Answering How To Jumpstart Creativity

After my first blog post about How to Jumpstart Creativity in the Now Times, I have a partial answer: friends, other artists, a calendar. I am an Artist. Before I retired, I was an Executive and my life ran by my calendar and my cell phone. It worked rather well, keeping me employed until I decided I didn’t want to be any more. 
    Being retired gave me a lot of free time and I used it to kick start my art which I had put aside when I moved to the National Capital Region, e.g. Washington, D. C. Getting back to the Pacific Northwest and the fresh air and water all around was one of the better decisions I’ve made. Getting back into Art was another outstanding decision.
    Being under House Arrest/Isolation/ has also given me time since none of the groups I see are meeting and the friends I have coffee with are also housebound. I’ve been slacking off, art-wise. My calendar has cleared. So, I figured if scheduling meetings and interviews and meetings and lunches and meetings (there were a LOT of meetings) kept me on track in my office maybe the same thing could work for my Art. And, guess what? It does!
    I belong to a couple of Art groups, including Artists United, so there are those meetings – coming to a computer screen near me via Zoom - to put on the calendar. Check. Then there are board meetings for those art groups as well (You guessed it. Computer meeting via Zoom). Check. Then I have invested a few meager coins in some on-line classes and these go on the calendar. Check. I support a couple of outstanding artists on Patreon and they do on-line and sometimes live presentations and tutorials so, again calendar. I think you can see where I’m going with this.
    One of the first things I did was review my folder of “To Be Completed” projects. There are several. Most of us have a variety of UFOs* around the studio. I’ve decided to put those in order and actually finish them! Astounding, I know. But necessary. I have a thing about buying art supplies and I refuse to buy more with unfinished things sitting around yelling at me to finish them. And I’m running out of a particular kind of paper I especially like. So, in order to pry the coin purse from my tight fists, I need to finish these projects.
    And, hence, the calendar. I enter a start date an approximate completion date. I make sure I have the supplies I need – since these projects are already ‘begun’, I do have the supplies. Then it’s a simple matter of opening up the calendar and setting to work. Tomorrow. I’m going to begin to finish one tomorrow. I can do this. 
    After all, I am an Artist.


*Un-Finished Objects d’art 
    ​