Creative Empowerment

 

It’s that time again, my favorite season in Tucson. It’s gem show time, when, for two glorious weeks, our big brown town becomes encrusted with jewels, geodes, embroidered fabrics, and visitors from all over the world; it’s a global bizarre, replete with every imaginable color and texture. There are seven-foot amethysts, dinosaur bones, and antique Chanel chains. Imagine a football field filled with tables covered with mountains of pearls from China, in hundreds of shapes and colors. Picture tray after glittery tray filled with electric blue opals, rubies, emeralds, aquamarines. Turquoise beads the size of your hand, sinks carved from fossilized stone, and tables plastered with cut crystals glisten in the Tucson sun. It’s like walking around the ocean floor after all the water has gone, with a few thousand jewelry boxes and Tiffany’s stores tossed in. It’s heaven.

 

It’s so enticing, in fact, that I have corrupted a few of my far away friends, one of whom has become an accomplished jeweler just from visiting her pal Carrie in Arizona every February. The first year I took the delicious Janet Ecklebarger to one of the bigger shows, we made a “floor necklace” entirely out of little treasures that had dropped onto the convention floor. Another year, we bought “friendship necklaces” made of gold mesh tubes filled with tiny white topaz stones. Imagine me, panting at the sight of them, yelling “JANET! EMERGENCY!” to get her back down the aisle.

Janet and her wonderful husband (and extremely good sport) Eliot are on their way here for our annual visual feast, and I can’t wait. We will ooh, aah, and lament the fact that we never have time for a jewelry-making day in my studio. We ignite each other with ideas and enthusiasm, so working in the vicinity of Janet always gives me creative juice to spare.

Here some of her tasty morsels:

ladder necklace, hammered metal wire from old hangers, aluminum rivets

daguerreotype earrings: aluminum scrap, mica, rivets(check out more of her amazing work at www.gleandesign.com)

I used to troll the show alone when I first moved to Tucson, but now I revel in my time there with friends I love, playing like little kids in a giant, sparkly sandbox.

Also, I’m just back from a sublime workshop in Santa Fe with the divine Gail Larsen, author of Transformational Speaking. I thought it would be nice to polish my speaking skills, to go from my old Yelling College Instructor voice to something new and more relevant to my current roles.

I became a better speaker, due to Gail’s unparalleled guidance and warmth. But that’s just a tiny part of the wisdom I brought home with me, wisdom I suspect will make me a better listener, a better friend, a better writer, and a more patient mother. And, the icing on the cup-runneth-over cake: I fell madly in love. With seven people! At one time! I am basking like a happy puppy in the feeling I just made up a name for: laughterglow. Please pardon the pun, as there’s no better way to describe the enormous joy I feel from four days spent emotional trekking with wonderful, generous people. I got a huge dose of creative empowerment, new perspectives on my work and my words, and best of all, several new lifelong friends. I am way past lucky on this one, and remember that great saying: “The best things in life aren’t things.” Gemstones are nice, but may I present:

GEMMA STONE.

Yep, that’s a real person to my right, and yes, her name is really Gemma Stone. Gemma is a psychologist, coach and speaker from Calgary. She is just as gorgeous on the inside as she is on the outside, which is excessive, bordering on the supernatural. One smile from her and you just have to forgive God for showing off like this.

Gemma is the embodiment of love, patience, and all things good. I guess I must have been pretty pre-occupied at the workshop because the irony of her name was completely lost on me until I realized this:

The most valuable thing in my life is, has always been, and will always be, my relationships. My peeps. My loves. My students. My teachers. My children. And that’s what creativity is all about: people! How do we stir others with our work? How do we stir our own souls with the possible?

Thank you, Gemma, Tanya, Michael, Linda, Lissa, and fearless leader Gail for showering me with diamonds of light, rubies of wisdom, and emeralds of trust. I came home blazing with joy and the luster of new possibilities. 

I’m so excited to incorporate my new ideas into my March workshop PERMISSION GRANTED, Saturday, March 9^th, and Sunday, March 10^th!

Register at the Events link of my Creative Empowerment Facebook page, or contact me by email for details at carrieseid@cox.net.

Sparkle Plenty!

Carrie

  WONDER: The Sequel

Yesterday, I went to see Rise of the Guardians with my daughter, who is twelve. This was payback for my dragging her to Life of Pi (she later thanked me), as per our negotiated settlement.

