“Let me keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished.
~ Mary Oliver
Creativity and wellness message for today: Allow for silence and wonder.
Nature’s Flow
Reply
Setting Boundaries Gains Big Results
My creative work involves having a calendar dating out three years. In addition to my on-going art, writing, and storytelling projects I’m applying to art and writing residencies. These residency applications require long lead times in the submission process. I also work as a Poet-in-Residence in schools so scheduling requires looking and planning ahead because there are lots of moving parts involving different organizations.
Last December, like a good fortune teller, I saw my upcoming year(s) in my mind’s eye. To meet the deadlines I already had in place, I knew I had to set boundaries for January and February so I would have enough time to concentrate on my projects under development. I am grateful to be in a position to set my own work schedule. While I did have to turn down some professional gigs in order to stay focused on my plans, the future rewards are worth it.
This morning, seeing this array of proposals, submissions, and projects, completed or in process, basking in the sunlight on my drawing table, brings me satisfaction. Proof of the seeds I’m planting in my visual and literary arts world. Plus, a new opportunity just came my way, and because I had blocked out this time, I’m able to jump on it! Stay tuned, lots of fun stuff happening here in Adair’s studio.
Creativity and wellness message for today. Plan ahead and allow time and space for opportunity to knock.
How Much Light Gets In
“You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.”
– Alan Watts
Creativity and wellness message for today: Harmonize with the beauty around you.
Reflections, Light, and Shadow
Happy New Year to everyone. I’m working on a series of fine art photographs called, “Reflections, Light, and Shadow.” I only use available light, crop the image using the camera on my mobile phone, and shoot. Capturing natural glimpses, fleeting moments in time, brings out the poet in me, distilling things down to their essence.
Then finding this Rumi quote is the icing on the cake:
“Both light and shadow are the dance of love.”
– Rumi
Creativity and wellness message for today: Be delighted by nature’s design.
Community of Storytellers
I’m sharing a moment of gratitude for my storytelling community near and far. Storytellers have this way of getting to the heart of the matter and for being an inclusive band of renegades and angels. I am fortunate to have stumbled upon the art and act of visual storytelling — writing, creating visuals, and speaking the spoken word in front of live audiences.
As an artist and writer who specializes in personal narratives, visual storytelling is right up my alley. I appreciate my national storytelling exchange group via Zoom and the drafts they sat through, asked questions about, and provided constructive feedback on. The Bridgeport Art Trail Storytelling Exchange is phenomenal! Our local in-person We Rise Storytelling Collective is fun and risky and embracing. Thank you for encouraging me to tell my authentic stories in front of such an appreciative group! Then there is the national Artists Standing Strong Together that connects and weaves and advances the art of storytelling.
Recently, one of my stories “Art Saved My Life: Journey of a Lifetime” was selected for me to present in front of a live audience in a theatre alongside 12 other visual storytellers and the entire experience rocked my world. There is this vibe and connection between the PechaKucha Night Bridgeport storytellers that cut through any phoniness or pretense. The tellers shared their own true stories on the theme: Journeys: How Did We Get Here? Thank you City Lights Gallery and PechaKucha Night Bridgeport.
You can watch and listen to my 2022 PechaKucha presentation here. Please be advised it has adult content about healing and transformation.
Creativity and wellness message for today: Consider creating and sharing stories in the presence of others, it may just change your life!
Through the Lens . . .
On 9/23/22 I wrote in my journal . . . “I always see my life through the lens of an artist.” This image is one example of hundreds of what I see when enjoying a moment to myself. Here I am bowled over, in awe of the simple natural beauty around me.
Creativity and wellness message for today: Be in your life, experience it fully, open up with all your senses, and embrace every minute.
A.R.T.: Action, Reflection, Transformation
Watch out for who you run into at your local gardening center! There I was, minding my own business, choosing colorful potted flowers for my front porch, when I saw a friend browsing the outdoor aisles. We got to talking and catching up. She follows me on social media and asked about my recent art exhibitions and writing projects. Gab, gab, share, share, it was a lovely day to be outside and even lovelier to be chatting with her.
We say goodbye and a few weeks later, I’m asked if I would be interested in leading a lay-led summer service at The Unitarian Church in Westport, CT. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. What might be of value to the folks in the pews? I asked my friend (who was the Worship Associate) and she answered, “Talk about your art.” Hmmmmmmmmmm. Yes, I could talk about that until the cows come home, but is that really of value to the people in the seats?
Then I said, “I could speak about losing fifty years of my original fine art in a silent basement flood right before I was planning a retrospective.” She leaned in. I immediately followed my intuition and promptly said, “I could title my homily, “A.R.T: Action, Reflection, Transformation.” Ding, ding, ding, she thought it a great idea.
