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Welcome to my process art journal. I’m doing process art and blogging about it every day in 2012 as a transformational practice. I invite you to join me as a visitor, commenter, and/or fellow process artist/blogger.

process art:
art that focuses on the internal process of making art
rather than on the product, outcome, or meaning

  • Visit the Process Art page for info about process art and commenting guidelines.
  • The More Art page has links to some of my pre-2012 process art.
  • DO YOU DO PROCESS ART? I invite you to submit a photo and accompanying text (from one sentence to several paragraphs) for the Community page. Please contact me if you’re interested.
  • To add a comment, click on the speech bubble to the right of a blogpost title.

Cloudy Mind

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May 19, 2012

I had a strange day today. I’d intended to get a bunch of work done in the morning, but I couldn’t get focused after I got back from my walk, and I figured I’d had enough work for a while. I was very task oriented all week, and I think I just needed a break. Charlie and I made some sun shades for our balcony plants, and I did some reading. It still felt as though I was too focused on getting stuff done instead of just relaxing.

The truth is, I’m not all that great at relaxing. I do it best with another person, such as when Charlie and I watch a movie together. I want to cultivate the skill of relaxing. It seems like an admirable goal for someone as task oriented and productive as I am.

On the other hand, there are so many fun things to do in life! I’m helping a friend get her WordPress website up and running, which is very fun. And I have a couple of graphics projects these days, one of which involves some design work—something else fun! And the list goes on . . . but there’s still something important for me to learn about relaxing.

Friday Doodling

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May 18, 2012

I’ve been “on” a lot this week, so it was a pleasure to sit down this evening to do art and let out some lazy doodles. Now that I’ve painted them, they look like more than that. They remind me of some shapes I’ve seen in the body art of New Guinea. No idea why that would be showing up in my painting, but the “why” doesn’t matter.

I had a few sessions with coaching clients today. Even though I’ve been coaching people for over six years, I continue to be so inspired by how new insights come forth in the midst of coaching conversations. This stuff really works! In addition to the benefits the emerge from the sessions themselves, the process also gets a lot of juice from setting the intention to work toward a goal. I see it so clearly in my own life. A year or two ago, it would have been inconceivable to me to find time each day to do process art and blog about it, and here I’ve been doing it for the past 139 days in a row. All I really did was set a clear intention and keep my word.

So now I’m all excited about setting more intentions, the biggest one these days being about finding any missing components of my true work. I may end up discovering that I’m doing my true work right now—coaching and writing and editing—or something completely new might emerge as a result of putting my attention on it. While my friend Karma was coaching me about it last week, I came up with these words to help light the way:

I am cultivating spaciousness in my life
so I can bring forth my highest purpose.

 

Dreaming

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May 17, 2012

I had a troubling day in some ways—some PTSD triggered, stuff I have more work to do on.

In other ways, it was a good day. I gave notice a month ago on an annoying freelance job I’ve been doing for eight years, and today I finished the last of the work for that job, so it’s a sort of Liberation Day. Here’s to letting go of things that are energy drainers and that no longer serve! The more I let go of, and the more I make room for, the more I wonder what I’m making room for. No answers yet, but nonetheless I’m enjoying the process of making room.

It was also a good day because I got some repairs done on my car that have kept Charlie and me staying in town instead of taking day trips. Now we’re free to drive wherever we want. Time to dream up some adventures . . .

Butterflies

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May 16, 2012

I don’t have any words today. It’s been a very verbal day, and my left brain is resting now.

I’ll let someone else talk instead:

“We turn to God for help when our foundations are shaking, only to learn that it is God who is shaking them.”

—Charles C. West

Streaming Wing

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May 15, 2012

I had a scattering day today that began with taking my car into the shop this morning and missing my morning walk. It really makes a difference not starting the day immersed in nature and moving. Everything felt kind of stuck. So it was a joy to paint this painting and feel movement and spaciousness.

I have another project I need to complete before bedtime, so I’m going to keep this brief and sign off for tonight.

