had come back in, I closed the door, re-set the alarm clock and got another hour of sleep. Still plenty of time to take the morning walk and then get down to work.

When we allow ourselves to classify abundance as what we lack, what we don’t have, what we are missing, we will never have it. We strive for what we don’t have, measure ourselves by what we lack. The gremlin owns us, we are miserable.

When we define abundance as what we already have, and thrive in that standard, then the world shifts. We don’t strive for what we can’t reach, we suddenly have the time we thought we didn’t. When I woke up again at 6:30 a.m., I felt better. I had enough time to achieve the high-priority items. I felt better, calmer, and grateful that I’d had another chance at abundance. Because this time I had it.

-–Quinn McDonald is a writer and certified creativity coach who has enough and is enough. At least for this one day.

Filed under: Coaching, Opinion Tagged: abundance, postaday2012, too much of a good thing

Book Review: It’s About Time

Marney Makridakis invented the land of Artella in 2002, both as a magazine as as cyber-stop for creativity. She’s been working creatively before and since then. Now she is tackling the tricky topic of time and tipping it on its ear through her new book, Creating Time: Using Creativity to Reinvent the Clock and Reclaim Your Life.

The first thing I notice about a book is the organization, and this gets high marks for excellent organization–three sections, 16 chapters, with titles that explain what you are going to read. The material is followed by notes, acknowledgements, contributors’ notes and more. I read it front to back, but that doesn’t happen with creatively-written books, and this one is prepared. If you read it section by section, the excellent table of contents will help you re-find it. There is also an index. For all of you who are too young to know how to use an index—heavy sigh—it’s what we used before there was a search engine in every blog.

You will not wind up with 28 hours in a day by reading the book, but you will get any number of new ways to see time, feel time, experience time and tell time.

Reading the book is like visiting with Marney herself. She chats about her life, using events in her and her family’s life to illustrate points. You get to know her struggles with a genetic bone disorder and the wonder of her son’s experiencing life. She uses the stories and artwork from the coaches she trains, and she invents words like Wellativity and Artsignment. The book is pure, authentic Marney from first page to last. She never abandons you on a single page of the book.

You can use the book as a workbook–there are step-by-step how-tos and assignments to help put to use what you have just read. I have a big weakness for books written for kinesthetic readers, and this is fully one of them. You learn by doing. She doesn’t tell, she shows. You can’t stay grumpy and you can’t avoid participating. It is a personal tour through her vision of time. Even better, through her experience of time. You come away with new ideas and new experiences you want to repeat. And you feel like you’ve been to the mental gym. That’s what a kinesthetic book will do for you.

The book is richly illustrated and designed to keep you moving, reading, empathizing and making time bend to your will. Marney wouldn’t have it any other way.

Disclosure: Marney sent me a review copy at no cost to me.  My curiosity (and need for more time) would have driven me to pay for it,  but I’m thankful for the generosity.

–Quinn McDonald  is a creativity coach and writer who looks at time in a different way after reading the book.

Filed under: Book Reviews, Reviews Tagged: artella, Marney Makridakis, time, workbook

Filling Those Empty Journal Pages

Open an art journal, and you are likely to see beautiful art–collage, mixed media, watercolor sketches. But few words. It always makes me a little sad when people are so fast to turn to images in their journals, but often leave out words.

Masu box with magic words made by Suzanne Ourth.

Most people fear writing down what they are thinking. The same people who are cheerfully transparent on Facebook, become shy in a journal. I get that. It’s a throwback to the times when we believed what we saw on a page–and the responsibility is huge. At least in your mind.

In a few weeks, I’m going to be at the Great American Scrapbooking Convention in both Arlington, TX and Chantilly VA. And the scrapbookers who want to experiment creatively with intuitive writing, well, I hope they show up.  We are going to open a creative door that will let in words and ideas and sunlight and joy. The door will open, and a path of merry footprints will run across your journal pages.

You won’t ever have to wonder “What should I write in my journal?” You’ll have a small masu box at hand (we’re making it at the convention), and it’s packed with your own ideas. Ready to use. Any time.