While it was a challenge writing my personal narrative homily with a message, I got as much out of it as the congregants. Being asked to speak was validation of me and my worthiness. Having my idea liked made me feel recognized. Hearing, seeing, and feeling the responses from the people in the pews and from them afterwards opened my heart.
Watch a video of my homily below. It starts at 13:26.
ART- Action, Reflection, Transformation from The Unitarian Church in Westport on Vimeo.
Creativity and wellness message for today: Just say yes and let your inner knowing take you to the next step.
Renewal and Responsibility
My art was recently selected by juror, James Barron, into the Spectrum Contemporary Art Exhibition at the Carriage Barn Arts Center in New Canaan, CT. The theme of the show is “Renewal,” apt and timely. I’m proud to be in the exhibition. Being accepted helps me keep going, keep creating, and keep creatively experimenting.
I’ve also been submitting to art and writing residencies around the US. I’ve wanted to be accepted into one for decades! I applied to one 30 years ago, got rejected, felt defeated, and never re-applied. Now I have the courage (and time) to keep pursuing applications to a variety of venues and locations. I’ve applied now to four, and have been rejected, so far by three. Still awaiting news on the fourth.
Over the years my mind set has changed from lasting despair if I don’t get accepted to viewing my submitting process as Rejection Accomplishments. It’s my responsibility to myself, as an artist and a writer, and someone who really wants the collaborative and focused work environment of a residency, to keep applying. I learn something new each time I apply to a different residency.
My Excel spreadsheet of possibilities, deadlines, and websites is lengthy, I have more creative opportunities then I have time and space to submit to. It’s a good problem to have!
Creativity and wellness message for today: After feeling the loss of rejection, consider patting yourself on the back and acknowledging “Job well done, now on to the next!”
Press On
Decades ago I longed to be a member of the Connecticut Press Club. Life and work responsibilities got in the way of me applying for membership plus I didn’t feel good enough. Over the years I worked in marketing and communications, health and wellness, academia, and I wrote, I taught, I created, exhibited, and sold my fine artwork. I started a family and helped raise a wonderful child. I created and co-authored a writers’ blog for a local library. My blog posts offered encouragement, followed my own process of starting a writer’s website, how to build an author’s platform online, and how to feel joy in the act of creativity.
I followed my own advice and as best I could kept my professional online presence current. The membership application didn’t come up on my radar often as I led a popular bi-weekly creative writing group for six years and had my poems and non-fiction essays published in journals, anthologies, and books.
Last year, I was a storyteller for the international visual storytelling experience PechaKucha Night Bridgeport, and this year I am a contributing author in a commercially published book. Still, I didn’t feel I was worthy of submitting for membership in the Connecticut Press Club.
Last month, however, I thought I had enough under my belt as a writer to apply for membership, I did. The organization was reworking its online application form so I contacted the organization directly about how I might apply. To my delight, I heard back that the organization read my bio on my website and I “was all set.” I’m happy to report this story has a happy ending.
Creativity and wellness message for today: Just keep doing what your heart calls you to do.
Opening Space for New Creative Projects
Today I’m clearing out old paper and digital files to make room for exciting original literary and artistic endeavors to come. I’ve recently been following Ingrid Fetell Lee and her “Aesthetics of Joy.” If you don’t know of her work I highly recommend checking out her TED talk and following her on social media.
She gave a suggestion in her recent blog about not saving so many good ideas. What? I’ve been putting notions and quotes in file folders for years. When I had a bright idea or if someone inspired me but I didn’t have a chance in the moment to act on it, I’d store it away for a later day. Or, I’ve taken to heart the writing adage “Always jot down your ideas when they come so you can use them later.” Well, uummmm, I’ve been doing this for decades and quite frankly I’ve run out of space. Ingrid suggests acting on them in the present, hence my writing this blog today.
Just now I found a really good quote hidden in a folder I’d been holding onto for 12 years. I kept it because it profoundly touched me. I pondered, “What can I do with it right now?” Then, an idea dropped into my consciousness. Yesterday, I took an in-the-moment, unedited photograph of a split second end-of-the-day visual with sunlight streaming through stained glass then reflecting in a mirror. What I witnessed stopped me in my tracks with its poetic beauty. Today I knew these two seemingly disparate things needed to be married.
A lifetime is not what is between
the moments of birth and death.A lifetime is one moment
Between my two little breaths.
The present, the here, the now,
That’s all the life I get.
I live each moment in full,
In kindness, in peace, without regret.
– Chade Meng, Taoist poet
Currently, I’m keeping my own journals from the past, but not my collection of other peoples’ writings. What other people have said, their words have soothed me, healed me, and ignited me. I’m grateful for them. I’ve incorporated their insights into who I am now. I’m releasing the rest to make room for the new.
Creativity and wellness message for today: Hold onto the wisdom but let go of the bulk.
Adair Wilson Heitmann's Blog 