This month I signed up for the Jane Dunnewold course "Creative Strength Training". Jane is an artist in the medium of textiles. She has been making quilts for a long time and ventured into dyeing, painting and manipulating fabric along the way. She has many tips on her processes and has written a few books on the subject - Art Cloth, Complex Cloth and Finding Your Own Visual Language to name a few. I am in awe of her work and when I heard about the course I decided to give it a go.
One of the exercises in a section called Cross Training is to start writing. this is something I have tried to do many times with very little success. I am often thinking of great ideas but never seem to put pen to paper so those ideas float off into nothingness (or as Jane puts it "a lost opportunity").
Today I sat down and started the writing exercise by answering some questions posed by Jane. It was an "ah ha" moment for me as the process of answering these questions opened me up to put down things I hadn't really allowed myself to express. Exploring my inner self was liberating and I am thankful to Jane for setting the exercise.
It was suggested we find a word or words to express our feeling about the course and its potential for opening our creative hearts - I chose "Just Do It" and this really encapsulates where I am at the moment in my creative life. It is really hard for me to actually get down and do something - there are lots of excuses to find to hold me back. The writing process and the questions have helped me to realise that my words are well chosen and that I need to prioritise the creative process or I will never achieve anything.
Thanks Jane for the prompt to get moving!
