In Search of Creativity

One of my new goals for the next few months is to find and/or attend an inspiring creativity workshop. I don't care if it's about general creativity, or more specialized for oil or watercolor painting--I just want something that will get my juices flowing. I have been feeling stumped in this area for quite some time and it stumps my confidence in my work. Something relatively local is preferable, but I will travel to an awe-inspiring location for the right price.

So if anyone out there in webland has any hints on how to find one, or recommendations for a workshop they have taken, please pass it on. Please comment or email me at kate (at) penguinart (dot) com.

In the meantime I am reading SARK's book, "Make Your Creative Dreams Real: A Plan for Procrastinators, Perfectionists, Busy People, and People Who Would Really Rather Sleep All Day."



I *heart* SARK's handwritten, scribbled and doodled books. This one is a little more structured but I don't mind. The watercolor-textured inserts with multicolored marker writings make me want to draw like a kid again. SARK is a bit like Sesame Street for the troubled adult mind.

I will put SARK's next workshop on my list of possibilities.

Gratitude

Right now, in my life I am grateful for abundance. I have recently received and experienced an abundance of:


1. Support from my friends, both near and far
2. Love from my family
3. Work from my clients
4. Motivation from my husband
5. Affection from my dogs
6. Inspiration from my surroundings
7. Grace from the Universe
8. Hope for my Self

I hope this Thanksgiving, spent at home visiting family will bring even more abundance for me and those I love.

Happy Thanksgiving

This week....

...I feel an unprecedented amount of gratefulness and appreciation for my good friends.



What would I do without you?



I'd be smiling far less, I am sure.



Thank you so much for all your support. xo

Pimp and Ho Party

Ho Kate and Pimp David
Originally uploaded by Kate Hamilton.

Last week I attended a Pimp and Ho themed party in honor of some friends' birthdays. Click on the photo to see more debauchery!

Checking In

So a few weeks ago I posted about some steps I've begun to take to better my Self. Here's how that's going:

Step 1 Self Care
In the past two weeks I have had a massage, a facial, purchased new makeup tools, took a long bath, have been to the family doctor, the woman stuff doctor, and booked tickets to go home for Thanksgiving to spend it with my family.

Step 2 Returning to Therapy
This one I need to improve on--I had one meeting with a new therapist and she was great. I have yet to make a follow-up appointment. It is on my list of to-do's for the day.

Step 3 Body Management
In the past week I have met with a trainer who gave me some exercises I could do at home with resistance bands, and some stretches that will help open up my ever-contracting back and hips. Just in time for ski season--Winter Park Resort opens next week (yay!).

Step 4 Stress Relief
My massage and facial from Step 1 cross over here. I also had a girl's weekend in Denver with a few close buddies. We did some window shopping, the aforementioned facials, wine tasting and gabbing. It was the first time I ever did that for a whole weekend and it felt weird, but good.

Step 5 Relationship
My husband and I had a really great anniversary celebration 2 weeks ago. We have been working on managing our finances together and sharing household duties. There is still room for improvement but hey, we have all the time in the world.

NEW! Step 6
Perhaps I should have mentioned this one before, but I was just focused on non-career goals at first. Step 6 is to find focus in my creative life, to pin down what I want to be my specialty and sticking to it. I've had a bit of drama jumping between illustration, graphic design and fine art. And truthfully I love all three of those. But within each of those are endless ways to spread out and wear a lot of creative hats. For example, fine art: I love painting landscapes, and desire to paint animals, but that doesn't mean I need to become a pet portraitist or follow the market's demands--I should do my own thing, whatever that is. Work towards figuring it out. Focus. In illustration I enjoy painting animals with personalities, but more on the realistic than cartoonish side. So why try to become a cartoonist or an uber-realistic illustrator? Focus on what I enjoy most.

That's all for now. Time to walk the doggities, then do 50 minutes of stretching, then work.

Alpenglow

Alpenglow
Watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold press
8" x 10.5"
©2007 Kate Hamilton

So hey, look! I painted a picture this week. In between manic job quotes, billing and rush projects I crammed in a watercolor painting. I needed something to use as a backdrop for an ad I've placed in Rocky Mountain Bride Magazine. In the next issue I will also have an illustration published in an article about spa days. I'll let you know when it's available.

What is really significant about the painting above is that I completed it, start to finish in just a few hours. I had no choice. The ad deadline was that day. I had no existing ads to pull and reuse. A few times in the process I almost abandoned it. It seems that there is a point in every piece I create where I feel impatient and just want to Get. It. Done. Already. This usually happens after I have all my basic elements laid in, but the detail is not yet there and the colors are merely an underpainting and very non-representational. It is easy to walk away at this point, especially when my pesky inner critic starts to whisper, "This painting is going nowhere. You're really going to mess this one up. Don't waste your time." As a result I have dozens of unfinished pieces in my collection, and all are pretty much in the same underpainted phase (hmm, there's a pun in there). These abandoned efforts annoy me. I hate them. I want to throw them all out but for some reason I hold onto them. They're in a portfolio under the bed.

So I had a few opportunities to abandon my painting above but I persisted. And I finished it. And I like it. So there. Take that, inner critic, Ms. Poopynannyhead.

We're on YouTube

I finally set up a YouTube account so I could share movies with my family and friends who live nowhere near. The first of my series is my favorite footage of Maggie in the snow. Last year we had 3 feet fall overnight on October 26. I'm hoping we get a storm like that soon. It's a balmy 50 degrees today, and the light snowfall we had a few weeks ago has been reduced to a few slushy muddy patches. It doesn't feel right. Come winter!