Morning Ritual Re-visited

"Flyaway," 2010, by Lea Keohane. All Rights Reserved.

There are certain times of day when the Muse is strongest. For every person it is different. For me, I learned a long time ago that early in the morning and late in the evening are the most creative. Then one of my teachers in college said to me, "Schedule a time every day to create, and your creativity will just start showing up." It took me a long time to get a regular practice, but I have found that for the most part she was right.

As a single mom who runs her own business, plus picks up a lot of odd jobs cleaning and helping out other artists and artisans, my days are incredibly irregular. Finding blocks of studio time on a daily basis is next to impossible, so I fit them in whenever I can. But I do have one block of time every single day--the early morning.

About 2 years ago I started this ritual: I set my alarm for at least an hour before my daughter wakes up for school. Dreary-eyed and fighting against every ounce of myself that wants to stay in bed, I pull myself up and put some coffee on (I am an addict, I admit). I flip through my iPod to find some music that fits my mood (TIRED), and pull out my sketchbook. I used to just draw anything that popped into my head, but recently I started something new.

At the end of every morning session, before I go wake Indigo up, I put a watercolor wash on the NEXT page in my sketchbook. The next morning, I pull out the watercolor from the day before, and stare into it to see what I can see. Whatever image appears is the one I draw. Once I have divined the image, I spend several more mornings on the piece until it is finished. I also use this morning time to play with different mediums and mix them together in new (for me) ways.

What about you? Do you have a daily ritual that helps support, maintain, or inspire your creativity?

Helping Haiti

Like I told my boyfriend a few days ago, I can't listen to NPR in my car until the tragedy in Haiti is over (well, at least until it is not being reported on anymore). I tear up as I listen and before I know it my eyes are so filled with my own mascara that I can't see the road anymore. I am a great big sobbing hazard. Worse than someone on their cell phone. Just to be clear, I am not ignoring the issues, nor am I advocating that anyone else does. I just can't be informed and drive safely all at the same time!

All of the problems in my little world seem to evaporate as I hear about the horrible, terrifying conditions in Haiti right now. If it was possible I would go there and put in some real-time help. I would foster as many children as I could until their families are found. But that is not possible, so I am doing what little I can from here by donating 50% of all of my online sales to Save the Children. To learn more about them, click on the link.

In the meantime, support the arts and help me raise money for charity either by making a purchase in my Etsy shop or placing a bid on some of my original artwork on eBay. In both instances, I will donate 50% of the sale to charity, and with your purchase you will receive a thank you noting the amount of your donation.

Original paintings on eBay!!!

Fearlessness and focus. Two things I'm working on in all aspects of my life. This is not a New Year's resolution (I don't believe in those--I think they set you up for failure), but a long-term resolve. Something I've been working on for a long time now. Qualities that I know exist within me, but that I sometimes have a hard time digging out and utilizing. I have inspiration and support, and lots more to talk about on this subject, but for now I want to keep it about my business as an artist.

What does this have to do with selling paintings on eBay? A lot. For a long time, all of my adult life, I can safely say, I have been struggling to make my art my central focus. And no wonder. I had my daughter at 24 years old, while I was still finishing school, left her dad 3 years later, and worked one crappy job after the next for what seemed like ever trying to make ends meet. I was trapped in that void of single-mom-working-raising baby-no-time-for-myself-land. Finally I was able to work for myself, but the ends-meeting part was, and is, still a bit of a mystery to me.

So is the focus. I feel as though I am constantly pulled between 2 equally strong yet opposing forces: making money and making art. In between those two forces are many other competing realities--for example, having control over my own time so that I CAN make art and so that I can spend quality time with my daughter vs. working a "real" job, making (theoretically) better money and (theoretically) getting benefits but having to depend on daycare to raise my daughter and having no energy left for my art. I choose to continue working for myself, but I am constantly fighting the urge to accept every single opportunity at the cost of focusing on my art. When I fall into that trap, I am driven by fear. Namely, fear that I won't be able to pay the rent.

At the same time, somewhere inside I KNOW that making money and making art don't have to be opposing forces! So one of my primary goals for 2010 is to work harder than ever before on merging the two. Next time I'll tell you some of the steps I've already taken in that direction, and I'll keep you updated for the year. Think of this post as a little introduction :) In the meantime, help support my work and score yourself an awesome deal by bidding on my one of a kind, original paintings on eBay. A great big fearless step for little me, putting them there!

Happy New Year 2010!

I can't believe it's actually 2010! In a couple of short weeks, Indigo will be 10 years old and we will be well on our way into the new decade. I have a lot of plans and things to tell you about, but the main thing at the moment is that I am building a new website with my blog integrated into it. I am so excited! I'll finally be able to show you all of my new work, and I've got some really interesting ideas for my blog. I'll tell you when it's up, of course.

For now, I hope you had some wonderful holidays, and that you all have an amazing year to come!