For the last two weeks of 2016, I am reposting some of my favorite weekly Studio Notes from throughout the past year. Sometimes reading a weekly article from earlier in the year can seem like reading someone’s writings because it was written so long ago. I found myself agreeing with the article and then I thought, well, of course I agree because I wrote it. Weirdly, sometimes I can take my own advice. In this case, creative flow can come from even just thinking about what I might want to create for next years series. So access to creative flow can be as easy as looking for inspiration for what to create next. If you are spending time traveling over the holidays and can’t bring any art materials along, never fear. You can just daydream about it.  Click this link to an article about that.

Enjoy this repost of Is Doing Nothing Really Relaxing? Creative Flow Part 2

For the last two weeks of 2016, I am reposting some of my favorite weekly Studio Notes from throughout the past year. I reread some of my articles today and found the one entitled Authenticity vs. Influences. I thought this particular article was helpful as I enter these few weeks of looking for inspiration. I wrote in the article that I used to be concerned about being influenced too much by others art. Now I feel I have the confidence in my creative output to honor my influences but through the lens of my art worldview. The more you create, the easier it is to find your authentic voice. 

Enjoy this repost of Studio Notes.  

Last week I wrote about Why Do An Annual Review? As part of my review, I wrote a list of some things in the past year that I have actually completed. Now bear with me. This is not to be full of myself. That's not the kind of person I am. This is to show what can be built off of 15 minutes creating a day. Once the daily creating becomes a creative practice, you start looking around for "What is next?” Then after the next creative habit is an established habit, again you ask yourself, “What is next?" I started creating art every day and people were surprised I kept it up. So I decided to write about how I did keep going creating every day. Then I started making so much art I filled up the walls in our house. Hence, my online original art shop addition on my website. 

Who knows "What is next?"  Everyone has their own path.

This year, I wanted to take some time to reflect about last year and think about what my focusses should be for next year. I had saved a blog post from  Chris Guillebeau from a few years ago just in case I decided to do this. Here is the link How to Conduct Your Own Annual Review.

This is what he recommends to do…

"To begin the process, I ask myself two questions and try to come up with at least 6-8 answers to each:

What went well this year?
What did not go well this year?

For these answers, I’m mostly interested in events I have control over. If something did not go well that I couldn’t prevent or control, it doesn’t need to go on the list."