creativity is messy

Someone recently asked me how I create.

I am a quilter, and  I had fabric spread across the worktable.

How do I create.

Hmmm.

So I responded quickly - looking down at the fabrics we had chosen - two different themes of fabrics,

"It's messy," I replied.

And then, before I sat to compose this entry, I realized, 

ART IS MESSY.

All art is messy.  Painting.  Ceramics.  Sculpture.  Collage.  Performance Art.

As designers (of anything, I believe) we need a lot, we have to pull a lot, we have unlimited choices of whatever it is we're doing - working in.  And we want to see it all, consider it all, try it all, and throw half of it out (or maybe more than half some days).

And in return, life is messy.  Our friendships are messy.  There are so many choices out there.  Who do we invite in?  What do we keep, what do we set free, or set aside for another part of our life?  How do we create a life? Life IS a blank canvas.  I think, if you have been reading along, you will know, I do morning sunrise prayers and evening meditations.  Every morning I ask, I plead, I call upon the Great (for me, God, for you, your choice), "Show me what it is that you would have me do today."  A blank canvas.  Every day.  Or as my yoga instructor says, "Begin again".  Except he might say it three or four or eight times in an hour and a half class.  BEGIN AGAIN.  Create again.  Messy.  And maybe, in life, we're really looking for someone that we can 'be messy' with. A safe place.  Like Creating.  Art.  (oh, yea, where were we....)

And so in this very short blog about, probably, you will say, not so much about quilting (however, I would say, read it again...) quilting is messy.  art is messy.  creating is messy.  life is messy.

How fine to be creative.  Messy is good.

be.do.create

2008

Thanks for thinking of

b e y o n d   t h e   r e e f

Natalie

natalie@beyondthereefpatterns.com

www.beyondthereefpatterns.com

"Let the beauty we love be what we do." - Rumi

"Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened.

Don't open the door to the study and begin readying.

Take down a musical instrument.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.

There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.

Don't go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.

Don't go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth across the door sill where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.

Don't go back to sleep."  - Rumi

Okay, the cat is out of the bag.  I am a student.  Of many things.

I am a student of yoga.  I am a student of life.  I am a student of people.

I am a student of dating and appraising quilts, too.  By the way.

So in my yoga class this last Sunday morning, this poem was read - well, just this part of the poem...it goes on.  I found it of interest that when we are 'so into our head' that instead of going into our head again, that we are to use the OTHER side of our brain.  Reach for something CREATIVE not CEREBRAL.  

Good thinking!  

Fabric!

Quilting!

Art!

Music!

Yeah!!!

I like this.  A lot.  And the part about not going back to sleep to.  The door is OPEN.

How many times do we get to a part of a quilt, project, time in our life, whatever, and we want to 'go back to sleep' about it?  Oh, I know for a fACt.  When I'm trying to finish something, and I run out of bobbin, that's where I want to go.  Or I sew the last square together and the bottom fabric has shifted and now it's not square, or well, you get the point.  I want to 'go back to sleep'.  I don't want to sit and figure it out or get up and go for a walk and come back and finish it correctly - fresh.  I just want to 'go back to sleep' forgetting that the door is open still.

So, while today's blog is a small one, it is packed full of good idea.

When you wake up 'empty and frightened', don't get sucked into your head - reach for something creative.  And when you want to get into your head, just don't.  Don't over think it.  As a song writer said, "Darlin' do not fear what you don't understand."  

And when we choose to do something, let it be what we love.

Finally, listen to the secrets whispered only to you.  

And ask for what you really want.

Go through that open door.

Don't go back to sleep.

be.do.create

2008

Thanks for thinking of 

b e y o n d   t h e   r e e f

Natalie.

www.beyondthereefpatterns.com