How can you choose what direction to go in when you have a million ideas??

I remember my years at art school and being told the power of focussing my attention in a deeper way – I found it so frustrating.

But, after years of resistance I finally gave in to the art of focussing and it has helped me build momentum and I’ve really learned when to say yes and no.

In today’s episode I share examples of how I choose my direction, both in art and life.

 

 

Have you ever had that annoying feeling – when you want to make art, you know you’re going to enjoy it but you just can’t get going?

It’s like exercise. You know you’re going to feel better after the exercise and it’s good for you, but you can’t get going.

I’ve had so many people say the same to me about art, and I get into a funk all the time with my own art making.

Usually when I’ve lost touch with the art-making process, it’s because I’m juggling lots of left brain tasks in my job running United ArtSpace. So for me it’s really tough to flip back and forth between art making and running United ArtSpace.

MYSELF

Before I start anything else, thinking about the direction I’m going to go in, what do I like, all that kind of stuff – I go back to myself and self care because there’s a great quote:

 

“When people lose their way, they’ve lost their why”

So I go back to myself first and foremost and I start to fill my life with positivity. Kind of like setting my mind to be open to receiving and looking for clues.

 

Reset, make some space, journal.

 

INSPIRATION 

I like to start to gather inspiration. It might be looking at other artists and looking for images, techniques, phrases. And I do this ‘delve and shelve’ process where I start to look at my artwork and think “What is it that I want to take forwards and what is it that I want to shelve and move beyond?”

From here I create a mind map and I start looking at key words.

This is a great exercise of downloading everything out of my brain and starting to see this in a visual way so I can now start to see links between these things as well.

This is where mind mapping is really powerful and helpful because if you think about all of this stuff independently in your mind, it’s hard to see those connections.

FEELING OVERWHELMED?

If you’ve got so many ideas you just don’t know where to begin, download them all on a mind map. They might feel completely unrelated but they won’t be usually.

Then you can then just start to circle things on your mind map and think “Right, this is what I’m gonna focus on. I’m gonna focus on this for the next week and see where this takes me and play and don’t have any idea or preconceptions of the outcome”.

It’s completely up to you how you get going once you’ve got past that starting point. But that’s how I get going.

 

I hope it’s helpful and I want see your art making!

Have a great week.

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Take care everyone,
Michelle xo