Set Yourself Free!

I have discovered that it is not pitch, rhythm, breathing, or any of those more technical things that challenge students most. No, it is much darker and more sinister than that. Even I, who have had years of practice and experience, find that these shadows creep in when I'm not looking. 'What are they?'' - you ask dramatically. They are the terrible twins of judgment and doubt!

And do you know who is the worst critic that cripples you with doubt? It's none other than ourselves.

So, before you go tumbling down that rabbit hole of doubt, criticism, judgment, and despair, maybe recognise that you can choose a different path. You can let all the haters and trolls bring you down and stop doing what you love. Alternatively, you could choose to do it no matter what, whether it is singing, drawing, painting, or whatever.

Okay, yeah, it can feel scary, and you may feel like a fraud and an imposter—all of that stuff. And what if you just did it anyway? Go out there and sing your heart out, even if it's off-key! Write that terrible novel! And see what happens. What if the result wasn't what mattered?

You may find that the joy of letting your voice out of the box and is the true reward, not the perfection you have been aiming for.

There are lots of terrible songs out there and singers who make me cringe. And you know what? It's just my opinion, my preference. So, no matter what you create, somebody is going to love it, and it might as well be you! Sure, there might be times when it doesn't work out better than others, and please just keep going.

A Place to Art

Life moves fast and can be gobbled up by daily tasks and wishful thinking. Isn't it about time we changed that? So, fellow scribblers, paint daubers, and mark makers grab your favourite art tools and let us create the space for you to Art right now. If you are anything like me, making Art isn't just a pastime; it's a place where you can be you.

• It is self-care

• It is expression

• It is that deep breath

Ideally, we would have a shed at the bottom of the garden or that loft space where we can leave everything out and just resume our wild creations whenever we step into that space. And yes, that's the target for many of us, and what do we do in the meantime...?

How do we create that studio within our small flat or our busy family home?

1. Get organized!

2. Putting things on the walls

3. Make the time and the Space

4. Be kind to you

5. Buy the Best You Can Without Breaking the Bank

6. Join an Art Group

I have had the big studio space, and I'm not gonna lie, it was amazing!! However, at the moment, we have just bought our own home to renovate and love, and more utilitarian priorities have been more pressing, like heat! So, my studio at the bottom of the garden or in the loft is on hold for the time being. Which means I have had to improvise to stay motivated.

1. Getting organized to me means folders, drawers, and being realistic. I have file folders filled with projects and allocated drawers to organize my work and supplies, and that's it. The realism comes with knowing that in this space, big canvas' and slinging paint is only an option if I'm willing to work outside or in the manky shed that looks as if it is sliding glacially down our sloping garden. All to say that, this means I have to work small.

2. The next thing I do, which I've been using as a motivational tool since art school, is putting something on the wall. Yup, I put half-finished or blank pieces of work on the wall. Seeing it daily, it begins to talk to me or niggles at me to finish or start it.

3. The quality of your art supplies can make an incredible difference to your desire to make Art. They don't have to be the most expensive either. It's what you like to work with. I remember investing in some top-of-the-line watercolour pencils in beautiful padded boxes. Yet, they didn't match the middle-of-the-road watercolour pencils I had used for years. Sometimes, we need a little help. We may need a space away from the hustle and bustle of our home, the camaraderie of others, or perhaps a bit of tuition to get us out of a rut.

Now you've got your space, let yourself play and create. Be kind to yourself. Schedule that art time with you just like any appointment with anyone else. And don't give up on that big studio space; it's within your grasp; keep making. It may appear in the most magical, miraculous, and totally expected way. Be kind to yourself. Schedule that art time with you just like any appointment with anyone else.

In the meantime, Happy Art Making.

I Was Not a Writer, And I Loved Words

Writing bleh!

This was my basic point of view for most of my life. I hated it and didn't want to do it and I would wait until the last possible minute to do any writing assignment! Sitting and putting my thoughts down in a structured way, usually in essay format, was torture! But this is usually how we are taught and it almost killed the love of writing for me. However, I was one of the fortunate people who loved to read and I think that's what saved me. Because in the back of my mind lingered the question could I write like that?

It didn't make sense to me that we were not allowed to play with creative writing in school when so much of what we use writing for in the world is to tell stories in one form or another whether it's advertising, script writing or journalism, etc. And yet here we were stuck writing essay after essay...I mean, what kid reads essays for fun?! Ok, well maybe some do.

I longed to tell stories but in a way that worked for me....it was poetry that found me first.

The tragedy and the romance are found in the likes of The Lady of Shalott, The Wreck of the Hesperus, The Highwayman, and let's not forget the Bard himself. These appealed to my teenage soul as a vehicle for the melancholy that often afflicts those transitioning from childhood to adulthood.

It was the sounds of words that first seduced my pen.

They trickled into short lines of poetry and short prose. I eagerly scribbled them into notebooks in the early days. And when I moved on to college and university, I captured them on the paper flotsam and jetsam that I found in the bottom of my handbag.

The lines seemed to have a life of their own, and if I didn't snatch them out of the air, they were gone. They were the words caught in the steam of my tea, the hum of a bus engine as it pulled away from the curb, or the scent of summer on the wind.

Then, my Dad died, and I stopped my scribblings, and I forgot to read. I no longer heard the whispers that danced through the air. The world fell silent.

It was, of all things, a chicken carcass and a book by Yann Martel, The Life of Pi, which awoke the writer me again.

Yes, a chicken carcass...

I had to make a conceptual film art project. I wanted to compare the hull of a boat to a wasted rib cage....hence a chicken carcass suspended in a tub of water.

And that's when the poetry flooded back in and the stories began to speak. Every time I read a book or article ideas would begin to percolate. But when I began to write any more than a few lines, the sentences would scrabble and the whole idea would begin to fray and unravel. So I assumed that I would always be limited to the quick scribblings of a poet.

What I didn't know about writing at the time was this...

1. Let the writing breathe. It has to flow in whatever form it chooses. It might be backward, sideways, or, upside down but that doesn't matter It just needs to pour out into a puddle. Then come back to it. Then it needs to be left alone to ferment. I don't watch it or pick at it. I just do or write something else.

2. I make lists of all of my stories or writing projects and I look at them to see who pops for me that day. Strangely this makes writing so much easier.

3. Edit. I know this may seem elementary to many of you and you'd be surprised how many people think they hate writing but in actual fact they hate editing. So did I. Until I found nugget number one...let it breathe. When you let it breathe you become more objective about your work and it is easier to edit.

4. Essay writing... all those essays I wrote I discovered were not a waste of time but prep for organising my thoughts with a structure once I had let them breathe. Like an architect, I look at the mayhem and I make sense of it so that you can move from one place to another as a reader with ease.

So fellow scribblers and key tappers I hope this gave you some inspiration. Till next time keep tip-tapping away.

P.S. What essay writing did teach me was...Essay or Not to Essay - stay tuned