The Monthly Cairn - Art Practice Update
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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 and what surprised me
Intentions for March
Here I am again. Another month. To be fair, I’m posting these monthly updates mostly for my own benefit. I’m finding it really helps to stop each month and reflect on my art practice to think about what I made, why and what kind of progress I’m making creatively. I also love to know how other artists work, so maybe this is helpful to you too.
What I Made
I completed #5-8 of my Weekly Theme Cards for my 2022 52 Cards Project. I’m very pleased with how this project is going:
One card a week is not too big a commitment and writing a quick post here on the blog about how they reflected my week is a good practice. Mini-reflections (#5, #6, #7, #8). As the collection grows, the more I love them. I think I’m going to be over the moon at the end of the year with 52 cards!
(I struggled with the clouds in the first one (Uneven) and ended up having to use white paint. Now, it’s obvious I should have drawn them and left the white paper. It’s on my list to go back and re-do that card.)
I also completed six pages in my Art Journal—but I didn’t think were worth sharing on Instagram (here are three):
I look at them now and although they are not my best work, I don’t feel as critical as I did. The one on the right is a kind of self portrait. I should have shared. I also practiced drawing both from my imagination and real life in my sketchbook (nothing finalized).
I made a “The World is Always Brighter” lettered poster:
And then, I worked on watercolor pieces for Tansy Hargan’s online class, Finding Your Color Voice:
My everything journal is turning out to be such a great tool for my art practice.I continued to fill my Everything Journal (25+ pages) with everything—sketches, notes, journaling, planning. In the one photo you see below, I am going to try to track my art practice in March. I’m not such a disciplined planner so we’ll see how I do…
A collage of sample pages in my “everything” Journal
Finally, I worked on collage characters for Carla Sonheim’s yearlong class - a couple of them shown in my Everything Journal collage above. Oh, and I read The Sentence by Louise Erdrich for February’s Read with Me project (I’ll share my thoughts about the book next week).
What I Learned and What Surprised Me
The color class has taught me more about color and how to mix and use a limited palette. Also, I can control watercolor a bit better, now, and I can apply watercolor paint more evenly. And now I know how to draw a circle with 12 even wedges. It was a good class.
Like last month, I’m surprised with how much I actually created over the month. I am definitely creating more than I think.
It’s funny how all month I really didn’t feel like I had made much and I didn’t feel I was making much progress creatively. And then as I gather it all together here at the end of the month, I see that I have a good list of finished pieces and I did meet most of my intentions I set for the month of February. Almost everything on the list: Check, check and check. I didn’t do enough imaginative drawing or urban sketching—but I did do some in my sketchbook and Everything Journal—and I ADDED a two week watercolor class to the mix!
So I mindfully redirect my overly self critical mind and sit with what is certainly enough. And I pause for a moment to love at least some of what I created.
My Intentions for March
I am feeling this vague sense of dissatisfaction as I launch into March. In the end, I don’t think an arbitrary quota of finished pieces is “creative progress.” So I have to ask myself, what will feel like progress?
I think creative progress is what happens when I learn and grow—technically, yes, definitely—but also as a creative person. What more can I perceive and understand? What do I learn about myself or the world through the mysterious alchemy of each new thing I make? What is it that— as a unique living expression in the world—I am to share?
Anyway, I’m waxing philosophical here. All I mean is that there’s just this creative itch I haven’t yet scratched. And so I continue to pursue…
Okay - so here on my intentions for March
Keep going on the projects I’ve set for myself this year:
Complete a card a week fro the 52 Cards Project
Continue Carla Sonheim’s yearlong class
Read The Bookshop for my Read With Me project (and publish the post for last' month’s book, The Sentence)
Hone my sketchbook practice:
Spend more time in my sketchbook:
daily art warm-ups, focused drawings, and visual journaling spreads
Keep filling my Everything Journal with everything else:
notes, lists, journaling, and not to mention, art tracking.
Maybe next month I’ll have a better sense of both quantity of work I am putting out—and quality of any progress.