"Paintings With Personality"

I call this loose sketch 'Sunhat.' I did it one summer and am posting it now to make us all feel the easy, breezy days of summer.

Honey really did it this time… I was in my new studio space, trying to make some kind of order out of the chaos, and at the same time, struggling with something in the seam of my sweater that was scratching my underarm. I was feeling for something in the seam, but couldn’t find anything. That went on for several hours as I worked. Later, I accidentally touched the outside of my sweater and finally felt something. Honey came over to look and found A FISHING LURE IN MY ARMPIT! Here I was, finally, hard at work creating order in my studio after putting it off for days and I find a fishing lure in my armpit! I don’t even fish, Honey does. My sweater was ruined, but armpit jewelry has become the new fashion statement.

Artists must be self-starters, whether cleaning a studio or creating a work of art. We have to get motivated and stay motivated all by ourselves. I’m a terrible self-starter which is why I was struggling with getting my studio organized. When there is no outside pressure to get to work, I have to figure out how to get things done without being pushed.

There is a lot of research on how to get motivated and stay motivated, but little on what we can do to change ourselves, so we no longer need to be prodded to get moving. There are things we can do to learn how to inspire ourselves anywhere and at any time.

I have listed 7 of them below:

1. Change your lifestyle: Changing your lifestyle changes you. If your life is full of commitments that prevent you from working and cause you to feel blocked, eliminate all inessential clutter around you. This next is important and will be difficult to do, look at the people in your life who might be stopping you from working. Let them know the hours you have chosen to work and that you won’t be available at that time.
2. Stay healthy: Eat right and set up a regular exercise routine, so you will have the energy to work. This might be harder than motivating yourself to work in your studio.
3. Write your goals down, read them and picture them in your mind: You’ll be more motivated to make changes when you envision yourself hard at work. You’ll see yourself differently.
4. Make sure the goals are your own: Look deep and make sure art is what you want to do, not what your husband/wife or friends want you to do. When you love what you are doing, you won’t have to work as hard at getting motivated.
5. What’s happening right now: You will never be able to repeat this day (today) do you want to use it sitting around eating junk food and watching TV? How about tomorrow?
6. Make studio time a habit every day: Decide you will be in your studio working by 9am and stick to it. That’s it, nothing and no one can interfere. It is what you do and who you are.
7. Demand payment from yourself if you don’t work a few hours a day: For example, post it on Facebook that you did nothing all day long. Or give money you can’t afford to a charity you don’t like. You can come up with your own ideas on that subject.

You can turn dreams into a reality by having something in real time to start on right now, today. Plan one step at a time and push yourself to start right now.

I’m inspired, this post has given me a needed boost, and I’m headed to finish the mess in my studio right now!

How do you get yourself prepared for the task at hand? Later, Judy

www.judyballance.com