Zoom! From Haystack, to school to one retreat after another

Quick note to fill in the blanks while I work on the "real" posts for these events.

Got back on Friday night, August 27 from the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts (in Deer Isle, Maine) where I was the Technical Assistant to Cynthia Winika for the Hot Wax: Encaustic Painting Comprehensive Workshop.

The Haystack experience was amazing! I cannot say enough good things about it. I am doing a write up in more detail about this event.

Then school started for me on Tuesday, August 30th before I could even catch my breathe or really unpack my stuff (and life) from two weeks away at Haystack.

As I rush, rush hurry to class to work to class to home to blah blah blah... I am trying to get a solid hold of my schedule and make time for contemplation and writing about my events. But everything on my to do list marked priority! What is a girl to do?

So on that note, I am packing my bags to go teach Encaustic Collage at the San Diego Women's Caucus for Art Retreat, in Julian, CA. It will be the first time I am teaching just collage - which I think is the easiest way to begin to understand working in wax. I am excited to teach, and am looking forward to the event.

But another part of me is just looking forward to having a couple of days where someone cooks my meals again (thanks, Haystack for spoiling me for two weeks) and let's me have quiet time or social time at my own choosing.

I hope to have a great write up about both events within in next week. Then it is rush, rush off to the International Encaustic Artist Annual Advance (Retreat) in San Francisco, the week after that! I think I will need a retreat from all the retreats I am going to.

Until then! Happy art making (even in a rush!) ~ Jaime Lyerly

Blog Triage - HW #3 - "About me" Revamped

Where does your path lead?

Like any slacker student, I am choosing to do the homework I like first before the others. Therefore, for my Blog Triage homework, I am skipping #2 for the moment. Don't tell the teachers!

Blog Triage Homework #3 is about revamping our "About Me" page.

Hooray! I have had roughly the same "About Me" page on Blogger since I started the blog in January 2009. Adding a few sentences over the last few months does not count as revamping, so it is time.

How could my "About Me" be the same if the "ME" part of it is not? Haven't I grown in over a year? Haven't you grown?

So rather than fix up the "About me" page and secretly hope that you never see the previous one, I decided to make a blog post to tell you where I was, and where I am NOW.

"About Me" Before:

I am a mixed media artist trying to bridge the gap between personal narrative and art made for the public eye. My works speak of the ambiguity of our future and our connection to the natural world. As a mother, I try to make the best out of what has been given to me and my art reflects that never-ending effort. It is messy, layered, personal and uncertain – just like everyday living. Found objects, discarded materials and branches from nature blend together with beeswax and hand-knitted yarn to create art that is familiar yet hauntingly distant from its original function. My current work is in exploring the limits and versatility of encaustic (molten beeswax applied hot, resin and pigments) in two dimensional and three-dimensional forms. My explorations include traditional encaustic paneling on panel, but also working three dimensionally with the wax to find out how far it can be removed from its' support. I manipulate the wax using heat, and combine it materials that are not used in traditional encaustic painting. I then examine how it is affected by light, motion, and heat. I love to share my process with others.

This "About Me" is basically my artist statement (which also needs lots of help).

To re-write this, here is a little free-writing...

What's the same:

• Working in encaustic wax and beeswax
• Sharing my process
• Still a mother, artist and blogger
• Being a nerdy, scholarship-winning honor society art undergraduate student
• Tattooed, opinionated, talkative and easily distracted
• Playful and full of enthusiasm
  
• Son calls me "Visser One" and say "yes, my evil master..." when I assign extra chores
  
• Interested in Conceptualism, Art History and Psychology
• Love to read
  
• Experimentation and process art
• Creating something everyday
• Love to support other artists
• Being a procrastinator
  

What is different:

• My son is starting high school next year (that statement makes me feel old...)
• My purple hair
  
• Seeking more of a spiritual connection and balance in my life
  
• Fiber becoming more important to my work
  
• Working more in 3-D encaustic sculpture
• Scientific exploration and research more important
  
• Blogging/documenting a larger part of my creative process
• Started teaching workshops in Encaustic Painting

So let's combine these together...

See my new (and improved?) About me page.

Updated my fancy purple hair picture too in case that natural color was throwing you off.

"Going outside to work!" I holler to my family as I tie up my purple hair and don my wax-covered apron. With encaustic wax melting on a palette in my studio/balcony space, I juggle birch panels, fiber creations and my digital camera as I head outside. Why? Because you need to see an enthusiastic mixed media and encaustic artist at work. And that is why I am here - to share my process with you.

Encaustic (molten beeswax, damar resin and pigment) is an ancient medium that has grown in popularity in contemporary art. It can be combined with mixed media, collage, wood, fiber, and be transformed into paintings and three-dimensional objects with a luminosity that any medium would envy.

Want to know more? Follow, subscribe to my blog, or my newsletter for all the waxy details. I occasionally teach encaustic workshops in San Diego, so do not miss your chance to fling some wax with me.

Fair warning: my blog is not ALL about waxy bliss. I share tips about social networking, art marketing, San Diego events and unique Calls for Artists. I blog about spiritual growth, community involvement and balance seeking. I write tutorials on art techniques and share my own and other artists' artwork and creative processes. I even blog about blogging and make stuff everyday... anything that gets the creative juices following. However, I cannot do all this without YOU!

So join me on this inspirational path as we find out why "Art making is a Journey."

Whew! Let's hope it is not another year before I update that again.

What do you think? ~ Jaime Lyerly

Biting off more than I can chew

After two weeks with a bad cough and cold, I am back to work. So much has happened in the last two weeks that I cannot cram it all into one post.

Basically, I am in confession mode again.

I am frequently "biting off more than I can chew."

I hear an opportunity and say "YES!" before I figure out how it would fit into the balance of my life. And I am trying my best to get back to center with my time commitments. Here is my most recent example.

In January, I accepted the position as President of the San Diego Women's Caucus for Art. I have been a member for a couple of years, and started taking a more active role on the board this year as the Social Networking / Blogger.

Being the go-to person for all things Social Networking, this seemed like an easy task for me and add just a little more to my plate. I run the San Diego Women's Caucus for Art blog and our Facebook group.

However, when I was approached to run for President, I thought this was perfect timing. I have two more semesters until I get my BA in art, and I am not taking any classes that would interfere with my art. I did think about this decision for a while and talked it over with my partner.

I have such big goals for the SDWCA, and was eager to get started. In January, after the first board meeting I was so excited. Little did I know how much time this would take.

By the second board meeting, I had only completed a few tasks on my list and would have to sacrifice studio and/or family time to get anything else done.

I started getting resentful of the time that this was taking away from me. This was my own choosing, so I had no one to blame but myself.

By the third scheduled board meeting, I realized that I had to make a choice. Even though it tough to admit, I didn't have the time to add such a big commitment to my schedule. And the stress that not being able to fit it all in made it even worse.

So I resigned from the presidency. Luckily, VP Ellie Benfatti was ready and willing to step up into the position. Therefore, Ellie Benfatti is now the current President of the San Diego Women's Caucus for Art. Yay Ellie!

Ellie will do an amazing job with the SDWCA and I am so happy that she is taking the post. Stay tuned for more news about the improvements we have in store.

As for me, I have learned a hard lesson about a balanced life.

Your Turn:
Want to share your stories of "biting off more than you can chew?" Please feel free to comment. I would love to know that I am not alone.

Thanks for supporting me on this artistic journey! ~ Jaime Lyerly

Casting a wide (and waxed) net. Another step in my artistic journey.

"Untitled (Gatherings Series)" Encaustic, Beeswax, oil stick and charcoal on 30"x30"x2" claybord. © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

One of the pieces that I entered today in the SDSU juried student art exhibition.

I find out tomorrow if it is chosen for the exhibition.

I think am finally earning my assumed title of emerging artist.

One of my goals for this year is to get my art work out of my house and into some local and national art shows.

I make and make and make stuff. Some could be called art. Some is not.
Sometimes I blog about it.
Sometimes I take pictures of it and post them.
Sometimes I bring them to my sculpture critiques.
.... But mostly, I make stuff because I am compelled to do it.

After all this creating, some of it is turns out to be something I want others to see.

Most of them are encaustic, and since that is my niche, that is what I want to show out.

A few weeks ago, I submitted work to: Luminous Layers: Exploring Contemporary Encaustic
which is an special encaustic only show curated by Embracing Encaustic author Linda Womack
and today at the San Diego State University Student Exhibition.

I have also applied for two scholarships: the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts "Encaustic Comprehensive workshop" and the Golden Key Visual Arts Scholarship. I have two more scholarships I am applying for, which are both due within the next two weeks.

Why am I listing this all here?

It is to remind myself (and my readers who may have forgotten) that it takes effort to get art work into the world and to find creative ways to fund our education.

Sure, I would love someone just to throw some money my way, or to come to my house and buy art from me there, but I am not going to hold my breath.

But I am making the effort now. Add this to my regular school, work, family and volunteer activities, my under-eye circles may be a little darker than usual.

Will I get into the shows?
Win the scholarships?
Will more people be interested in my work?
Will I get some solid sleep?

Maybe all of the above. Maybe none of the above.

But I am casting a wide net to try to capture opportunities before they pass.

And that is another step along my journey towards living an artful life. ~Jaime Lyerly

The Psychology of Collaboration

Collaboration.

Working together with another artist(s) to produce something that is part of you both (all).

Sounds like a good thing, right?

Maybe; but I am not sure it is for me. Here is why:

Last year, I tried to be a part of a collaborative mail art group. I failed miserably at this collaboration.

The idea :
Start a small art work that can be shipped in a 8X5 padded envelope. You could have up to 5 pieces and then send them out to members your group. They would have one week to work on it and pass it along to another artist. You would eventually get it back when it has gone through about 4 people. You also work on whatever comes in the mail for you, and send it on to the next person. Simple enough, right?

Well, not for me. I started three pieces and sent them out. I never received anything in the mail until a month later when I was in the apex of the semester and getting ready to go in May on a two-week study tour to China and Japan.

But it isn't the fact that I received the pieces later that made me fail at this. It was that I never thought about the psychology of collaboration. Here is my definition:

The psychology of collaboration is all the questions and inner struggles that you face when you are working a piece of art was started and belongs to another artist.

I'll admit, I procrastinated a bit on getting my own pieces started. I wanted them to be perfect - but that will never happen.

Finally, I sent them off into the world to be worked on by other artists that I didn't know well. It was just when I received other artists' work that became a procrastination nightmare.

These thoughts went through my head when I received the mail art:

Wow, these are so cool.
I could do this, this, and this...
Maybe I can add this to the piece and take this out...
Wait, what if I do this, and she hates it...
Maybe I shouldn't be doing this...
I wish this was my piece...
What if I "ruin" it?
What if I make bad art...
These are professional artists - what the heck am I doing with them...
Maybe this is a bad idea...
How could I have thought that I could do this...
I have so little time now, I will work on this later when I have more time...
I cannot "deal" with this now...

Then the piece gets put aside until I can "deal with it," which is never.

Then the embarrassment and self-consciousness of holding onto the pieces too long (and not working on them at all because of fear) becomes so great that I start making myself less available. The pieces never get sent back either. I "lose" them in my other mail for months.

Collaboration falls apart and I have let everyone down - including myself.

At the time, I never thought that this would be the end result of my first attempt at collaboration. Everyone looked like they were having so much fun!

For someone who is obsessed with process, the idea of documenting a piece of art work at each stage of development is very exciting. I loved seeing what everyone else in the mail art groups (there were 2 others) was posting up on Facebook. It was amazing to see the transformations.

Yet, I hesitated and do what is very familiar to me now, "choosing by not choosing."

If you wait long enough, your choices of what can happen are limited. Wait too long on a scholarship/grant deadline, you will miss it. Forget to pay your bills, you get a late fee. Decide not to enter an art completion, you will never get in.

I know all these things, but I still do them.

And this time, my procrastination and self-doubt robbed me of an opportunity to participate in something special. I was not only hurting myself by procrastinating, but letting my group down.

So, through this mail art experience, I realized that I was not ready for collaboration.

Almost a year has gone by since that experience. And I am taking a small step into the realm of collaboration - this time with new rules and new eyes.

An artist friend from my advanced sculpture class, Sunshine, mentioned on the first day of the semester that she was looking to do an art collaboration with someone. She said that she wanted to exchange a piece with an artist, and we both work with the pieces for two weeks then exchange back again.

Sunshine is an amazing artist who has a BA in metalsmithing. She attends my advanced sculpture class for the critiques and to continue her mentee relationship with the instructor Richard Keely.

I am a great admirer of her work and her dedication to exploring her own process. So when she mentioned collaboration, my first instinct was "YES, I want to do this!"

But then my self-doubt compelled me to admit my hesitancy. I explained to her my previous failure at collaboration. She was understanding and still interested in working with me.

Here is what makes this collaboration different (and I hope more likely to succeed):
I know the artist that I am working with
I know her current work
She knows my current work
I see her every Friday, therefore cannot "avoid her" as easily
She is very friendly, and understanding
We are peers
She is interested in process
She has a similar aesthetic interest as myself

We started our collaboration three weeks ago. She brought me this amazing rubber and fiber piece to work on. Sunshine said that it was a piece that she had been working on for a while and still wasn't happy with it. She wanted to see if I could work on it, which would let her look at it again with fresh eyes. I loved the piece from the start, which is a good and bad thing. I also had ideas right away of what I wanted to do with it.

I hesitated to start, though. And I hesitated even more to bring her something of my own to have her work on. Nothing I had seemed "worthy" of her time.

Finally, I started heating up my beeswax to give the tufts a thin coat of wax. This would change it into something that I could understand - fiber and wax.

Here is what was going on in my head again, while working on Sunshine's piece:
This piece is so cool...
I wish it was mine...
I am going to give it a coat of wax and see how that looks.
But what if she hates it?
What if I ruin it?
Maybe I can take the rubber apart and shape it.
But then it would never go back to its' shape.
What if that is what she liked about the piece.
I wish this piece was mine so that I wouldn't have this pressure.
Okay, lets put it in the wax.
Hmm, that looks interesting. How about the red wax.
Oh no! I am not sure about that one. Why didn't I test it out first?
Is it ruined now?
I am confident that Sunshine is improving my piece, and what am I doing here...
Maybe this was a bad idea.
Maybe I am just not meant to collaborate.
How can I be so bold with my own experimentation and so timid with this piece?
I wish this piece was mine.
I will let it dry and then see how that looks.
Looks cool, now for some embroidery on it.
Oh, the needle puts a hole in the fabric that cannot be hidden!
Did I just ruin it?
Just finish this embroidery, Jaime, and stop thinking about this so much.

