Thursday, May 21, 2009

Studio Tip-a-roo

Some quirky strange-ness from ETSY: 
1.PinkMercury96 2.Morowood 3.MycyclesArt 4.MarianneMcCann

Happy Friday! 

It's my last Friday working in Japan (I still have a Monday-Thursday next week, though.)  I have been following a blog called "Oh, What a World, What a world..." and recently due to her busy life she decided to take a break from giving studio tips for a while.  I totally think studio tips is a stellar idea so here's one from me for today!

Studio tip-a-roo:
When I was in high school I read the book called The Artist's Way.  It is a book about fostering your own creative process whether you consider yourself an artist or not.  I didn't do all of the exercises in it, but one I did do religiously for about half a year, which I would recommend to any artist (and really any person!) to try, is called "Morning Pages.":

*Choose a nice notebook specifically for this activity.  
*Set it by your bed with a good writing tool.  
*Wake up earlier than usual each morning (I think I woke up about 30 minutes earlier even when I was exhausted.  I would sometimes write with one eye closed.  haha.  Seriously!). *Before you do anything else (even sit up, speak or use the bathroom!) start writing.  Don't think about it.  It usually doesn't make sense and my own mind is so busy and stuck of things that I usually repeat things like "this sucks, why do I have to go to school/work.  High school sucks.  I'm so depressed..." or "I had the weirdest dream..." Whatever angsty, weird, annoying, grating, manic, happy, reactionary, etc. noise that's going on in your head.  The point is that you are awake before your inner critic can block you up.  You are able to listen to all of you mental noise and therefore let it go.  When you don't listen, your brain keeps being noisy.  It wants to be listened to.  It won't stop until you do.
*Keep writing non-stop for three pages at least (if you aren't empty yet you can keep going until you are, but three pages is a good number).  Then close it, get up and go along with your day.
Try to do this every day for a month and see how much more clear your mind is.  Also you may realize that there are important things you needed to deal with that you weren't able to because of your mental noise.  Watch how your studio time changes!
Happy making!!

No comments: