Sunday, February 12, 2006

Artist way: week 12 check-in

All too often, when we say we want to be creative, we mean that we want to be able to be productive. -J. Cameron

In terms of Artist Way tasks, my performance this week was anything but stellar, but still, I experienced a feeling of accomplishment for completing the book and enjoyed looking back on the small, positive changes in my creative life.

The photo is of a section of my branching out scarf, knit last fall and cited as an example of my habit of creating and abandoning almost finished objects. It's pinned to my design wall, blocking now--I am going to wear it to work one day next week. Along with another almost finished scarf, socks and a sleeveless turtleneck, I faced my fears of judgement and finished the projects anyway. The sky didn't fall.

I also made the leap and tried a new direction in quilting. No one laughed out loud or slyly intimated that my approach was too simplistic.

In the time available to me, I am making more and finishing more. I credit the work with TAW.

At work, I have re-established an attitude of work as play and am finding ways to enjoy being there.

Getting back to the basics, a week of sleepless nights resulted in no morning pages this week for me and, honestly, I missed the way they help me stay grounded during stressful times.

My artist date this week was the beginning of a 2 week adventure that I'm sharing with more than 4,000 others around the world: the Knitting Olympics. A couple of participants have blogged about why they think we're all doing it. My opinion is that we're doing it for the simple JOY it brings. It has all the qualities of a perfect artist date.

My Knitting Olympics experience provided me with a bit of synchronicity, too. As I just described in my upate, after making phenomenal progress, I discovered a mistake and had to rip out most of what I knit yesterday afternoon and evening. Flipping back through chapter 12 and my notes on it, I had to smile at this, very appropriate for me, quote:

Do not fear mistakes–there are none. -Miles Davis

2 comments:

Rian said...

Even the tiniest positive changes are giant steps forward.

Way to go on the Knitting Olympics. Simple pleasures are the best, aren't they.

Cathy said...

I love the scarf! sometimes the small steps forward are the most lasting. You mentioned you're trying a new direction in quilting and no one laughed and said your approach was too simplistic. Simple is good. Most of the time we trip ourselves up by making things much harder than they need to be. Good luck on your continued journey.

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