Even more questions than before! I knew I needed to work out some of these issues, so it was time for the journal. I wrote in my journal about ten pages about how I didn't expect this collaboration to be such a thought-provoking process. I thought it would be more about working with new materials and making it a part of me.

Instead it has been a process of not only making art, but also examining my own artistic self-doubt and worthiness as an artist. Powerful work, to say the least.

This collaboration is not done. Sunshine was not in class last Friday so that I could give her the piece. So my doubts are still crackling in the air.

But I am now aware of the psychology of collaboration. And will continue to explore these mental processes while working with the physical materials.

My hope is that this collaboration with Sunshine will help me redeem myself as someone who is able to collaborate.

I will continue to explore my own inner landscape of doubt, while pushing forward to create.

Your Turn:

Collaboration: Friend or Foe? Have you collaborated with other artists? Was your inner critic on high volume while working on the piece? Anyone else have more struggles with your own inner voice more than the material before you? I would love to hear your stories.

Thanks for letting me share my process with you! ~ Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings - Oil Pastel drawings by Jaime Lyerly

Obsession comes in many forms.

I have many obsessions, here are five that are intricately tied to this post.

I am obsessed with psychological color.
I am obsessed with the abstracted figure.
I am obsessed with learning.
I am obsessed with exploring my interior space.
I am obsessed with new experiences.

Rather than show you the encaustic paintings and fiber/wax sculptures that I am in the process of making (those pictures to come soon), I want to share with you an obsession that I had from November 2009 to January 2010 - A series of drawings in oil pastel and pencil that have taken on a life of their own.

I started doing drawing of bulbous figurative forms to describe a Family Constellation (energy healing) workshop that I participated in November 2009. I wanted to find a way to document the experience without the words that seemed so inadequate.

Family Constellation Healing, Gatherings 1, oil pastel on 8X5" Moleskine sketchbook © 2009 Jaime Lyerly

I was fascinated by the abstract and yet recognizable quality of the forms, and started intuitively drawing them. And draw them, and draw them, again and again. They have spilled out onto drawings on board, shapes in fabric, encaustic paintings, and embroideries, but I come back to the Moleskine to continue to work out my obsession with them.

Now that I have been embroidering and knitting forms at night instead of using the oil pastels, I thought it was time to share these creations.

The sketchbook drawings are not "finished" art work, but rather a process that I enjoy exploring. They inspire more finished work in other forms that live outside of the sketchbook.

These are not exactly in chronological order but more of a general order of what came first. Here are the sketchbook pages:

Gatherings 2, oil pastel and pencil on 8X5" Moleskine sketchbook © 2009 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 3, oil pastel and pencil on 8X5" Moleskine sketchbook © 2009 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 4, oil pastel and pencil on 8X5" Moleskine sketchbook © 2009 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 5, oil pastel and pencil on 8X5" Moleskine sketchbook © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 6, oil pastel and pencil on 8X5" Moleskine sketchbook © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 7, oil pastel and pencil on 8X5" Moleskine sketchbook © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 8, oil pastel and pencil on 8X5" Moleskine sketchbook © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 9, oil pastel and pencil on 8X5" Moleskine sketchbook © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 10, oil pastel and pencil on 8X5" Moleskine sketchbook © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 11, oil pastel and pencil on 8X5" Moleskine sketchbook © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 12, oil pastel and pencil on 8X5" Moleskine sketchbook © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 13, oil pastel and pencil on 8X5" Moleskine sketchbook © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 14, oil pastel and pencil on 8X5" Moleskine sketchbook © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 15, oil pastel and pencil on 8X5" Moleskine sketchbook © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 16, oil pastel and pencil on 8X5" Moleskine sketchbook © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Sometimes the figures are so obscured that they are no longer visible...

Gatherings 17, oil pastel and pencil on 8X5" Moleskine sketchbook © 20Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 18, oil pastel and pencil on 8X5" Moleskine sketchbook © 2009 Jaime Lyerly

Remember those acrylic paintings I did in a frenzy of painting on claybord in August 2009? I covered some of them with paper a month later and still felt that they were not living up to their potential.

I felt it was time to bring these out of the sketchbook so I used the boards I had on hand. And now they have a new life by being part of this series. These feel more "finished" than the sketchbooks just because they are on something more suitable for public viewing.

Gatherings continued on board...

