Art Love and Compassion

Sun in Aries, Moon in Taurus

I made a Kuan Yin statue out of Paper-Clay earlier last year at work when i was getting back into ceramics, she is a goddess of compassion and the deity that looked over my Reiki initiations 9 years ago! I enjoyed looking at sculptures of her at a local vegan cafe and decided to make one of my own as opposed to buying her.

A magikal thing occurred while i painted her - i was overcome with an inner knowing, spirit came to me and
i remembered i had been here before,
i remembered how much larger i was than my fear,
i remembered this is a journey, an experience.

I feel i have come here to do things, good things, big things, share things, magikal things - does everyone feel this way?
This sculpture is a gift to be compassionate, to remember the heart space when practicing my art, to be compassionate to myself and my creations.

Kuan Yin

I was recently inspired Always inspired really!) by a post on artist Neil Gaiman's blog about writers block, i have written it out for my studio and altered it to be relevant for art and i will share it with you here;

Turn off your inner critic. You do not listen to your inner police force. You ignore the little voices that tell you that it is all stupid and you keep going.

Your art works aren't suffering because you have no skills or the art is bad, its suffering because you aren't finishing things and sending them out there- sharing them.

So finish them, share them. Even if the art is lousy, you'll learn something from it that will be useful as an artist even if it is just 'don't do that again'.

You are always going to be dissatisfied with what you make. That's part of being human. In our heads, artworks are perfect, flawless, glittering, magikal. Then we start to make them, one unsatisfactory paint mark at a time. And each time our inner critic tells us that it's a rotten idea and we should abandon it.

If you're going to create ignore your inner critic, while your creating. Do whatever you can to finish. Know that anything can be fixed later.

Remember: You don't have to be brilliant when you start out. You just have to create. Every artwork you finish puts you closer to being an artist, and makes you a better artist.

Blaming 'Artist Block' is wonderful. it removes any responsibility from the person with the 'block'. It gives you something to blame and it sounds fancy.

But it's probably more honest to think of it as a combination of laziness, perfectionism and getting stuck. if your being lazy, don't be. If your going to be a perfectionist, don't be. And if your stuck, figure out where the art went off the rails or what you got wrong or where you need to go deeper, or what you need to make it work and then start making again.

I have been wanting to share my art with the world but not knowing how to keep at it and perhaps more to the point being afraid to put myself out there. I began thinking "Why can't i just be happy with my part-time art teaching position and part-time creating from home? Why do i need anymore?"

Earth Heart Art stall

A dear friend offered me a last minute stall at a recent Psychic and Holistic Fair and i said 'Yes!.' With only a few days to prepare for it i felt quite mad and excited and a wonderful calming voice kept repeating to me when i ever felt anxious or like backing out- "just go with it". And ever so calmly i did and as Sunday came around i had a little collection of creations to share and I loved the experience of sharing my work with others so much, this is why i can't just be happy to create alone at home, that is only half of my creators world the other half is the sharing of my creations with the people around me. May they flow through me to enrich the lives of my community, may the love i fill them with flow through to the people.

At this time of Mabon, of balance and of thanksgiving, i give greatest thanks for my lifes passion to create, to make, and the time and ability i have to do what i love and to share it with my community, i ask for the balance of time to create and share it with others and in return i will make sure all work is made with conscious sustainable materials, set in sacred space, an honouring to our mother earth and i will share what i earn with environmental charities.