Sunday, February 12, 2006

What now, and what next?

Two focuses in this post - what am I doing now/short-term, and - because others have asked and because I've mentioned it - what will I do after the Artist's Way to keep the momentum going. (Yes, we're not-quite halfway through. I like planning even if the plans have to be abandoned, however.)

1) What now?

Today I made apple muffins. I won't use the mix again; it was okay, but that's all it was. The blueberry ones are much much better. But the apple ones are okay, and now I know. Yesterday the DH made spaghetti and garlic bread - his technique for the latter surprised me and was quite nummy (the same minced garlic I'd used for the garlic chicken...). Today I started columbines in peat pots. Growing up I loved the flowers at our house, but especially the lilac and the columbines. I haven't any here and now I want them. So this is my attempt at starting that. (I don't want a full-size lilac, and I don't know if even the dwarf ones are small enough. I need to look into that. But columbines should be a good start, and easier.)

I got most of the AW blogs into a single RSS/atom feed syndication tool, although some did not have feeds that I could find so they are not on the list - just a few, though! The way I was reading before it was too easy to miss things - now even if I do not have time to read everything, I can come back and the things I have not read will still be marked as such. This is good. Plus it means I can actually follow everyone, before if I had done that I would never have finished reading anything - too disorganized the way it was falling together with my other LiveJournal syndicated feeds. Good idea in principle, less effective than having them elsewhere for this.

Tomorrow is going to be insanely hectic with the being-adult "musts" alas. I have a dentist appointment, then errands to run that will take (literally) hours. I do not foresee getting much done tomorrow in the way of art, other than the creativity at my job itself, so hopefully I will manage to enjoy that!

So tonight I am going to treat myself to a bubble bath and a bit of time with the Artist's Way. (Then I really have to pay bills, alas, but most of today has been play, so....)

2. What next?

I haven't decided what I'll do after this, but I have picked out a few likely items. I may work through some of the items in the February issue of Artist's Sketchbook magazine (I'm going to check out the next one; if it is as good as this one I will probably subscribe!). I might move to a book; the candidates for that are 52 Projects (Random Acts of Everyday Creativity), The Creativity Book, Art Escapes, and Celebrate Your Creative Self. I own the first two; the last two I am getting from my library for now. If I like them I can buy them, but I'm not sure yet (and of course the library had copies, which is always a bonus - very hard to check things out when they do not have them!).

So, since those are what I'm considering - what about you? Have you read and/or done any of these? Would you like to read or do any of them? What did you think of them, if you did or read them?

2 comments:

Kara said...

Laura, I love how you are always looking ahead. I've been thinking about your book question - Maisel's creativity book is one I considered doing after the AW I have it,but haven't followed it. Loved his Fearless Creating book - but it doesn't have the universal appeal that Cameron's books have had and it may be a bit dated too. I don't know the other books you mentioned. I guess it depends on what you want to focus on after the AW. I'll keep thinking about it. Sark has a book called Make Your Creative Dreams Real. I think she suggests following it on a monthly track. Maybe in another six weeks we'll all have more clarity.
Thanks for the saving water link - we are aware and have water saving shower heads, etc..but I appreciate the link and your comments.
Happy Valentine's Day!

GreenishLady said...

I feel the connections won't be lost immediately the 12 weeks finishes up, surely? But there are a lot of books being mentioned. I'm attracted to the idea of using Drawing on The Right Side of the Brain, because I want to develop the visual arts side. Others are already practicing visual artists, and may want to do something else. Is there a way of holding diverse activities (as AW has done) within a unifying community? Why not continue on with Cameron's Vein of Gold or Walking in This World?, AND each person that has other interests work in tandem with their other book. As Kara says, there are 6 more weeks for a useful pattern to present itself. There certainly appears to be a will to continue on, and I feel it strongly.