Gatherings 19, oil pastel and pencil over acrylic on 6X6" claybord © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 20, oil pastel and pencil over acrylic on 6X6" claybord © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 21, oil pastel and pencil over acrylic on 6X6" claybord © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 22, oil pastel and pencil over acrylic on 6X6" claybord © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 23, oil pastel and pencil over acrylic on 6X6" claybord © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 24, oil pastel and pencil over acrylic on 6X6" claybord © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 25, oil pastel and pencil over acrylic on 6X6" claybord © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 26, oil pastel and pencil over acrylic on 6X6" claybord © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 27, oil pastel and pencil over acrylic on 6X6" claybord © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 28, oil pastel and pencil over acrylic on 5X5" claybord © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 29, oil pastel and pencil over acrylic on 6X6" claybord © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 30, oil pastel and pencil over acrylic on 6X6" claybord © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 31, oil pastel and pencil over acrylic on 6X6" claybord © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 32, oil pastel and pencil over acrylic on 6X6" claybord © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 33, oil pastel and pencil over acrylic on 6X6" claybord © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 34, oil pastel and pencil over acrylic on 6X6" claybord © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 35, oil pastel and pencil over acrylic on 6X6" claybord © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 36, oil pastel and pencil over acrylic on 6X6" claybord © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 37, oil pastel and pencil over acrylic on 6X6" claybord © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 38, oil pastel and pencil over acrylic on 6X6" claybord © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

Gatherings 39, oil pastel and pencil over acrylic on 6X6" claybord © 2010 Jaime Lyerly

I have plans for these....
Some of these I have printed out onto cotton fabric and am embroidering on top of them.
Some of them may get covered in encaustic wax.
Some of them may never go anywhere outside of this blog post.
But all of them get to gather here now and have a presence.

I would love to hear your comments, and as always thank you for sharing your artistic journey with me.

~Jaime Lyerly

Addicted to Philanthropy

Can you be addicted to Philanthropy? I think I am.

Donations? Sure, where do I send the money or stuff?

Promotion of a good cause? Even easier - I'll post it on my blog, Facebook and Twitter.


Volunteering my time? Yes, of course I...wait. Maybe not. But I will try anyway!

As I strive for BALANCE in my life, it is really difficult to turn down chances to help others. I say "YES!" before I think or even check my schedule. But is it really that bad? I'm not sure.

Let's look what volunteer activities I have scheduled or participated in the last week and upcoming.


Sunday - San Diego Women's Caucus for Art Board meeting. (I am the President this year, so I cannot skip these monthly meetings, and all the assignments that go with them).

Wednesday - Hillsdale Middle School Builder's Club - Teaching kids to use the Knifty Knitter to knit hats for babies which are given out all over the world. Helping each week for the rest of the semester.

Thursday - Drumming up HOPE, Fundraising for Haiti. One time event.

Saturday - SDSU Mortar Board Senior Honor Society's Backpack Stuffing of school supplies to give to under privileged children. One time event.

This is in addition to my college schedule, work schedule, art making, scholarship applying, show entering, personal obligations, study time and dare I even say it...social/personal life? 

I did say that I was giving up overachieving this year. But am I really?

It is hard to maintain this Superwoman lifestyle, but each week I schedule more and more into my packed life. So it must be my Addiction to Philanthropy.

I am hooked on helping others, even when sometimes I would rather play video games than to go help.  

The first step to addiction is to admit you have a problem. So here is my confession.

Anyone else addicted to helping? ~ Jaime Lyerly

Artist Question: Learn new skills or improve old ones

I have this undying need to ask questions of artists. 

Their process, their inspiration, their art marketing, their concepts, their education, their techniques, their opinions on the art world, their ability to balance, their artistic path and anything else that they will let me bother them with. 

So it only seems reasonable that I should be asking these same questions to my blogging and social networking audience. Therefore, I am going to start posing more questions and hope that some kind soul will take pity on me and answer them. 

With each answer, we all learn more about the artist and how they tick. So here is my first official Artist Question: 

As artists, is it better to learn new skills or improve old ones? 

With our limited time, how to you best utilize it? Is it better spent working in your chosen medium, or spent learning something new that you can connect later?

My example here, of course, comes from my own experience now. As a college art student, we are required (usually) to take studio courses outside of our chosen field. This is challenging and rewarding because it can show you a world outside of what you are already making and expose you to different instructors with new ways of working. You have a semester to learn these new skills, and even if it is painful, you can make it through.

This semester, I am taking Fiber Surface Design this semester and it includes embroidery. It is definitely not painful, and can be connected to most of my current work.

Learning traditional skills is rewarding, but I love how it can be applied to contemporary art issues. If you haven't seen this exhibit "Pricked: Extreme Embroidery" you must check it out. This is not your grandma's sampler.

But for me, embroidery is a new skill. It is time consuming.

Encaustic painting and beeswax sculptures are my chosen medium. It is also time consuming.


Three hours on a Saturday free. What do I do?


So artists, which do you chose? Learn new skills or improve existing ones? 

 Eagerly awaiting your response! ~ Jaime Lyerly


 

Missing art submission deadlines - Confessions of a Super Procrastinator

Feburary already? What happened here? Who stole my month of January? I want it back.

I haven't been blogging recently. Not for lack of want or even lack of time. It is all about not wanting to be in front of a computer any longer than I already am. My job involves the computer. School work involves a computer. My bills are mostly paid via computer. I am always searching for interesting art and artists online, or researching projects. I cannot get away!

