Susie Monday . El Cielo Studio

5. Move

This tip will be no surprise to anyone who is a regular reader. As much as I denied it for much of my life ('cause I am also somewhat klutzy  -- OK quite uncoordinated, see bruises --and not gifted at movement patterns -- ie can't learn a dance step to save my life), I am a highly kinesthetic being -- and movement is an sensory experience that deeply feeds my creativity. But, as a person who hates routine, having an exercise routine has been difficult, until I discovered NIA about 5 years ago. Although I rarely make a class now (when I do it's at the incredibly fabulous Synergy Studio in San Antonio) because of our out-in-the-country life, Linda and I try to dance for at least 25 minutes each morning. From NIA's website:

"Nia is a body-mind-spirit fitness and lifestyle practice. Through expressive movement—The Body’s Way—Nia empowers people to achieve physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being.

Life lived in a body the Nia way is life lived in relationship to the sacred geometry of life.

"Our philosophy “Through Movement We Find Health,” means we believe in the power of self-discovery through movement. In practicing Nia you fall in love with being and moving in your body – you experience the power of Self-Healing."

Another movement exercise I like is the one in Tywla's Tharp's The Creative Habit called "the egg." Briefly, one compresses into an egg shape on the floor (or even in a chair if your mobility is limited), and expands into a different shape of body with a title, like "exploded egg," or "sleepy egg," or "upside-down egg." Try it, its fun. And the book is a great one on all matters of creative routine building. 

Frankly, whether you like to walk the neighborhood, climb rock walls, dance the tango, shimmy up trees, put yourself though a rigorous session at the gym or jumprope, movement is one key to creative thought and accomplishment. Our brains (as well as our bodies) need to move, and no matter *how limited your movement abilities or proclivities, start today, and in a year, you will have more movement under your feet, and, I think, more ideas in your work. I know I work better if I take time to dance or walk up the hillside outside my front door.

*I recently read of a study about a group of people who were told to imagine themselves lifting weights with their arms while in a relaxed self-hypnotic state. At the end of the 6 month study, these subjects tested with stronger bicep strength than before the study. All they did was IMAGINE themselves getting stronger by lifting the weights.  From the site Peak Performance On Line:

"Despite differences in the pattern of activation, imagery has the effect of priming muscles for subsequent physical action, and this clearly has potential benefits for the performance of many sports skills. It is also evident that the neural impulses passed from the brain to the muscular system during imagery may be retained in memory almost as if the movement had actually occurred(2). The implication of this is that physical skills may be improved even during periods of injury when physical practice is not possible. Moreover, there is growing evidence to suggest that a combination of imagery and relaxation can accelerate the rehabilitation process following injury or surgery(5). "

2. Advances in Sport Psychology (2nd ed), Champaign IL: Human Kinetics, 2002:405-43
5. Rehabilitation Psych 46:28-43

JUST IN: A recent post on Shape and Colour provides more wonderful inspiration vis a vis movement. 

4. Travel.

OK, every year can't bring a capitol letter Vacation (like last year's 3 week trip to northern Italy). Every month can't include even a weekend outing to someplace a bit closer to home (though I apparently think so with April's trip to Rockport, June's to Corpus Christi and this month's trip to see my sister in Salida, CO). BUT, even with gas prices what they are (and I don't want to hear another word about that as long as y'all are out there drinking bottled water), travel is truly broadening and amazingly good for the creative juicer whether it's in real time and space or a virtual trip across the universe via web sites and other-people's-trips.

Think about these possibilities:

 First of all, whichever trip you take, take a sketchbook and journal, ideally a digital camera, along with you. Collect ephemera and souvenirs, take photos, better still sketch and watercolor, interview the experts and the locals. Be adventurous. Don't stick to the tourist destinations, but find out how people live, what they create with their hands, what is eaten, what it' s like to live under that sun. Write in a cafe or under a tree. People watch. Try the contour drawing trick (Pt. 2 of this series.)

Then: 

Prowl the downtown and tourist destinations in your own community. I am never more flabbergasted than when I ask San Antonio residents how recently they have visited the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park and hear that its been a.) years, or b.) never. Hey, some people pay big money and take lots of time to come visit some place you drive by every week. One little day trip or weekend outing can cost little in time and give you an enormous boost to creative visioning when you travel with that intent in mind. You can even take public transportation to a lot of these sites.

Choose a country, city, natural wonder or other vacation destination to study for a month or a season or even a year. Pick some place that fascinates you for its visual, historical or symbolic power. Check out books from the library, even audio tapes and movies. Go to museum exhibits and concerts that originate in your vacation place. Learn a little of the language. Start an imaginary itinerary. Keep a travel journal "as if." Draw from photographs, literally and figuratively for your muse.

Spend just a weekend at a retreat center, state park, or natural area, or an out-of-town workshop venue (like my El Cielo Studio retreats), or some place else that takes you away from your ordinary day and your ordinary city/suburban life. The place might be a spa, it might be a swimming hole or a river raft trip. If you can't afford to go further, spend an entire day at a city park. Take food, drink, books, a quilt to lie upon. Listen, look, experience the weather from dawn to dusk. Live in the natural world, so that means no cell phone chatter, no IM, no radio or ipods. I think of this as a trip away from technology. You can even do it in your own backyard or on the balcony.

Start planning and saving today for that dream trip next year, or the year after. Be realistic, but not too realistic. My experience has been that once I commit to a plane ticket, I will find both the time and the money for everything else, even with the EURO rates lately. It is all too easy to think you'll never have the money or time to see a part of the world that calls to you. First step (if your destination is out of country, get that passport this month). It always helps me to do this one with companions, then its harder to back out.