While both movies were visually stunning, I’m dedicating this post to the art directors and animators of Rise of the Guardians , which was pure eye candy from beginning to end. Normally, I dread these super-action-packed-giant-eyed-car-chase-fiery-explosion-evil-monster-beaten-by-high-moral-espousing-little-girl epics, and chomp popcorn in direct proportion to my mounting restlessness. (Put some butter in the middle, too, please.)

This movie, however, had me swooning. I melted into a nine-year-old, oohing and gasping at the insanely detailed surfaces of everything in sight. Confession: I hold two degrees in textiles and am arguably obsessed with cool textures and sparkly surfaces (an ex referred to this as a “glitter disorder”, but I prefer to think of it as having the ability to appreciate texture). After my eyes were super-sensitized my freshman year in art school, I could look at a piece of plywood and think I was hallucinating; its swirling concentric patterns absorbed and fascinated me. Then, I grew up, started making art for a living, became a mother, and got a little busy. The phrase “take time to smell the flowers” generally just pisses me off.

Yet Jack Frost, the Tooth Fairy, and the Sandman actually slowed me down to child-like daydream speed, a welcome change. Rise of the Guardians could be called Festival of Surfaces and Materials and Everything That is Amazing to Look At If You Are Fortunate Enough To Have The Gift Of Sight. From the dimensional stitched pattern on Santa’s sweater to the mosaic tiled floors and walls of the “tooth castle” (where all rescued children’s teeth are kept in tiny bejeweled boxes), I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. Santa has a beard? Let’s show every glorious strand, with highlights and lowlights. Unlike reality TV, every frame was specific, designed, done on purpose. I didn’t even mind the toddlers yammering away in front of me.

And, best of all, both the good AND evil characters were primarily iterated in GLITTER, as if God was telling me that it’s safe to go to the movies again: the bar has been officially and irretrievably raised. I’m going back to see this movie in 3D, so the Gold Glitter of Goodness can rain upon my head and swirl around me more thoroughly. In fact, I’m going to see it in every D available.

(Just to be clear, the plot lines and morals were all good and valuable as well, but that’s not what will get more dollars to jump out of my wallet like flying fish.)

As I watched Jack Frost draw gorgeous frost patterns with a stick on anything and everything he whizzed by, I remembered growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, surrounded by trees coated in glassy ice that shone in the streetlights and turned my neighborhood into Narnia. I remembered holding red and gold leaves up to the sun to reveal their veiny skeletons and become little flags of fire. I played for hours with leaves, arranging them by color and making “rooms” with them in my backyard. And ice…oh ice. I used to love walking home from school on it, in the spring, pushing the water out from underneath its bubbly glass with my steps. It was worth one or two sprained ankles - it was wonder in action. And I remembered that these things ultimately led me to be an artist. Now, the same alchemy I wondered about as a child drives my every move in the studio.

Which brings me to my realization about some of the things that comprise the roots of creative empowerment:

1)  Wonder precludes creativity.

Creativity is inquiry, or responses to inquiry, or both. We see something, we wonder about it, we respond to it or exploit it. We ask, we answer. Art is always a response to something. In our high-octane, quick-cut culture we do forget to sit and say, “Huh. That’s amazing. What is that? I never saw that before. What can I do with that?”

It’s a new year. Take time for some appreciation of the little things, and the “little” questions that lead to big things, like, what is the source of my curiosity? What do I wonder about? I call this an “adult kid question.” Ask this question in your office or studio. Ask this question at the grocery store. Ask this question of your children! Play with your food. Toss some glitter onto some wet glue. Follow an instinct out of sheer curiosity. Wander the temple that is Home Depot.

2)  Creativity is about opportunity.

The makers of this film took every opportunity to make art. Every surface, object, or special effect was an excuse for embellishment and pure invention. Marching to rescue all the dreams and hopes of the world’s children, zillions of Easter eggs get coated in wondrous poofs of pigment. Then, because they can , get dipped in a river of luminescent coating that renders them lustrous, proud, and even more righteous. Second coat. Why not?  I only wished Jack Frost had slowed down a bit so I could soak in his fabulous work a little longer. He even had a hoodie that featured a cool embroidery pattern that was retro-frosty-cool. I want one. Target, are you listening?