So when I have been choosing my free time recently, it has been away from the computer and bend over an embroidery frame or a griddle full of wax. I will go on more about my new fiber class soon, because I have come to fall in love with embroidery. Ah, embroidery...

Okay focus! Here is what I need your help on - Missing Art Submission Deadlines. 

Even though I am still developing a solid body of work, I have begun to show my work in local exhibitions. I have more work that I want to show. The experience of applying is as important to me as getting into the shows. But there are a few snags.

Here are my 12 Steps to Miss Art Deadlines

1. See my artwork on the wall. Think to myself "I need to show my work more."
2. Search Art Deadline or look at emails for opportunities.
3. Find a show that fits my work.
4. Get Excited!
5. Check the dates. Sigh if it is past, and smile if it is upcoming.
6. Print out the info and/or post it to Facebook.
7. Place it in my direct view at work, or in a school binder so I see it.
8. COMPLETELY FORGET ABOUT IT.
9. Memory is triggered by something else, go find opprotunity again.
10. See the missed deadline.
11. Kick myself. Vow to find more shows that fit.
12. Repeat the process, repeatedly without the pattern changing.

See my problem? Me too, but I don't change my ways.

I admit there may be a little adult ADHD in me, but I know for sure that there is a lot more Procrastination than anything else. And I identify myself with this.

This is the dirty little secret of procrastinators everywhere. We procrasticate because we want it to be perfect, so we wait until there are better pictures, time to write a better statement, a better oppronity. Deadline missed. Procrastinator Sad. Pattern Repeats.

Procrastinators also want be organized, but we wait until we have "time" to organize, and that means NEVER. Or we get organized for a week and then lose interest in up-keeping it.

My favorite thing to say is "I don't want to deal with this now. I'll handle it later." Later never comes.

So then other than hiring someone to organize me or spending years in behavioral therapy, I turn to you. 

You are artists (creatives, writers and more). 

You get into shows. 

You make your deadlines.

Your work is seen by others (and maybe even sold). 

So how do you do it? 

I concede that your way may not work for me, but I am desperate for some advice here. Please leave a comment here, and share with everyone how you make it work.

Yours, in all her Procrastinating glory, ~ Jaime Lyerly 

The Creative Person’s Hierarchy of Needs by Cynthia Morris

I believe in synchronicities. Whatever you need to hear or think about will come just when it needs to happen. I have been stressing over how unbalanced my life is this semester. For those who don't know, I am a full-time undergraduate student at San Diego State University, studying art. Granted, it is stressful every semester, but this semester is already killing me and it is only two weeks in! It is hard being a mom, a student and working to make a living. But add being an artist to that mix and you have no time at all!

I have been feeling out of sorts and I know it is because my exercise and creative habits are being neglected. Intellectually, I know this. Yet I cannot seem to make myself do all that needs to be done. I admit that I have been choosing playing video games and watching movies over making art. I have only been working on art for my college classes, instead of doing my own work in encaustics. However, I am confident that all those ideas I have in my sketchbooks and projects that I have started will come into realization. I just need to reassess how what I am doing meets my creative needs.

Along comes this blog post by Creativity Coach and Travel Blogger Cynthia Morris. If you are not in the know about her blog Journey Juju and her free e-zine Original Impulses, it is time to be informed! I wrote about her wonderful e-book "Creative Toolkit for the Traveler" in this post about my preparation for my Japan and China tour.

So here is the blog post from Cynthia Morris called "The Creative Person's Hierarchy of Needs" Enjoy!

Perhaps you’ve heard of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. In a nutshell, as humans, our basic needs are: Physiological, Safety, Love/Belonging, Esteem and Self-Actualization. To read more, go here. To hear about the creative person’s needs, read on.

Creative people, those who are making things – books, businesses, design, art – have additional needs. Recognizing these needs and making sure they are met are essential to applied creativity.

When we don’t acknowledge our needs, we’re allowing life to dictate our experience. Knowing your needs and being willing to take action to make sure they are met will make the already challenging work of creating much easier.

In more than ten years of coaching and almost twice that time creating things myself, I’ve identified at least ten needs creative people have. But unlike Maslow, I don’t prioritize them. Each person will have their own hierarchy for these needs and will also have their own needs to add. Here they are:

1. Need for creative space, as Virginia Woolf called a ‘room of one’s own’. Depending on what you’re creating, you may not need as big a space as you think you do. Write or draw out your ideal space and then assess how you have elements of that in place now.

2. Need for creative peers. When you’re on the leading edge of creativity, you need other creative people who understand the risks you’re taking and who encourage them. We need creative peers to talk, share, get insights and ideas and to encourage us. Commit to connecting with people who ‘get’ you more often. This is one of the most common reasons people hire me, because I ‘get’ them and what they are trying to do.

