Work this Week

I had an epiphany recently about how I work, or rather how I want to work. I had been feeling like I was waiting for something to happen in order for me to move my own creative process forward. I had made a list earlier this year in my notebook "be the thing you want to be" and "enjoy what you are doing" were two directives I had written down.  The thing I want to be is boundlessly creative and to follow it where it takes me. Make and do without worry. "Enjoy what you are doing", had a question mark after it. I was asking myself the question. I used to separate my activities and my time, everything was either work or not-work. Not-work played second fiddle to work and I wasted days feeling pissed off instead of inspired. Well I feel done with that notion.
 
So if work looks like painting type on a wooden cabinet in my carport all week I have decided that is valid. If it means sewing a suit of clothes to attend an event, then it is valid. If it means designing elaborate promotional pieces teaching a curious public how to deal with graphic designers, then it is valid. If it means feeling joyful all day, then it is valid.

So in the interest of total authenticity and integration between my multiple creative selves and wanting to work the way I enjoy working every day, I embarked on an unusual project for the Bellingham Farmers Market. I volunteered to freshen up the market's information booth and signage. The first phase was to reinforce, scrape, and paint the base cabinet. With a fresh smooth surface to work on I transferred the projected type onto the cabinet, and tomorrow I will fill in the all the letters. When that is all done I am sewing some bunting flags to hang above the piece and below the overhead sign. The flags will be up-cycled from tea towels made for our 20th Season last year.

It's been glorious in the afternoons for working outdoors and we keep getting little glimpses of the enlightenment that comes with summer and personal evolution.

P.S. I could not have done this project without my partner in crime, he took the pictures too.

Shameless Self Promotion

Okay this could be confusing so stay focused, I have a second blog. It's not as quirky as this one as it's attached to my company website but hopefully it's still valid. It's a good place to see the work I do for money, MONEY!, not just this pleasant drivel I make for amusement and to keep myself from leaping into the river which I might have done this week. Holy crap was it ever wet, but thankfully we got some sun and all is forgiven, for now. For total ease of following my every move you can like me on Facebook and get a non stop barrage of ME at no extra charge.

The Process

As much as I drag my feet when it's time to put a proposal together for a job I found today that I actually felt good about doing it. This is an improvement. I like making money and I feel pretty sure that what I do has real value. Where it gets sticky for me is laying out the entire process and assigning a dollar amount to each task, every job is different, each client is unique. So I decided to approach it in a different way. I started a few days ago, making a sketch of the process, a time line of sorts. I broke the whole process into 4 phases and then broke down the tasks in each phase and assigned time to each one. Now if I get the job I won't have to do much thinking about the process because I will have it all mapped out and if you're like me structure is super important. It's funny these little moments of clarity I have. I have been doing this work a long time but I still try to make the process better each time. I don't want to go through life dragging my feet, dreading the minutiae. I was inspired this week by this artist. We are not robots and there is a creative aspect to everything I do. After I sent my proposal off I went for a long drizzly walk, it snowed this morning, and tonight after I fulfill my duties as a mom I will reward myself with some more portrait painting.