Art Takes Different Eyes

It seemed like a good idea when I signed up for two art classes this semester. I work at the Mesa Art Center and want to get to know the other instructors. My spouse is 2,500 miles away, and I am setting up a new business–having a built-in art break sounded like a stroke of genius.

I signed up for watercolor and basic drawing. While I’m an artist, I’m not an illustrator, and wanted to learn some illustration skills for the visual journaling class I teach. There were two different equipments lists, and I ran around two different art supply stores getting what I needed. At least both classes has a drawing board and pencils in common.

That was the last thing they had in common. Drawing is all about seeing the detail and proportion and getting it exactly right. Watercolor is about seeing the heart of the idea and capturing it in the fewest possible lines. My drawing teacher walked past, and showed me how to use a pencil to get the angle between two pieces right. My watercolor instructor walked past, looked at my attempt to get the colors exactly right and said, “So, who’s winning?” Sadly, the answer was “nobody.”

Drawing is about watching carefully, seeing exactly so you can get the same thing on paper. Watercolor is about watching carefully, seeing exactly, so you don’t put it on paper, but give the viewer enough hints to get your meaning.

Impossible, I thought. If only things were more like writing, I’d bet better at being an illustrator. But, in fact, drawing is exactly like writing. If you don’t get the dialog down precisely, your story will sound flat and uninteresting.

If you spell out every detail you will bore the reader.  Skip an important detail and you will lose the reader. Like a watercolor artist, a good writer will know the bones of the story and get them down. The rest is up to the reader’s imagination. A right balance of imagination and good writing makes a book come alive and echo through the decades as powerful writing.

So I swing back and forth, being exact, being clear, painting, drawing and writing down life to make it come alive for others. And to make some meaning for myself.

–Quinn McDonald is an exhausted art student, writer, and certified creativity coach. She also runs seminars in journal writing, business writing, and presentations. In her spare time, she prays that the mattress for her bed shows up soon, as sleeping on the bed slats does nothing for her sense of perspective. (c) 2008 All rights reserved.

Image: writing sample: cnx.org

Competitive What?

Competition can keep quality high and people engaged in their work, but too much competition can kill creativity. When the goal of competition is winning, and when one party not only has to win, but enjoy the other side’s loss, competition becomes bullying.

I’ve seen some ugly competition in my life. Managers pitting employees against each other for a raise, a better office, or an emotional boost. What started as a friendly game ends up as a cut-throat attack, ending with anger, bitterness, or a new job.

Yesterday, I saw the ultimate irony–competitive yoga. No kidding. The competition involved the difficulty of poses and how long you could hold them. Yoga, or at least the yoga I take, is diametrically opposed to competition. It is a way to bring energy into yourself, to release stress, to challenge only yourself to achieve small victories that also feel physically good.

What’s next–taking steroids to win the yoga competition? I think the whole competitive sports push has gone too far. And I’m saying it right before the Super Bowl, too. Here’s an idea–divide sports into two competitions–those for people who take drugs and steroids and a competition for those who don’t. That will let the pumped up, champing at the bit players have their day, and the lower-key athletes who want to pit their challenges largely around their own skills and drills have a place to compete against others like them.

And for heaven’s sake, if you are interested in competitive yoga, stay away from my mat. I’m meditating, and that, at least for now, is not yet competitive.

–Quinn McDonald is a writer and certified creativity coach. See her work at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2008 All rights reserved. Image: http://www.yogatherapycenter.org

Tutorial: Collage Background (3)

This gallery contains 2 photos.

The background of a collage is held together visually by a pattern, a color, a texture, or a mixture of all three. I’ve come across a background technique that is easy to learn, but complicated to master. It can be … Continue reading →

Tutorial: Envelope Journal

This gallery contains 3 photos.

The journals I like to make best are ones with just a few pages. That way, I can fill them up quickly, and make another one. Like most people who make things, I often enjoy the design and creation more … Continue reading →

Fighting to Change

Even when you want to change, it isn’t easy. What makes change hard? Two major factors: yourself and others. The rest is easy. When you decide to change, you have your past to wrestle with. You choose the path to change and suddenly your inner voice pipes up. “What’s so wrong with who you are now?” “Love yourself the way you are, change is a sign of self-hatred.” “Can you really keep up this behavior?”

If you want to change a habit, you’ll have to substitute the new behavior for about two month. That’s as long as it will take you to establish the new habit in place of the old. No doubt about it, they will be the longest two months of your life. You will invent a thousand reasons to go back to the old behavior–it’s your birthday, you just started a diet, you are stressed, now is not a good time. But like having a baby, there is never a perfect time, you have to gear up, crank up your determination and get busy.

Just when you do, your friends will start chipping away at your resolve. They will give you excuses to fail. They will tell you they like you the way you are. They will whine that you don’t need to change. Why are your friends so focused on sabotage? Because if you change, they will have to change. They will have to get to know the new you, they will have to change the way they treat you . And your friends don’t want to change. It’s too much work. It is a lot less work to complain until you quit changing.

Your friends can be persistent and threatening. Most people don’t like confrontation, and they do like their friends, so they cave in and go back to being “normal.” And there goes the path to success.

If you are determined to change, tell your friends you plan ahead of time and enlist their help. Ask them to support you before the chorus of complaints begins. Often asking for support not only makes friends understand that this is important to you, it helps you be clear about what you want. And talking about the change helps you be clear about what you want for your future.

That doesn’t mean your friends will always support you, but it gives you a better start. And a good start is the best way to start toward a good finish.

–Image: http://www.triathletemag.com

–Quinn McDonald is a life coach and certified creativity coach. See her work at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2008 All rights reserved.

How To: Write an Ad for Your Art

Ads help your clients understand your work. If the client doesn’t understand your work, they won’t  buy it.  If the client can’t understand your ad,  they won’t understand your art and you won’t make a sale. Several years ago, there … Continue reading →

Hidden Costs on Websites

There is an annoying trend starting up on websites, and I’d like to nip it in the bud. All of you who sell products and services on your websites, quit hiding the cost of your memberships, classes, and products. Quit making me click on “buy now” or fill out registration forms with all my information before I find what I have to pay.

You are probably thinking that telling me the price up front will make me leave, because my buying decision is based on price, and if you can show me a few more facts, I’ll think the price is a bargain.

Don’t know about everyone out there, but if I can’t find the price, I feel like I’m being scammed. I don’t like searching for things you cleverly hide. You can’t make your clients eat your vegetables on your website.

Put your price where I can see it and consider it. I’m not so dumb that if you’ve led me on a chase through your website, and I finally find the price, I’m going to think it’s worthwhile and buy.

And while I’m at it, stop calling prices “investment fees,” “opportunity cost” and other nonsense. It’s a price, and I’m willing to pay it if you give me real information and put the price up front, so I can make a decision like an adult. If you don’t, I’m finding someone who will.

–Image: secrethidingplace.com

–Quinn McDonald teaches Writing for the Web and other business communication classes. She is also a certified creativity coach. See her work at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2008 All rights reserved.

Tutorial: Monochromatic Collage

This gallery contains 2 photos.

Working with just one color is a study in shifts and changes, a challenge in training your eye. But the work is rich, and the rewards many. One of the most amazing parts of this work is to see the … Continue reading →

Journal Prompt: Know Who You Are

Yesterday, I heard an interview with Helen Prejean, the nun who wrote “Dead Man Walking.” She spoke briefly, yet with great conviction. the sentence that made me sit up and take notice was, “To know what I believe, I watch what I do.”

A simple sentence, but a powerful one. How often do we speak for compassion, but don’t act on it? How easy to point to a fault in someone and not see it in ourselves.

The sentence was a great one, and one that makes a wonderful journal prompt. I spent a timed five minutes writing, and was surprised where it took me. Try it for yourself and you’ll be surprised to find out who you are.

–Image: Quinn McDonald. Quinn is a certified creativity coach. See her writing at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2008 All rights reserved.

The Many People We Can Be

“ Don’t I know you from somewhere?” the woman asked me. She was in my booth at an art show. I had recognized her when she came in, but I knew that in this different context, she would not recognize me. “I was your trainer two weeks ago, ‘Problem Solving for Leadership,’ I said.

She looked horrified. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m an artist, too,” I explained. I left out creativity coach, life coach and writer. One thing at a time.

“You can’t do that,” she said in a stern tone, “You can’t be both. What are you really?”

Who Are You Today?
It’s an interesting question. We are many people—spouses, parents, significant others, neighbors, organ donors, —but we see ourselves as one person at a time. During the day we are what we do—corporate employee—and when we leave work we become the “real” us. And if we’ve integrated what we do with who we are, we favor identifying ourselves by our work. “I’m an accountant,” or “I’m an engineer,” is something we hear more often than, “I’m intrigued by the idea that there is a great deal of similarity among the origination story of different religions.”

Learning How to Be You
Two generations ago, most schools prepared us for life—we took languages, world history, art, music, science, math and philosophy. We learned how to reason abstractly and think creatively. Now schools prepare us for a job—engineer, lawyer, journalist. We learn only those facts that can be proven to be necessary—either on the next test, or for the job.

But most of the things that have served me best in life—compassion, understanding, listening, exploring possibilities—aren’t taught in school anymore. They can’t be quantified enough to be put into a multiple-choice test. But life, it turns out, is not a multiple-choice test, it’s a series of essay exams.

Think Big: Be More
But experience can’t be summarized in a sound bite. Life doesn’t fit a three-word definition of who you are and how you fit into society.

As we speed up life, we have just enough time, it seems, to get one job done right. And our culture tells us that getting it right is very important, so we’d better not have time to learn about more possibilities. Instead, we’d better prove that we are worthy of regular title promotions and salary increases.

Think Creative, Live Creative
You can, of course, be someone else as a hobby. But hobbies need to be controlled and preferably quantifiable, like collecting something. Once you start to make money at a hobby, you better have a name for your company and be ready to fill out a form C for the IRS—and make a decision about what you really want to do.

Barbara Kingsolver, author of The Poisonwood Bible, The Bean Trees, and Animal Dreams, found strong disapproval when she gave in to her need to play music and joined the Rock Bottom Remainders with Amy Tan, Dave Berry and Stephen King. Of that experience, she writes “As I get comfortable with the middle stretch of my life, though, it’s occurred to me that this is the only one I’m going to get. I’d better open the closet door and invite my other selves to the table, even if it looks undignified or flaky. . .I’m not looking for a new me, just owning up to all the old ones. . . . The Rock Bottom Remainders went on record as half-bad musicians having wholehearted lives.”

One Life, Many Lives
I’m well past the halfway part of my life, and there are still several lives, ideas, paths, to try out. I don’t want to say ‘no’ to any of them. There is a lot to do in the time I have left and a mind clear enough to do it. I want to look forward. Looking back is comforting because we are no longer there, and because we know everything we are looking at. Looking ahead is full of mystery and the unknown. But I would rather spend my time looking square-on at today’s mystery than looking back on things that can’t be changed.

–Quinn McDonald is a certified creativity coach, writer and trainer in how to communicate in the corporate world. See her work at QuinnCreative.com