Relentless Hope, Part One

I should have hit send two weeks ago, but overwhelm said I need to overthink what it is that I have to say. Here it is a few weeks later. Words are starting to come more clearly now and I hope that this series will be helpful for someone!

When all hope is lost, finding one spark of joy can sometimes mean the difference between survival and and despair. When I do things that can potentially be stressful, I find a food thing and visit nature or art thing to help me focus on joy. Last month one of the focus on joy activities was visiting MassMOCA. The last few times I was on that campus it was for music or the brewery, so it was great to go through the museum itself. I was able to Walk through the entire place, including stairs!!!

I got a great discount and am grateful for that. I would not have been able to afford the visit if I did not have that. I recommend looking at libraries for free passes to local museums. Some also offer significant discounts to people on SNAP, children, elderly, students, etc. Museum websites and your resource librarian an often help you find those resources.

My takeaway is that sketchbooks are such an important part of the creative practice. It felt like an exploration of and experimentation of those thoughts and sketches. So many were exactly what YouTube creators I follow make, just larger to fit a factory space. I really enjoyed that.

I did spend a bit of time in the space with the lights on the ceiling alone listening to the performance piece near by that had the majority of the audience before a group came through. It helped me bring the anxiety from the visit earlier in the day down many pegs and I was able to enjoy the visit quite a bit after this.

Some exhibits felt like ego and a periphery touching of feelings and emotions. Like a rich kid cosplay of a poor kid. Those spaces were empty of patrons/customers. I felt nothing in those spaces. I did not take any photos of those spaces.

"I became an artist to find a mode of survival" Louise Bourgeoise.

Every exhibit had an artist quote or statement, signage and take away materials to revisit what you saw and look into the artist some more. The above quote smacked me hard and stayed with me for weeks. I am not an artist, but I do create things that bring me joy.

I revisited a daily creative practice after significant personal trauma and a brain injury from a bacterial infection. I was very alone and that lack of connection to the world while struggling to navigate an awful lot made it super hard to find any resilience. It is amazing how quick people disappear when you go through trauma. It is super important to have connection, even if it is one solid human, to help bring you through to the other side.

Drawing straight lines and sketching did more for physical therapy after that brain injury than many other therapies. It also helped me connect with people in the arts communities on-line which gave me a lifeline when I needed it most. Betrayal trauma was real in real life and boy did those connections in Creative Fuel Zoom Workshops, Instagram, BlueSky and make a difference. It taught me not to rely on and lose myself to keep those broken in real life relationships and to start to learn how to create healthier alternatives, both in person and virtually.

Other lessons I learned:

• You don't have to be good to create art.
• Art is subjective. It is more about creating what brings you joy;
• You don't have to be good to share your work;
• You don't have to be a professional or sell anything to share your work;
• You can use your children's art supplies, office supplies, random scraps around or you can buy professional grade are supplies. Do what makes you happy;
• Collecting art supplies and creating with art supplies are two different things and both support dopamine hits. You need to find the balance that makes you happy and is also healthy;
• If you don't have community in-person, there are on-line resources, platforms, workshops to find creative people;
• Sometimes creating can be a way to process difficult things that are happening to you. I call one of my sketchbooks "Making Anxiety Beautiful" to remind me of that.

Next, I will keep on this theme of Relentless Hope as I explore another visit to a museum, two poems and some art I created as I reflected on those poems.

Business of Creating

Ok. I need to make this creative practice break even this summer and to make a modest part of my income moving forward. One, I want to repurpose a lot of random items and building supplies that have little or no value on their own, but do as pieces of art. Two, I do have a body of art that I have created since I started a daily creative practice that has some value and needs to not take up my space.

Three things will be helpful while I do this. The first one is low cost and would have immediate benefits.

• I need 25 people to do the minimum paid subscription to pay for the Apps that I use to share this journey. A subscription costs $5/mo.
• I will have a Shop Update section on the bottom of every newsletter. Consider purchasing something or suggesting something that you may be looking for. You never know I may have it or can help you find it.
• Share my newsletter or a link to the shop or any content I share that may be helpful for someone.