 | | | ARTELLAGRAM 4-18-09:
"In the Studio"
An Interview with Artist Diane Armstrong (This interview is continued from the April 18 2009 Artellagram...)
Artella: What do you find most rewarding in your life as an artist? What is most challenging?
Diane: The most rewarding aspect is I can take things that don’t seem to go together and make something beautiful. The most challenging? I can take things that don’t seem to go together and make something beautiful. This truly gives me lots of practice at letting go of “things” that I know are blocking the flow of Life through me.
Artella: Many 'non-famous' artists sell their work at slave-labor rates, and the public has come to expect to get art at bargain-basement prices. Any suggestions for over-coming this?
Diane: The public that inhabits my world doesn't expect that. I would like to extend a humble, all-inclusive, non-expiring invitation to all who would like to live in my world. All it takes is practice, you already Know the Way.
Artella: What advice do you have for people who have the opposite of a creativity block – who have so many ideas all at once, they can never do just one, but then nothing gets completed with multiple projects demanding consideration. Do you have this problem and how do you handle it?
Diane: Yes I do! And I don't consider it a problem. Life expands. Humans create in service to the expansion. However, I can deeply relate to the pressured feeling of handling multiple projects that are demanding attention. I've broken down how I handle it step-by-step, it really only takes a few moments to actually go through the process.
First I take a step back and think (or make a list) of each individual project in turn. In doing this I'm trying to determine how each project feels in terms of “wanting to be completed”. Sometimes a looming deadline is involved. This merely adds another piece of information to the process. No more, no less. (Except perhaps a short trip down the dead end street I call, “Isn't this interesting I'm at this place Again?”)
Other projects feel complete. Even if they don't “look” complete. Instead of using this discovery as a bludgeon, I choose to see it as an opportunity to practice how to let go. And I do so with reverence, knowing that both the project and myself are complete with each other, regardless of how “incomplete” it might look to me – or the outside world.
Through this filtering process the project that feels most wanting my attention always becomes clear. At that point I evoke my “All In Divine Timing” affirmation over all of the rest of the projects and arrange most of my available time in service to the chosen project until it feels Done.
Whenever I get what I call “my whiney baby” thoughts about HAVING to DO just one thing, I make it a game by repeating to myself as often as necessary, “When I finish this I GET to do what's next! Yeah!!!
Artella: What tips can you offer for busy people to help them find time for creativity?
Diane: When I think I can ONLY Do my art if certain conditions are present, it's hard to get around to it at all. When (or I might say if) I finally do, it takes hours for me to tap into any kind of creative flow. This way of being has derailed many an art project over the years. But I'm glad I know these two things about myself because it inspired me to find a way that does work for me..
What works for me is to break the “project of the moment” down into segments and connect with one piece of it each day. Breaking a project down into segments doesn't necessarily mean formally writing a list or anything like that. Most of the time I just ask the “project” what it wants that day. Some days it's something small, sometimes it's large. Sometimes the large piece gets broken down into several days. Regardless of how it unfolds though, this practice keeps my creative “zone” flowing much closer to the surface, making it MUCH easier to grab a moment (or hour) here and there.
And as for those projects that were derailed? I just pull out my most favorite mantra, All In Divine Timing, which also includes the vibe of Maybe Not In This Life And It's Okay. It never fails to perk me up toot sweet!
Artella: What is your daily routine? Do you create art every day?
Diane: I create my version of Art every day and it has everything to do with Connection.
I wake up anywhere between 4 and 7am and express my appreciation for getting to experience another day in physical form. Then I do a Reiki body scan to exercise the energy....the Art of Connection to the Divine.
As my coffee is brewing, I take a walk around my garden with my cat Whisper to see what has grown overnight...the Art of Connection to Nature.
With my coffee in hand, I usually read something inspirational to set a spiritual tone to the day...the Art of Connection to what has Been for others.
Then I write. Sometimes it is in response to an email. Sometimes it's something related to my business. Sometimes it something related to my community. Sometimes this takes all day and into the night. Only I don't feel the hours go by, so I consider it part of the Art of Connection to my Passion (passing-I-on).
On other days I also have appointments or commitments or something fun planned either in my home or outside of it. On those days I practice openness to serving and learning from others. This, I also consider as a Way of creating Art... the Art of Connection to humans Being.
On days that I finish work “early” I putter around my house and garden; weeding, filling vases with flowers, cleaning a room, shifting things into and out of rooms, hanging clothes outside on a line, planning dinner. Sometimes I devote entire days to puttering if it feels right. This is part of my Art as well... the Art of Connection to my Physical Environment.
Most evenings, my husband and I each sip a glass of wine before dinner as we share our respective day with each other. By then it's around 9:30 and I swear I hear my bed calling. This is when I usually read my book club book. After a chapter or two, or sometimes a paragraph or two, I snuggle down beneath the sheets and drift off to sleep, which I see as the Art of Allowing the Connection outside of our Physical Realm.
Art, Art...all of it Art...
Artella: It seems that there is a prevalent belief that artists must be unhappy in order to create... that artists are "supposed" to suffer. Do you think that is true?
Diane: I actually tried on suffering for few seasons here and there AND it totally pinched me off from anything remotely resembling Art. At one point in my mid-thirties I actually suffered myself into changing the chemical make-up of my body to the point where I needed to take anti-depressant drugs. This, to a naturally optimistic person like myself, was like the diagnosis of a terminal disease.
Although my doctor told me I might need to take the drugs for the rest of my life, he advised against dwelling on my failure at feeling good, and for using this “crutch” to search for lifestyle practices that helped me feel better about being alive. I will be forever grateful to him for that snippet of wisdom, and to the part of me that heard and eventually acted on it. After 2 years I was able to be weaned off the drugs and have not felt even close to depressed since. I credit that experience with my mostly comfortable, wholly drug free, transition through menopause 15 years later, and my general feeling of inner induced well-being every day.
All that said, I wouldn't dream of trying to convince anyone to change their mind about anything that helps them create. My feeling about suffering is if it works for you, it's perfect for you. Until, or unless, there comes a time where it doesn't.
See Diane's wonderful products in The Shoppes of Artella, here.
 Want more artist interviews from Artella? Take a look at our eBooks Artist Profiles Assembled and Artist Profiles Assembled, Vol 2, and look at the "Ask the Artist" column every single day in The Artella Daily Muse, our daily online creativity newspaper.
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