No long essays are necessary. After class, and with your box, you will have access to ideas that will braid their way through your book.

I’m teaching the new One-Sentence Journaling. We will make a masu-box of magic words. You will learn several different ways to use them. Your intuitive talent will be set free. Some of the exercises are funny, some are thoughtful.

And then, just because you can, you are going to make a folder out of braille paper, to hold your new pages.

If you want to explore your scrapbook pages, your art journal pages and explore the words that hold memories, inspire you, comfort you, please join us in Arlington, Texas on May 31 through June 2, or in Chantilly, VA June 22 and 23. I designed this class just for scrapbookers who want to step into a new area of creativity–into Raw Art Journaling, or into intuitive writing. You’ll discover that making meaning in your scrapbooks and journals will feel new and exciting. There are fewer rules, and while you might still want to be perfect, you can put it down at the door if you want.

I’m looking forward to seeing new faces!

--Quinn McDonald is a certified creativity coach and a raw art journaler who believes that meaning-making is fundamental to art making.

Filed under: Journal Pages, Raw Art Journaling, Recovering Perfectionists Tagged: Arlington Tx, Chantilly VA, GASC, Great American Scrapbook Convention, one-sentence journaling, postaday2012

No-Drama Life

One of the joys of being an artist is that the slow life is appealing. Yes, I am a workaholic and spend more hours at the computer than I’d like. But I also know how to go slow. The morning walk, the turning around and backtracking when something interesting catches my eye. Going slow allows surprise to catch up with you, allows you to confirm something you thought you almost saw.

This morning, I dragged the hose across the pool and set the sprinkler to water the potted plants at the edge of the pool. The shadow made by the random drops that fell in the pool sent me back for my camera.

I would have missed it, if I hadn’t looked over my shoulder.

A few weeks ago, a caring, thoughtful person steamed asparagus for dinner, and I was enchanted by the color. She pulled one out of the steaming pot, and I caught it with a drop of water near the top.

The color alone was worth asking someone I had just met to let me photograph dinner in the making. We both laughed, surprised, I think, that the other didn’t mind asking to slow down and notice.

I have a growing cactus in the front yard. A few weeks ago, on my way out the door for a walk, the shape of one of the cactus pads caught my eye. Yep, it was heart shaped. I hadn’t noticed it before.

My life would be poorer had I missed these opportunities. It’s more than the glance. It’s a certain vulnerability that allows for permission to take the time to enjoy such an accident of nature and pull out the camera to catch it. In my case, it’s an iPhone, but I had to allow myself to be all right with not racing off, not staying on schedule. And allow myself the vulnerability of being amazed at nature time and time again.

There were many years in my life when I would have noticed but pretended not to. It wasn’t important enough. It wasn’t worth my time. But at night, before I fell asleep, I always regretted not allowing myself the simple permission of time to be slow. It was a hard lesson to learn, to give up speed for enjoyment.

I still work fast and hard, I’m sure I miss a lot. But I’m grateful for every second I catch and enjoy. I’m happy to give up the drama that made up a lot of my life many years ago. It was a considered decision. Frankly, the drama had a crackle to it that was tempting. In the end, I’m happier choosing to steer clear of drama and noticed the smaller, slower things. At least occasionally.

–Quinn McDonald is a naturalist for at least the first two hours of every day. Then she’s a creativity coach with a memory for beauty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed under: In My Life, Nature, Inside and Out, The Writing Life Tagged: deliberate, mindfulness, slow life

Packing for Class

In a few weeks, I’ll be teaching One Sentence Journaling at the Great American Scrapbook Convention. It’s a bit of a stretch, teaching journaling at a scrapbooking convention. But I believe that some scrapbookers are hungry to try more creative work, more individually-designed pages.

I had to pack the materials for both classes, Arlington (TX) and Chantilly (VA) and had a class locally today. My head began to feel like an art roller-coaster: what was going to be packed for what class held where?