3. Need for creative fuel. In her book The Artist’s Way Julia Cameron calls this need ‘filling the well’. I get so inspired when I am out in the world seeing what other people are doing. A favorite source of inspiration for me is museum shops. The Tate Modern shop blew me away and gave me an idea for my work that I love. You can get inspiration from books, magazines, blogs art galleries, and other well filling activities. Wherever you get it, get it often. (This is where you’d list coffee!)

4. Need for imaginative space. This is different than physical space. It’s the time we need for noodling, doodling, wandering, and gathering thoughts. While it appears to be the antithesis of productivity, it’s actually vital to a productive creative cycle. Don’t pack every moment full of activity.

5. Need for the body to be expressed. We’re out in the ethers most of the time, us artists. We need to remember to take good care of our bodies by walking, dancing, practicing yoga, playing tennis, or whatever moves you regularly. I get so many of my ideas when I am exercising. Get moving on your terms, but get moving.

6. Need for your creative edge. Solving problems, pushing boundaries, developing something new is at the heart of the creative process. Rather than despair about how difficult it is to write a really good article, embrace the challenge of your craft. While you’re at it, embrace the challenge of your creative industry. For instance, publishing a book traditionally seems nearly impossible these days. Take that challenge on by either figuring out the publishing game or self-publishing. Relish the creative edge – you need it.

7. Need for ample amounts of faith and belief. When we’re making something from nothing, we need to be able to rely on faith and belief in ourselves and our work. Without this we can operate from despair and give up before our work is complete. Tap into your belief that you are on the right track, and do it often.

8. Need to have our work responded to. Whether it’s ego or a deep desire to share your creative work, most of us need for our work to be seen and received by others. This will vary for each person, some wanting just close friends to see our work, others wanting a wider audience. Just be sure to get feedback from the right people at the right time.

9. Need for certainty. Ironically, one of the needs for artists is the ability to live in uncertainty. Traveling the creative path can make you feel lost most of the time. That’s why certainty in other areas of life: home, relationships, income, can help you have a sense of being held while you soar. Have some rootedness so you can be ‘out there’ as much as you need to.

10. Need for time. This seems to be the need that people struggle with the most. If you never get any time alone to work on your art, your life will be filled with other people’s ideas and thoughts. Make choices that allow time for your art. The laundry, your e-mail, your garden will all be there an hour later, after you have spent time with your art.

Again, I did not prioritize these. While I believe we all share these needs, everyone will have their own sense of the needs’ hierarchy. On my blog, tell me which needs have priority over the others, and add a need you have that I haven’t mentioned. To go further, make a list of your needs and assess how well those needs are being met right now. Brainstorm one thing you could do to work toward having those needs met, and then do it. This article is part of my year-long series of top ten lists to celebrate ten years in business at Original Impulse. Stay tuned until the end of the year when I bring all the articles together in one place for your creative enhancement.

Copyright 2009 Cynthia Morris. Cynthia coaches creative people to confidence and completion and inspires life as a creative adventure. Visit http://www.originalimpulse.com to get an infusion of inspiration for your art, writing and life.

Your Turn:
Are your actions supporting your own creative needs? Do you recognize when something is off? More importantly, how to you take the steps to correct this? I would love to hear what you think!
Happy Art-making! ~ Jaime Lyerly

Wine, Chocolate and Discussion - "Why We Make Art" at the Eclipse Chocolat Cafe

Here is another community event to sink your teeth into. See the information below from San Diego Women's Caucus for Art member Steffanie Dotson:

Why We Make Art
-A discussion hosted by the Women's Caucus for Art, San Diego Chapter

When: Friday, August 21, 2009 from 6pm - 8pm

Where: Eclipse Chocolat Cafe
2121 El Cajon Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92104
(at El Cajon & Alabama near Washington)

Why: The discussion is intended to get us all thinking and ACTING and inspired to make more art, and to find what our roles are in the community and in our careers as women artists.

10% of all proceeds made during the discussion will go to the WCA San Diego. So come thirsty and hungry for chocolates. Eclipse offers coffee, tea, wine and other delicious dessert beverages such as drinking chocolates. They also have an impressive array of handmade chocolate truffles, candy bars, cupcakes, and other yummy treats.

More about the Topic of discussion:
The question that at one time or another has perplexed us all as artists: Why do I make art?

Our discussion will pose this question and we hope to hear from each of you. Of course, we can't hope to answer or even have a fruitful discussion about this without posing other questions.

• What does it take to be a successful artist?
• And we pose this question as a very personal inquiry... what makes you feel accomplished, validated?
• When you really shave away all the layers of making, whether it be performance art, painting, sculpture, textiles, small metals, wood or clay... what is the essence of what you do?
• What is your goal? Is it intertwined with a social obligation?
• Who do you make art for?
• What's the response you hope to get from your viewer?
• What/who are you inspired by?

Over the next week, we hope you'll ponder this topic and possibly make a few notes about ideas that you'd like to share. Bring a friend or two. Forward this invitation to any women you think may be interested. ...and don't forget to scrounge up that couch change. Check your jacket pockets and the junk drawer. We hope everyone will at least buy a drink and a truffle.

