Today is a misty, rainy fall day with a bright gray sky and the fall colors are glowing in the pearl light. I find that I really enjoy these kinds of days - they're atmospheric and full of feeling. I especially appreciate that the rain will clear and we'll have a bright crisp day by the time you read this, the fleeting sense of the day is even more evocative.
Making Marks Nobody Asked For
I've been thinking about permission and how we've been told to wait for it before we create something.
Permission from someone to tell us we're "good enough" to make art. Permission to use materials the "wrong" way. Permission to make mistakes and then celebrate them instead of hiding them. Permission to call ourselves creative, an artist even, without having gone to art school or sold a piece or gotten someone's official approval.
But The Creation (and, yes, I do mean the actual great Creation and its Spirit) doesn't wait for permission. Frost makes its needle patterns on windows without consulting anyone. Trees drop their leaves in whatever chaotic beauty the wind asks. Birds build nests from whatever they find. Nature just creates.
That permission you're waiting for? It's never coming from anywhere but inside you. The outside world isn't going to hand it to you. Even the people who love you can't give it to you.
You have to take it. Claim your creative sovereignty and start making marks.
That's what I'll be doing tomorrow in an Open Studio session, making marks nobody asked for, doing what I want without approval, and creating from a direct connection to The Creation rather than from what anyone thinks I "should" be doing.
Creative Bounty!
What I'm Making Tomorrow
I'll be working on studio ephemera journals - small folio journals where I curate and collect a variety of bits from my studio practice. The paint-off papers I use to test colors, scraps and blotter papers with experimental marks and doodles, failed attempts that have interesting textures, bits of collage papers that didn't make it into finished pieces. All these "mistakes" and tests and in-between moments that usually get thrown away or unused.
I'm gathering them up, honoring them as part of the creative process, and binding them into journals and folios that someone can use, alter, and make their own. These imperfect marks are the most honest parts of making.
It's not a polished presentation, it’s not guaranteed to go perfectly, I’m likely to make a mistake and keep going - it’s real studio time.
Love those circles…
Open Studio: Wild Creation Tomorrow, Nov 2
2pm Eastern - Watch me work
This isn't a workshop or class. It's an hour where you can watch me make marks in real time, see what wild creation actually looks like when it's happening, see me work with these studio scraps and ephemera, and ask any questions if you want to.
No materials needed on your end. No pressure to create anything yourself. Just come watch the real, messy, imperfect process of making something.
If you haven't registered yet and want to watch, click here to join us
If you already registered, you should have received the Zoom link - I'll send it again tomorrow morning.
I'm looking forward to seeing you there. If you have any questions or thoughts you’d like me to know, please click reply and send me a message. I read and answer every single one!
Shine Your Light!
Monette
P.S. If you've been waiting for permission to create messily, imperfectly, outside anyone's rules - this session might be exactly what you need to see. Register here