July is a time to Re-calibrate

I love July. Not only because it's my birthday month, but because it feels like the middle! Although June is technically our halfway mark to the year, July just feels like a better checkpoint of sorts. And what a great opportunity to evaluate our visions.

This is especially on my mind as I pull up mint.com and realize...where is my money!? Hmm. Looks like I've made some choices that has made my budget very. very. small. Gasp! ughh. and although I'm frustrated that this is the point I've arrived at, this is a perfect time to reflect and re-calibrate.

• What do you want to accomplish by December?
• Why do you want to accomplish these things?
•  ( oh yeah - there was a reason I stopped buying polish at Ulta). 
• What things are going well that's moving you toward your goals?
• What's not working so well, and how can you adjust?

So this is awesomely serendipitous because I'm planning a group for the fall: Goal Setting. But of course it's not called Goal Setting because That. Is. B-O-R-I-N-G. and of course - duh. it includes art-making!

Inspired by Personal Geographies, Taking Charge, Tackling the Tough Skills, Lisa Sonora Beam and my own love of vision boards, I'm helping students identify steps in the problem solving process- through cartography. 

Yeah. Cartography. Neat!

I first fell in love with maps reading My Father's Dragon

There will be castles, and mermaids, and treasures, and monsters, and ..well, more stuff. I'm in the middle of tinkering.  

But what perfect timing because of course -good instruction always includes a model example. and who better to do one than me! I'm also taking volunteers to test this out with me. Who wants to make a ___________?! (hmm. I need a cool name...) 

Developing an Artistic Style

I have lots of fear that prevents me from creating. I have no idea who I am as an artist. I don't know what I enjoy, I don't know what I look like.

Well - that's not true. I DO know what I look like. It happened by a fluke circumstance. In a 24hr  countdown panic, I could do nothing but let go and get the assignment done. and of course in letting go, that magical thing happens. It happened once. maybe twice.

That magical thing is not some unpredictable, show up randomly cosmic event.  It's a relationship the artist has with her genius. If you trust and practice with the unknown, the unknown shows up brilliantly, and you make not just cool stuff....but authentic stuff. Art that reflects you at your core...not just your amazing draw-an-apple skills.  More like....that-feel-good-this-looks-just-like-my-soul-stuff. That mmm-yes-I'm-committed relationship.  


I missed out on this. My degree made no space for yummy relationship building. I can recognize Hagia Sophia but I can't identify myself. 


The more that I plan for my classes, the clearer it's becoming that I want to teach what my own education lacked. And not because I have weird Art Therapist ego. I'm using my experience to recognize a need. Students benefit by falling in love with who they are. Don't we all? I want my students to fall in love with their genius. Discover their genius, paint their genius. To not be afraid. 


I want it for myself. 

I picked up Finding Your Visual Voice by Dakota Mitchell.  *Drool*  I'm teaching this to my Level  2 Class. THIS is what I want students to walk away with. "It explores how & why you paint and what you respond to visually and emotionally. [This book helps bring awareness] to the combination of instincts and feelings that encourages you to pick up a paintbrush and create work that is your own". Yummyyy.  Very structured & workbook style. 

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” - Howard  Thurman.

Lighthouses

You go to the best cocktail party ever.  It's a life-changing event because you meet the most with-it, interesting, empowered people, and each of them can contribute to your career and interest in some way... Who was there? What kind of information did they share with you? what did they ask you? How did they offer to help you?*
*Fire Starter Sessions by LaPorte, pg. 35

 I'm sad I cannot answer this question. :/  Can I really not identify role models? Wow. I cannot. Which is ridiculous. I have no identifiable markers of the kind of person I want to become.  People who "look like us".. who resonate with our own purpose (spoken or unspoken) make really fantastic lighthouses.

I don't want to swim in the dark.