Stopping at the trail marker of my art journey to look back for a moment at the month behind. Then looking into the distance for the next month. Rehydrate—and then keep going.

Contents of This Post:

What I made

What I learned

What surprised me and how I found my why

Intentions for January

What I made

This month I filled almost 15 pages in my art journal. I focused on drawing characters from my imagination because one of my favorite kinds of art is drawing from imagination—it’s child-like and inventive and playful and it’s a wonderful way to express emotions and ideas.

I find this kind of drawing challenging (but rewarding), because it requires an understanding of realistic drawing but also involves the skill of simplifying. So this is also the practice part of ‘art practice.’ Fortunately, there is zero drudgery - it’s certainly not like playing scales or something. Page after page is opportunity for discovery and delight!

 What I learned

 Meanwhile, my learning kind of exploded in my “Everything” Journal . For those who don’t know, I keep several sketchbooks and art journals for different purposes—I bet you do too if you’re the kind of artist that likes to fill books.

What I call my Everything Journal is the workhorse of them all. It’s where I’ve been putting everything I used to have scattered across all kinds of notebooks—journaling, lists, ideas, notes, and lots of color, line and image. It’s where I think and learn and document and it’s all in ONE book! What a great tool. I am loving this journal.

So anyway, I worked like a mad woman, filling 28 pages this month...it was a continuation of  the quest from last month where I was exploring about what I do as an artist—because it’s easy to get confused with art—and I hate that question, what do you do? I never have an answer! This month, I took it so much further to what feels like—dare I say it?—full clarity.

“Artmaking is finding the way to yourself.”—Nicholas Wilton, Art2Life podcast

What Surprised me—and how I found my Why

The pivotal moment of clarity came after I read an interview with fashion designer, Nyla Hasan. I loved the story of her art journey, how she found what was most important to her—which happened to be Identify and Belonging—and how she made that the focus of her art. She now creates fashion lines that express and explore issues around that Big Idea of her life. 

What is the Big Idea of my life? I wondered.  So I decided to try the same exercise Hasan says she assigned herself, which involved randomly writing down everything that is important to me on slips of paper and laying them all out on my art table…

 I won’t bore you with how my mind threaded its way from this massive list…but if I can summarize, I basically categorized all the slips as you see here and I looked at those lists, and then I saw that what is important to me in particular is very much in line with what I think is important for the world:

Societies that prioritize and grow the human spirit and a healthy planet lift its individuals—but in a chicken or the egg kind of way, it takes individuals whose spirits are lifted to create such societies. We need to be people who prioritize what is truly important in ourselves—if there is any chance to create the kind of world we want and need.

And I know this is very philosophical and general and reduces very complex social issues much too simplistically. And yes, I often think about all the ways our world grows and crushes the human spirit and I can EASILY fall into THAT kind of discussion and we could get much more specific! But remember, the purpose of this exercise was to get at what I believe is important—the Big Idea of my life.

I believe—I have always believed—that it is critical in life to honor what we need to be fulfilled humans. Not only do we lift rather than crush our own lives, but when we are doing what lights us up, we offer one another not just the benefits of our work (the amazing ideas, art, products, services). but the contribution of just being a fulfilled human!

In a world that too often starves the human spirit, fulfillment is a gift.

And this IS the Big Idea of my life. The idea I’ve always known to be true, the stubborn belief I never gave up on all through the years, but I have never articulated for myself before:

Not only do I create (draw, paint, write) because I love what happens when I create.

I create because I am living my highest belief that when we each do what fulfills us we are creating a better world.

Wow. This is it, isn’t it? This is what I do.

This is the Big Idea, my Why.

Intentions Going Forward

It is not an understatement to say that this new understanding profoundly shifted something deep within me, and I believe this new clarity will have permanent influence on my life. My search for purpose can now shift to living with purpose. And I’m so very glad I can share this here!

So now what?

Well first, this fall I developed a journaling process that begins in my Everything Journal and concludes with this Monthly Cairn blog post and I’m super grateful that these are now in place. I will keep working in this way.

Now with my Why firmly in position, I can happily focus on the two main creative features of my art life that that fill me up: My art practice and sharing my art practice.

So these are my intentions for January:

Art Practice

• Continue imaginative drawing

• Daily sketching from real life

• AND… I have three different side projects I’d like to get to…oh my. I always have so many more projects on my mind than are possible…but maybe I will get to these. If I do, you’ll hear more about those soon!

Sharing my Art Practice

I have known for a long while that I get so much joy out of sharing. And I don’t mean just sharing what I made—which is kind of all I’ve been doing lately on Instagram—but sharing the making. Sharing the journey: Working with other creative people and finding our way together.

I need to share more of my practice with other creatives! If you love art too, I hope you will join me however you can. You’ll find me doing the following in January:

• Taking part in Carla Sonheim’s annual class which will include creating by zoom with others every month.

• Looking for opportunities to connect with other artists in person. Given my January schedule and Covid (Boo, Hiss!), this probably won’t happen until later in the month. But if you have any ideas for me either here in the Bay Area or online, let me know!

• Sharing more on this blog. I will continue posting the Monthly Cairn updates on my art practice at the beginning of each month and I also have plans to share useful art-related things too. You will definitely be seeing more from me going forward. Contrary to what some people might think, blogging is alive and well in the web-o-sphere—especially among creatives—and my hope is that creative people will find my blog useful and interesting. Please add my blog to your RSS Reader (see sidebar) to read my latest posts.

• Finally, I will continue to share my art on Instagram, so please follow me there if you are on Instagram too. I want to share more of what I’m doing from in my practice as well as what I make as a way to share my practice with others. I hope you will find that interesting and helpful as well.

How about joining Carla’s class too? Follow me on this blog and/or on Instagram. And if you have any ideas for groups to join up with or how we could share more of our art together, please get a hold of me and let’s see how we can fulfill ourselves—and the world—up together!

Happy New Year!