An Omen

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May 14, 2012

The thing in the “sky” of this painting feels like a good omen. No idea why, but it does.

I blogged yesterday about starting to trade coaching sessions with my friend Karma to explore what I want to be when I grow up. I’ve decided to take a multipronged approach and also have some therapy sessions. I’m starting that next week. It feels good to have strong intention to get to the heart of things—and to back it up with action steps. I feel confident that I’m going to go on a fascinating adventure and learn some new stuff about myself.

I’ve mentioned or posted links to my coaching website here a bunch of times. I also have an editorial website for my writing and editing (and graphics) freelance business. One of the pages on that site is for public typos, and I posted a couple of doozies today. Looking for public typos is a sort of hobby of mine, and it’s always fun to find some good ones.

Water Porcupine

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May 13, 2012

I did this painting quickly while Charlie was heating up some food for dinner. It felt authentic—and—I sensed (again) a longing to immerse myself in process painting more deeply. I’m just about caught up with the household to-do list; another week or so and I should be finished. I’m SO looking forward to spending an afternoon painting instead of just grabbing a little time here and there as I’m able to.

My friend Karma and I traded coaching sessions this afternoon in the first of many sessions to give birth to something new in our lives. As I’ve blogged about before, even though I do satisfying work—particularly coaching and educational writing—it feels as though there’s another aspect of my highest purpose that I’m not yet doing. I’ve decided to seek it out instead of waiting for it to come get me. I’m going to be exploring with Karma the steps to getting there. Today’s session was about identifying how to prepare the ground and also any parts (subpersonalities) that might need some attention at this stage in the process. I can’t see into the future beyond how to prepare the ground, but I trust that steps G, H, and I will show up after I’ve taken care of A through F.

So, A through E are about attending to some things in my life that will support me in doing qigong (F) regularly, with the understanding that doing qigong regularly will support step G and beyond. I’m going to take care of those things over the next week and start doing qigong again. I can feel that it takes strong intention to change the trajectory of my daily life, but much of that trajectory is the fallout of old habits and stress, so changing it is a very good thing.

I have a strong sense that this process art practice is one of the key components in giving birth to this new thing in my life. It’s a way of honing my ability to be present to what’s arising, which feels as though it’s going to be an important piece of the puzzle. Stay tuned. :)

Frenzies

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May 12, 2012

When I was painting these colors, each one felt like its own little frenzied, chaotic whirlwind, completely disconnected from the others. (I painted green, then blue, purple, magenta, and red.) But after I finished painting, the whole thing felt like a coherent whole. Kinda like life, I guess.

I’m proud to say that I did very little work today—maybe two hours at the most. I spent a good chunk of the day reading a really wonderful book that I highly, highly recommend: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Collector’s Edition by Sherman Alexie. It’s poignant, funny, and a lot of other superlative adjectives, and you can read more about it by clicking on the link. I ordered a bunch more of his books from the library and can’t wait til they’re in.

Bedtime. More tomorrow. G’nite.

Whale

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May 11, 2012

I felt prompted to do a very thin horizontal painting tonight. Unfortunately, because there’s a limit to the width of images for this blog, I had to reduce the size quite a bit to post it.

It’s a whale.

I’ve been thinking about a lot of stuff lately—mostly under the surface and without words. I’m working on clearing out clutter, both concrete and figurative, so I can get a clearer perspective on some things about my direction. Sometimes I think I’d be happy painting and gardening and reading all day, but I know there’s also this “change the world” part of me that gets restless if I’m not doing much in that arena. I get a lot of satisfaction from coaching people and also from the books I write for educational publishers, but I don’t know if that’s enough for that part of me to feel fulfilled. Sometimes I think it’s my nature to be a hermit. Other times, I think it’s a defense. I’m going exploring to learn more about it.

Meanwhile, my simplifying-my-life efforts are paying off. It’s Friday night, and I don’t see myself working all weekend. Yay!