And I had an idea. I’ve never taught classes so close together that I had to pack three class boxes at once. And for years, I’ve been teaching classes with my own studio equipment. That wasn’t going to work anymore.

So I made a material list for each class I teach. I put them in separate Word documents, then used the Track Changes tool to compare one to the other. That shows me what each has in common, and I may need to duplicate, and what needs to go in each box for shipping.

That out of the way, I also had to purchase duplicates for the material that was shipped to the show and that I needed to teach today. Here’s what I learned:

Student brushes work well with glue application in small spaces.

1. Buy small student paint brushes for glue brushes. Then throw them away at the end of class. Equipment gets hard use in class, and cleaning up afterwards is part of the time invested in teaching. Anything you can do to lower that cost is worthwhile. Since student brushes are inexpensive and my time isn’t, it’s easier to throw them away than clean them. I’m not a fan of glue sticks, as the never work for me, and melt in the car in the summer. Double stick tape? OK, but I hate seeing the visible lines when tape is sandwiched between two pieces of paper.

Your ink bottles stay clean when you transfer the ink into plastic containers.

2. I put the ink in small, easy-to-use spray bottles and drip bottles, then label them with permanent markers in big type. This makes the colors easy to read and it keeps the lids attached to the bottle. No more crawling on the floor, searching for the tiny ink bottle lid. No more having the green ink lid on the yellow ink bottle, leaching green ink into the yellow ink.

3. I bring my own table covers. Not all locations cover the tables. I don’t want to pack big pieces of canvas, don’t want to wash them. So I buy cheap shower curtains from the Dollar Store, and cut them into individual pieces to drape over the table. I also buy pre-formed aluminum foil cookie trays for wet ink work. that keeps the wet mess in one place. Participants happily wipe or rinse out the tray and keep more of the table dry for other work. Trays can be stacked, taken to the studio, and rinsed out with a hose before re-using.

4. I save catalogs and magazines. They provide a smooth surface for cutting or stamping and are perfect to use for gluing. Throw away after class.

5. Sometimes paper towels are a good idea, sometimes not. It’s easy to over-use paper towels in class, and it’s not eco-smart. Instead of putting out several rolls,  I give each student a bar towel for wiping gluey or inky hands and small clean ups. Saves on paper towels. The towels get put in a plastic bag, and when I arrive home, are put in the washing machine before I get all the way into the house.

6. Scissors get hard use in class–they are used to cut through wet glue, paint and ink. I substitute a craft knife whenever possible (change blades at the end of class) and spend time cleaning the scissors carefully each time. Scissors are expensive, and cleaning beats replacing. And cheap scissors are awful.

7. Pack ephemera in a separate container. Separate damaged pieces (and throw out) while packing. Easier to pack all those papers, labels, tickets in a clean, dry box.

8. Keep a ziplock bag for all items that need to be cleaned, inspected, or tested before your next use. That allows you to store most of your materials for the next class, and attend to all repairs or cleaning at once. Saves your memory, too.

I was pleased how fast I cleaned up and packed up after a materials-intense class.

– Quinn McDonald teaches art journaling with a dollop of creativity coaching. She prefers to clean up by herself after class.

Filed under: Links, resources, idea boosts Tagged: art class tips, cleaning art supplies, glue tips

Phoenix at 110 Degrees

It’s been hot early this year–while we generally hit 100 degrees for the first time in April, this year’s 106 and 107 in mid-May seems a bit early.

Frying an egg on the sidewalk–it works better in a pan. I’ve done it, and it does cook, but it doesn’t sizzle.

So how does one adjust to such high heat? If you live here, make the most of it. Toss your sweaty pillows out on the patio and let the sun bleach and freshen them. Don’t leave them outside for more than an hour, though, or they get dusty.

Have a desk chair mat? One of those plastic things that always turns up at the corners where it hits a desk or cabinet? Toss it out on the patio, and leave it for 15 minutes. The hard plastic softens and relaxes. Drag it to a shady spot before you bring it in. The heat makes it off-gas.