Thanks to Steffanie for writing up these questions for discussion. And wine and chocolates to boot! Should be fun.

I am going to try to make this event. I have a very simple answer to the question of "Why I make art" which is to be a creator. I love to make new things come into being. In a world of mass production and "sameness," the unique calls to me. I need to make objects that lift you out of the mundane and live in a world of their own that you want to touch and be a part of.

Your turn:
If you cannot make this event, whether you are busy or in another part of the country, I would love to hear what you think about this topic. It is a question that each artist has to answer for themselves, and no two answers will be alike. Share your answers in the comments here!

Happy Art Making! ~ Jaime Lyerly

The Pink Declaration of Independence

Independence day is not exactly my favorite holiday. You will not see me wearing red, white and blue or waving a flag. I say my thanks to the US in my own way.

But this "Pink Declaration of Independence" is something I can get behind. I am ready to wave my pink flag and create an Independence day parade for myself. Free from fears! Not bound to laws that the government puts on my body! Liberated from a world where others' opinions matter more than my own! Check it out:

The Pink Declaration of Independence | OwningPink

So on this Independence day, instead of having hot dogs and watching fireworks on TV, I am going to the San Diego Women's Drum Circle to bang on a drum with 50 or so other women who want to do the same thing. And I am grabbing my friend, Starry, to join in the festivities. It will be my Independence day. Want to come! Please do! Circle goes from 7 pm - 9 pm and there is a wonderful drum class from 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm. Check out the link for more details. This is the most energetic event that you will be buzzing on for days. I know you will love it.

Your Turn:
What are you freeing yourself from this year? How have you declared your Independence day?

Happy Independence from your fears day! ~Jaime Lyerly

Musings and My Obsession with Japan

I have been brooding over where to start with the blog posts of my study tour to China and Japan. My partner, Chris Miner, has been doing a great job writing about the trip from his point of view.

He has been diligently resizing photos, photographing and scanning mementos and taking text from his journals. He has been blogging about each day and you can see in his blog, the Raw Materials of Music Making, that he has been trying to capture the long and complicated days with pictures and words.

What have I been doing? Not a whole lot!

I definitely feel like I'm having a harder time adjusting back to my normal life. It just seems so boring compared to two weeks of exploring new places. My mind has been processing all that I experienced and how it is going to change my life. I am feeling restless in my normal routine and am ready to shake it up again. But how?

Our sensei planted a seed in my head while we were in Hangzhou, China. She said something along the line of "You should do the exchange program for a semester or year. Take the whole family." She then pointed out the China Academy of Art which nestled into green trees, just down the street from the beautiful West Lake. She said something about how both the schools that SDSU had an exchange program with for art majors in China and Japan were excellent and that I would learn a lot. It would definitely be an experience.

I fell in love Hangzhou, China and could see myself studying there: riding my bike around the West Lake, and learning how to sculpt in traditional ways that my university has forgotten how to teach. The language would be a barrier, but it is so inexpensive there, I could afford to live. The idea of study abroad in China buzzed in my head as we left Shanghai. And then I went to Japan.

Japan is much more Americanized and super modern compared to China. Since we didn't have Miranda (our tour guide), sensei was to be our guide. This led to a whole different experience of Japan than in China. Sensei did not gather the group by yelling out "S.D.S.U!" like Miranda did. She would just take off and we had to follow her. Most of the trip was spent making sure that sensei was close by, and counting people. She had a tendency to want to leave people instead of waiting for them. It would be comical if most of the group spoke Japanese. But since most of us knew no or little Japanese, we would be very lost without sensei.

Sensei at Meiji Shrine (Shinto)

Long story short, this lack of a tour guide telling us information and a comfy tour bus to ride in led to us having to integrate with the culture more. I had to pay attention while I rode the bus or train to make sure I got off in time. I listened and recognized names, especially in Tokyo - Shinjuku, Harajuku, Ueno, Yoyogi, Ginza and Shibuya. I not only knew where they were on a map, but also how to get to them by train and what was there when you got there. I yearned to be able to read the signs that were around me, and to say more than just "Arigato" to others.

Add to this my absolute fascination with the native religion of Japan - Shinto. The first night in Kyoto we came across a Shinto shrine at night and it was luminous and mysterious. I won't go to far into Shinto now because I am going to devote an entire post to it soon. It is more than love with Japan now. It is almost an obsession to find out more about this magical place.

Sensei's talks with me about studying in Japan became more real as I imagined myself studying the traditional arts and their relationship to the native religion of Shinto. There are many more details that I would need to work out and to consider before a decision is made.

So the next blog posts about my trip will be focused specifically on the parts of Japan and China that moved me. Just the images that are blazed into my brain and the art ideas that have sprung from that. I may add some pictures of experiences that were just fun and unique, such as "Geisha Hunting." Hopefully you will understand why I am now obsessed with Japan.

Until then, Happy Art-Making! ~ Jaime Lyerly