I wrote the following on my blog and facebook fanpage today:

Having created a significant body of work over the last decade (nearly 200* completed quilts), I plan to continue pushing myself to excellence by building on past successes and learning from the mistakes. Working as a professional artist, with any eye to creating a lasting legacy for my artwork, is my intention.

A lasting legacy for my artwork. That is big. Hello museums and important collections!

Feels great to think big and set big intentions. Just making the statement generates a zillion ideas for how to move to forward to meet the goals.

Wrap Up

What big bold statement can you make about your art? Your art career? Leave a comment below or post it on your blog, facebook/twitter and leave a link here.

Be Big!

 
I invite you to become a fan of MakeBigArt on social media where I’ll be sharing additional tips and comments.
MakeBigArt fanpage
MakeBigArt on Twitter

In addition you can also find me here:

My Blog
On Twitter
Facebook Profile
Lisa Call – Textile Paintings Fan Page

 
—lisa

Thinking Big about Art

When I left for South Africa at the end of July I had the intention to continue to write blog posts on makebigart during my month long vacation.

I had a list of topics for the posts I would write while gone and one day near the beginning of the trip I even spent an hour or so working on a draft.

And then reality hit me – I was on vacation and I loving relaxing and taking a break from doing stuff all the time. I decided to drop the idea I needed to WORK on my vacation and just relaxed and had the most amazing time. I didn’t even get around to writing blog posts about all my adventures as I was staying in the moment and just enjoying the trip.

It was fabulous.

My intention was to jump right back into art and blogging and art business stuff upon my return in late august, well rested and relaxed.

Life Happens

Life had other plans for me and upon my return home there were 3 significant changes to my life that threw me off course:

1) My mom was sick and in the hospital out of state. Now 3 1/2 months later, and a tremendous amount of time and energy from myself and my siblings, my mom is now living in Denver near me.
2) My project at work was canceled, resulting in a very stressful 2-3 month transition. We are just now hitting our stride on a new project and things are settling down on that front. (I work as a software engineer as my day job).
3) I met a wonderful guy and started a new romantic relationship.

The result was little to no studio time or art business time, including writing blog posts. MakeBigArt and my entire art career were just dusty memories generating guilt in the back of my mind as I focused on the issues at hand.

All sense of balance was gone. When I wasn’t dealing with my mom or work, I was getting to know my new boyfriend.

There was no “me” time at all.

Thoughts of Failure

As time marched on and I still wasn’t motivating myself to my studio I began to sink into the feeling that I was failing. Feeling my art career was trashed and makebigart should just be shut down as I clearly will have lost all my readers after a 5 month break on a brand new blog.

It’s easy to fall into this trap when we get off track. Since things aren’t perfect today might as well just give up all together.

I’d set an intention to work on my art or write a blog post for makebigart, and it wouldn’t happen. Priorities were elsewhere so my focus went elsewhere. So back I went to feeling miserable about it all.

Success is Starting Again

I’d like to say I never had those thoughts as I know better, but I did.

Fortunately, I also had a voice in the back of my mind that kept reminding me that success isn’t about not failing, but about continuing to move forward even in the face of failure.

I’ve now reached a point where I believe I can start getting back to a consistent studio and writing schedule.

While my todo list is still a mile long for thing that must be done for my mother, it no longer includes things like “pack up house, move all belongings to Denver”, which require full time focus and energy.

There is still the issue of balancing relationships (I now have a boyfriend and a mother to fit into my life on a consistent basis) and there is much work that will be needed on that front and will certainly be the topic of future posts.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel and I feel like any minute I could break free and make it to fresh air. I might stumble again before I reach solid ground but I know where I’m headed and if I fall off course again I’ll take a deep breath and keep going.

And this is success.

- My readers to makebigart will return.
- My art career will be fine, if I don’t turn a profit on my art this year I will next year.
- Contacts I had been cultivating will either reconnect or be replaced by new.
- Any missed opportunities will be quickly forgotten as I recreate new ones.

Taking a break isn’t failure.

Not getting back up and starting again is.

How-To’s

I’d love to include a recipe for how to get back up again after such a break.

Something like “The 12 steps you need to follow to regain your focus” as these are the types of blog posts that generate big readership.

Thing is I don’t have the answer. I can tell you a few things I’ve done or could have done, that might help.

1. Exercise

In the past 3 months I’ve done almost no yoga or any other physical activity. I have no doubt had I made it a priority to do yoga at least 3 mornings a week and gone on walks I would have felt more balanced. I didn’t, but my advice to anyone going through a stressful time is to try to find time to do this. I knew I should, but just couldn’t get there.

I do know that unless I fit yoga back into my life each morning I am unlikely to return to a studio schedule, as at this point it’s a top priority for me.

2. Diet

I ate a lot of really crappy food the last 3 months. Lots of chips and dessert and general crap. Before I left for African I had removed sugar from my diet.

Fortunately the stress won over the bad food and I’ve lost 7 pounds since my return from Africa (where I managed to gain 5 pounds in 1 month in my decadent vacation eating) so I’m about even on the weight.

I’m now much more aware of what I’m eating and know that a significant weight gain would have added to feelings of failure.

3. Self Care

In the past 3 months I’ve had a couple massages. I’m contemplating signing up for a monthly massage to make this a routine. Nothing beats pampering for a sense of well being.

4. Sleep

I’ve had an extremely difficult time sleeping since my return home. The stress and changes in my life resulted in some unpleasant and bad sleep habits. When one is sleep deprived it’s hard to make good decisions or feel positive about life.

I admit to being extremely reluctant to address this issue in my own life, but I do know that had I gotten some help sleeping things would have looked up a lot quicker.

5. Battling Depression

There were days and weeks in the last month were I lacked all motivation to do anything and the future was looking grim. Add up the numbers and depression is the word most likely used in such situations.

I went back to my acupuncturist for help in this area and I swear it is truly magical. Your mileage may vary and other forms of help for depression may be needed (from therapy, which I also participate in, to medication).

There is no reason to be depressed. Acupuncture may not be cheap but my mental health is of primary importance and worth every penny of it.

6. Get Help

My todo list was miles long when we realized we needed to move my mom out to Colorado to live by me and I’m the type of person that rarely, if ever, asks for help. This time around I had no choice. While I didn’t reach out often, the few times I did I was always met with a warm reception and helping hand.

Lightening the load can free up some time for exercise or a dip into the studio.

7. Spend Time with Friends

I’m slowly reconnecting with my friends and know that the time spent with those I care about is very healing and inspiring. When one is too busy to make art it’s hard to imagine how finding time for friends will help, but it does, by helping us reconnect with what is important to us.

Spending time with friends that share our passions is a wonderful way back to those passions.

8. Feed Your Soul

When things are bad, I turn to a few people that have magical uplifting effect on my psyche. For me the book Eat, Pray, Love is one such source of inspiration. It never fails to feed my soul, as do the word of Pema Chodron.

Wrap Up

How have you re-focused after a significant break? Any tips you can offer? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

 
I invite you to become a fan of MakeBigArt on facebook:
MakeBigArt.com fanpage – I’ll be sharing additional tips and comments on facebook throughout the week and writing longer articles on the blog.

In addition you can also find me here:

My Blog
On Twitter
Facebook Profile
Lisa Call – Textile Paintings Fan Page

 
—lisa

Thinking Big about Art