Dry your towels outside. OK, so they are a little stiff, but fabric softener makes towels resist absorbing water, and sun-dried towels smell great and dry you off better. It takes about 30 minutes for towels to dry completely. I once raced the dryer and with a light breeze before Monsoon Season starts (mid-June), the outdoor-dried towels win.

Still have plants in pots? You optimist, you. Starting now and going till September, water them twice a day, before dawn and after the sun is not longer directly on them. They’ll die otherwise, there just isn’t enough water-holding ability in potting soil. And if your plant pots are glazed and dark colors, they won’t make it past June 10. The roots cook if the pots are in the full sun.

While you are out early in the morning (after first light and before full dawn), change the food in the hummingbird feeders. Every day. At that heat, it sours in a day. The birds die quickly from consuming old hummingbird food, as it also grows mold.

Busy day? Core an apple, stuff it with bread drizzled with olive oil, a spoon of honey, a few raisins . Rub with flaxseed oil or olive oil, wrap in foil (shiny side in) and place in box in trunk of car when you leave for work. When you get home, you have a baked apple! (No cream or butter though. Hot car cooking requires some food-poisoning precautions.)

The Gladiator fire has decimated 10,000 acres of land that won’t come back for a generation.

Summers are tinder dry in the area, and brush fires easily get out of hand. The Gladiator fire has scorched 10,000 acres, and the land won’t be able to hold plants for 20 years. Unlike the East Coast, where a fire is good for the forest, our fires destroy landscapes. Please be careful with campfires and don’t play with fireworks, which are legal here. Legal and “good-idea” are two different issues. This fire was started by an unsupervised child.

–Quinn McDonald loves Phoenix any time of year, but not when it’s a dry hate. There is much healing to be done anyplace in the world, but she was called here.

Filed under: Nature, Inside and Out Tagged: dry heat, it's a dry heat, it's hot, Phoenix, postaday2012, summer heat, summer in Phoenix

Workshop, Playshop, Passion

More and more artists aren’t teaching “workshops” anymore, they are teaching “playshops,” because work is so odious that we don’t want to be involved with it in our free time.

I love play. It feels freeing and effortless. I also love work. Work results in some sort of good, or change, or results, often interesting or at least useful. Calling a day of learning “play” instead of “work” seems to diminish both terms.

“Set a table in your garden,” Quinn McDonald © 2012, watercolor pencils on paper, collage.

Work is honorable and doesn’t have to mean suffering. Work indicates that the results are not gained in a way that is fast, fun, or free. Work is best done deliberately, with full concentration and effort. It requires an investment of energy and time. That’s what makes it satisfying.

We often say our work is our passion. And while we think of passion as unchecked emotion, the Latin root word of passion is pati, which means suffering.

Sometimes work is hard, sometimes it causes us to suffer. But that doesn’t make it bad. Some of the hardest times of life finish up with some of the best learning, best results, and best ideas. Hard work, both physical and mental, can feel painful while it feels like growth.

So I’m going to continue teaching workshops. Where people show courage by working intuitively, writing deeply, and speaking their truth. We’ll also laugh and be astonished at the results, because hard work feels good.

–-Quinn McDonald is a certified creativity coach who loves her work.

Filed under: Coaching, In My Life, The Writing Life Tagged: art heals, mixed media, postaday2012, workshops

Who Are You, Really?

When I made one-of-a-kind pieces of jewelry and sold them at art festivals, the big question in any conversation was “are you a full-time artist?” It was a badge of authenticity to make your art bear the burden of supporting the family and fueling your creativity. The day I realized that all my creative decisions were approved through my marketing budget, I quit. I vowed I’d never put my art in a straight jacket again. I returned to my roots as an art journaler (before it was called that) and worked with people to challenge their inner critic.

Some of the many hats you can wear.

To support my creativity without weighing it down with spread sheets, I expanded my business to include creativity coaching, freelance writing, and developing and running business communication training programs. Oh, and I design and celebrate people’s sacred ceremonies–weddings, commitment ceremonies, new home blessings–almost anything that has to do with change and growth. I like to be busy.

