This Artful Life

Creativity is popping everywhere in my life. Think champagne bubbles. Something just came together for me...about a year ago I had an idea to have a website and/or newsletter devoted to The Artful Life, which is what I've always envisioned myself living, even though it hasn't always felt like that, down here in the trenches of daily life. Anyway, I just realized that this here, my blog, what you're reading, is that very thing!

A number of years ago I read and did "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron, and religiously wrote Morning Pages. Then, as it does, life intervened, change happened, and I quit doing it. Mid 2007 I started pages again, calling them Whenever Pages, because I wouldn't commit to doing them always at the same time everyday. Did them for a while, then quit. So this morning I revisited the idea again, only now I'm calling it Creativity Journaling, and I envision this being a combo of Morning or Whenever Pages and Creative Musings. Actually, I credit Leah Piken at Creative Everyday for the inspiration of this new endeavor of mine. I'm also being inspired these days by Alyson Stanfield, who's an Art Business Coach. Check her out here. I've been reading Alyson's weekly newsletters for a while now but have just gotten organized enough mentally to begin to take action on some of what she suggests (simply impossible to do it all!).

One of Alyson's tips this week is to journal on success. So here's what I wrote this morning:

Success, to me as an artist, is spending as much time as possible in creative mode - making beautiful things, designing beautiful things, finding new ways to put what I do/who I am out to the world, finding new channels of creative self expression, finding increasing outlets in my daily life for the unique expression of my life as my art. My entire home is my studio, it contains all of me and all forms of my expression. Everywhere I look, everything I touch, I see and feel things (much of which I have made myself) that I have lovingly chosen to live with...colors, textures, plants, life everywhere.

Success also means being in a relaxed enough state, psychically and emotionally, that I can actually live this life I've created moment by moment, BE in it, love it, and continue to be inspired by it. This has been such an important goal for me - to have a creative life, be successful (in my own terms) and prosperous (again, in my own terms), and thrive. Thriving, for me, means growing upward and outward - like blossoming flowers, like plants and trees in early spring with new life on the very tips of their stalks and branches, just bursting forth out into the world to express the glory of their individuality.

I'm on fire with creative juice and I feel immeasurably blessed. I feel that I have found a niche for myself and that makes me very happy.

Have a beautiful, inspiring day. I know I will!