 Eavesdrop on someone else's travel. There are tons of web sites where intrepid travelers tell you all about their wanderings, and then there is Anthony Bourdain, No Reservations on the Travel channel. Another great trip I've taken lately has been with Bill Buford in Heat, a great audio book or read about his education as a cook with Mario Bateli and in Italy. You may notice a trend here, see the next suggestion.

Cook your way around the world. Try a different recipe from a different country each week. Seek out an ethnic grocer if you can in order to buy the ingredients, or order them from an ethnic grocery supplier online. Cooking and art go together in my mind. I think of ingredients the same way I think of colors. I like to look at new ones, and new combinations of them. I eat visually as well as with my mouth. Food is an amazing way to explore another culture, country or part of the U.S.

Then, what to do with all this input. Create with its energy. With the new eyes you had to have. With its content -- sketches, paintings, fabric altars and quilts, photo albums, amazing travel journals. Artist's postcards and ATCs, you'll figure it out!

Detail art cloth, Shaman/Cruxificion 

3. Do something different.

Sounds like a no-brainer. But once in the studio it can be remarkably difficult to figure out exactly HOW to do something surprising, off-the-wall, out of the box. Our habits and patterns of work and technique are familar friends and stepping outside our comfortable tools and processes can make us feel uneasy.. or trivial... or unskilled ... or.... So these jumpstarts are designed for those times when what you are doing feels stale, repetitive or, dare we say, boring?

Try one of these to trick yourself into trying something new and different (Remember, no one said you have to  keep doing it, spend a fortune on new materials, show it to anyone, save it or even like it. This is about pushing your personal envelopes in  order to have something different show up in the mail box.)

1. Take $5 to the dollar store and buy somethingdifferent to make art with -- could be kid's crayons, a book to alter,  a dishtowel to include in a piece of art, a foam brush to shape or distress, a plastic basket to use as a stencil. Take new eyes with you.

2. Consciously take one of your visual ideas through one or more of these "unifying" concepts: scale (do the same thing larger or smaller), weight (add or subtract), progression and/or direction (could you do it upside down?), repetition and intensity.

3. Take a not so successful piece of work and add it to another piece, or cut it up and use it the pieces, or find just the part you like and edit to that, then expand into something new.

4. Consciously copy the style of an artist's whose work you either like or don't like - but change the medium.

5.  Look at your current work and write 100 questions about it. No answers, just the questions. See where this takes you.

6. Make a photo collection with your digital camera  in your neighborhood , or, even better, in a new (to you) environment -- drive to a different part of town, go to an industial park, seek out a water way or country lane. Take digital photos from the perspective of one of the sensory alphabet: light, color, sound, movement, rhythm, space, texture, line, shape, Edit to make a slideshow and use the photos to inspire something new. 

Sometimes it just takes a little down time! Lauri Panova Smith took this great picture of our dog Rodeo during one of her photo walks:

Next up:

2. Draw contours, blind. 

If you've ever taken a life drawing or other drawing class, the teacher probably had you work this way -- it's a classic drawing exercise, popularized by Kimon Nicolaïdes in his book The Natural Way to Draw (1941) and there are many examples and instructions on other web sites. If you haven't had formal drawing training, well, all's the better and no time like the present. Explore your own sense of line by spending at least 15 minutes (even better, 30) drawing the contours you find in a tree, a photograph of a person, your face in the mirror,  your non-dominant hand, a shell or piece of driftwood, any slightly complex natural object is more interesting I think than a manufactured something. Do so without looking at the paper, only at the object.

Use a large sketch pad or newsprint pad (you DO have one of these, right?). Choose a drawing medium that you like the feel of: charcoal stick, graphite, soft pencil, marker brush or pen. Something that doesn't have to be replenished or dipped in paint is best for this exercise.

Put your drawing tool on the paper and your eye on the subject of your drawing. SLOWLY trace the edges and internal contours with your pen (etc.). As your eye traces the subtle and intriguing "edges" keep your drawing tool moving ever so slowly on the paper. Do not look at your paper. If you come to the end of a "line, (or the page)" briefly look down and replace your pen on the paper to trace another line. NO JUDGEMENTS about whether this drawing "looks like" the subject. If you slowly embrace the lines, you will discover something new about the object, your hand, your impatience, and about line itself.

What I like about this exercise is the meditative place that it engenders. This is a good jumpstart for those days when everything is frantic, when you are off the edge of your chair and multitasking like mad. Seems a bit counterintuitive to slow down, right? But after even 15 minutes of blind contour drawing you will return to the task (forget taskS) at hand with a steady hand and eye, focus and discipline.

The photos here are from my Jumpstart workshop last weekend. The drawings were actually faster versions of this exercise, and I hope everyone who was present will try the slowed down classic sometime soon. Look on this link to see some  examples of blind contour drawing by article author Helen South. 

P.S.  The Natural Way to Draw and Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain are two of the best drawing courses you can give yourself. Both take discipline and steady work, but together you will find that you do learn to draw -- though you may not have an innate talent for drawing. Essentially drawing is a SKILL that helps one to connect one's eye to the page, not some magical gift that you were born with or not. As kids, we quickly assigned the label "artist" to the kids in the class who were "good drawers," (and most art teachers did the same). Unfortunately this meant that many of us with different innate visual and creative skills -- for color or shape or texture -- ended up deciding we weren't artists or at least not very good ones. After several drawing classes, I'm still not very good at it. And drawing realistically --contours and values and perspective and all that stuff -- just doesn't interest me very much and isn't a large part of my process. BUT, I also don't let it scare me anymore, and I enjoy the occassional side trip into its world of line.