Each of the pieces of my business have different cycles, and with some hard work and planning, some parts are busy when others are not. So far, ten years into running my own business, I’ve never hit a patch where all the businesses slowed down at the same time. Knock wood.

About two years ago, I made the decision to have one website instead of two. For a while, I was worried that my business clients would not understand the creative side and would be afraid that I was too far out of the box.

Interestingly enough, my business clients are fine with me being an artist. It’s something they are familiar with–artists have to do other work to be able to support their creative projects. For the corporate world, that’s a no-brainer.

What is surprising to me is how many artists frown at my business side. “Oh, so you aren’t really a full-time artist are you?” Sometimes I say, “I’m creative all the time.” Sometimes I ask, “How do you define ‘ full-time artist’?” It’s as if my creative side is tainted because I design and teach writing and communication training programs.

One of my biggest creative challenges is teaching grammar to business people who never learned it in school. Without knowing the difference between a subject and a predicate, it’s hard to explain why it’s always “between you and me,” and  never “between you and I” and why you should tell your dog to “lie down” and not “lay down.” Making up rules that don’t include grammar requires a lot of inventiveness and imagination. I find it challenging and, yes, fun.

It’s also sad for me to hear artists make up rules about who gets to claim the title of artist and who doesn’t. Or to deny business people the right to be artists. Nowhere is creativity needed more than in corporate America.

What bothers me is that artists, who know a good deal about being labeled and stereotyped, are doing a lot of that themselves. Being an artist does not demand that you sell you art and live from that money alone. Being an artist means that you face life creatively and work at the intersection of the world’s need and your determination. So yes, I’m a full-time artist. And a full-time business owner. And a full-time writer.

–Quinn McDonald is many things. She’s happier that way.

Filed under: Creativity, In My Life, Recovering Perfectionists, The Writing Life Tagged: creativity in business, postaday2012, what's an artist

Break Your Watercolor Pencils

In the last class at JournalFest (Octobers won’t be the same without it), I met a woman whose watercolor pencil work was amazing. Did I ask her with whom she had studied? Of course not. I said, “What kind of pencils are you using?” She unzipped her traveling pencil case and showed me a collection of pencils I recognized as Derwent. Except half the length.

The length was the same for all the pencils. Supposing she didn’t use them all equally, I asked her about the pencil length. She smiled broadly. “I wanted to buy a lot of different colors, but they were too much for my budget. I asked a friend if she wanted to share a set. We split the cost of the pencils, then split the set.” It took me several seconds to realize they hadn’t each divided the set by colors, but by sawing the pencils in half.

This clever solution gave each person all the color in half the length—and at half the price. This brilliant idea had other creative results, too.

Packing half-size pencils takes much less space. Even in a week-long class, you won’t use up the entire half pencil.

If you aren’t sharing, you can have a travel set and a studio set. No packing and unpacking, just grab-and-go.

If colored pencils are your tool of choice for art journaling, the half-size set fits neatly in a bag or backpack. Combined with loose-leaf journal pages, you can get the entire kit and a watercolor brush into the original metal pencil case (if you prefer flat) or into a butterfly pencil case (I love these from Cool Pencil Case). Great for working on airplanes or small restaurant tables.

If you teach, you can separate your neatly sharpened pencils, organized by color number from the ones you share in class. You won’t mind the hard wear the student set gets if yours are neatly stashed in your bag.

If you can’t bear to break up your pencils, then consider this incredible wall mounting system designed by felissimo for social designer. Each pencil snaps to a wall mount to create its own art.

–-Quinn McDonald teaches art journaling; she’s also a creativity coach with a serious attraction to watercolor pencils. She is not addicted. She can quit anytime she wants. She just doesn’t want to quit.

Filed under: Links, resources, idea boosts, Raw Art Journaling, The Writing Life Tagged: art journaling tips, Sakura watercolor brush, watercolor pencils