Perfectionism - The Artist's Way

I have been reading The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron for over a year now. It's not a book you just plow through. It is a journey to ponder and to experience slowly.

In the chapter called "Week 7," she talks about perfectionism. I found it to be extremely enlightening. Below are some tidbits from this chapter.

"Perfectionism has nothing to do with getting it right. It has nothing to do with fixing things. It has nothing to do with standards. Perfectionism is a refusal to let yourself move ahead. It is a loop - an obsessive, debilitating closed system that causes you to get stuck in the details of what you are writing or painting or making and to lose sight of the whole."

"We correct our originality into a uniformity that lacks passion and spontaneity."

"The perfectionist fixes one line of a poem over and over - until no lines are right. The perfectionist redraws the chin line on a portrait until the paper tears."

"Instead of enjoying the process, the perfectionist is constantly grading the results."

"In order to do something well, we must first be willing to do it badly."

I hope these words have inspired you to just do what you are inspired to do, then let go of it, stand back and say, "That's pretty good."

(By the way, I read and reread what I just wrote about five times...just to make sure it was right.)

yet another copic letter

you will be sick of them in the end...probably

This is by far, my favorite. You can 'grout' the tiles in the mosiac with a gel pen or leave them to melt into one another as in the sample. I only used two marker colors her ! and it is still amazing to me. big thanks to the blending pen...

p.s. i turned 49 yesterday. i better make it a good one before they move me onto '50'....

more copic letters

these little announcements are fun, fast and I love the 'handmade' qualities. Original size is 3 x 5 , and the blues are copic marker with the brush lettering, outlined, shadowed and then detailed with the signo white pen. The outline pen is just a zig writer. I am sure I am going to Copic purgatory for mentioning that Zig pen in the same blog entry as Copic Markers.

Copic Letters

About a million years ago, I promised to share my Copic Letters with Kerr. I hate to break promises, so... here is the tye dye letter !

Sketches

Every morning, after the first cup of coffee, I sit in MY chair and do what amounts to "pen aerobics". I have mountains of sketch books, full of my silly exercise art! They recieve titles and then get a place in the archives unless they become a gift.
                      from the sketchbook of February, 2011:



The Wedding Gift



For Lefties

Our recent poster, Jessica, mastered the Italic Brush Lettering in record speed. No kidding. I was amazed. And she taught me some things about being a left-handed calligrapher.
You all see how grand her lettering is, so all of you who are lefties, the challenge is on!

Kerr,

This is the work I have been doing since our class. It was wonderful learning from you. If you haven't had the opportunity to take a brush lettering class with Kerr, I strongly suggest it. Not only is this a fun lettering but also Kerr is an awesome teacher. Thanks again for the class.

Jess