Rise of the Guardians is so beautiful that it stars Jude Law and Alec Baldwin and you don’t even need to see them. And it’s so engaging I didn’t even need popcorn. Next time, I’m going to see it on an empty stomach, and I will leave full and happy.

Thank you, thank you, voracious art directors and animators! You remind me that art is opportunity itself: every dresser top can be a shrine, every clothing choice a “second skin,” every earring a celebration. My day is a beaded necklace of alternating tasks and delights, all of my own design. From here on, I vow to appreciate the frost on my windshield before destroying it with a credit card. It’s a rare treat in Arizona!

What surface will you embellish today?

Happy Gazing!

  Carrie

Here’s a recipe for self-hatred: Make a long list of things you promise yourself you’ll do, don’t do them, head for the refrigerator, rinse, repeat. You know the drill. 

Generally, I believe in recycling, but some things, like numbers one through five on my list, are better served in the trash. No such list for me this year. Instead, I’m making a list called, “Things I finally accept as true.” Some contenders:

1. I accept that I will never have dishwasher pellets, dishwashing liquid, paper towels, cat litter, batteries, and fresh milk all in my house at the same time. 

2. I accept that my hair is simply too baby-fine for more than two layers to exist in any one quadrant on my head. 

3. I accept that my car will be trashed the day after it’s washed. 

4. Insert “house” for “car” in previous example.

This year, I’m ending my romance with perfectionism. Putting these battles in the past empowers me to carve new paths of inquiry.

Luckily, I’m not alone in this. Paradigm shifting takes a community of support, and these three shape-shifting superheroes are at the top of my list for inspiration: 

Kris Carr, NYT best-selling author of Crazy Sexy Diet, is a gorgeous young woman with a rare form of “untreatable” cancer she is keeping at bay with green drinks and mentally re-framing her entire situation. How’s this for some Herculean acceptance: she refers to her spots of cancer as “beauty marks”. She doesn’t take fear for an answer.

Danielle LaPorte, author of The Firestarter Sessions, which Julia Cameron touts as “the new, badass version of The Artist’s Way.” She is one articulate badass, indeed: taking her readers through a step-by-step guide to transforming passions into livelihoods. Love this book, and her soft-spoken, stealth sassitude.

Susan Hyatt, all-around magical person and author of Create Your Own Luck. She also happens to drink a lot of green things…could there be some kind of connection here? Hmmm … Check out her magically delicious land here. 

The great thing about accepting reality? It’s always here. Even better, it’s always changing, and we get to engineer most of it ourselves. Dream. Design. Build, toss, or keep. Frame. Then re-frame. 

Would you like to throw out your recycled resolutions and change the mind of person wielding the pen? 

Please join me for my January workshop on Creative Empowerment, which will focus on renewal and re-framing. This is a one-day intensive workshop that runs from 9am to 5pm and addresses multiple aspects of creativity and paradigm-shifting. This workshop is NOT just for artists! Email me at carrieseid@cox.net for more info or visit my Creative Empowerment page on Facebook, where you can register for my workshop on the event page.

Happy New Galactic Configuration! Time to hit the refresh button.

Carrie

carrieseid@cox.net

The old model definitely had its flaws! Let’s thank the Mayans for all their wisdom (not to mention great art, architecture, and killer sports), and pull up some blank paper and nice pens. Time to break out the good art supplies and the big dreams…you know, the ones you’ve been saving for “that day?” Well, that day, if you’re an optimist, is HERE. Or, as my twelve-year-old daughter put it to me, “Mommy, you’re still very young. You have your whole half a life ahead of you!”

On December 8th, we said so-long to 2012 and old ways of thinking and doing (or not doing, which I did quite a lot of this last year) at the Creative Confidence workshop I led at my home in Tucson. Twelve amazing people gathered around a fire pit in my backyard in the early morning cold, and together we began freeing ourselves from limiting beliefs and forging new paths for innovative thinking and ACTING.

I love the smell of negativity burning in the morning and the sound of paradigms shifting on the gravel under my feet. As each participant acknowledged and ‘fired’ the negative voices in their lives, we left a pile of mental junk burning while we headed into the studio for some big-time recalibrating. As I watched colorful vision boards evolving around me, I knew why I saved all those beautiful magazines. Behold the power of the little glue stick!

In seeking greater access to their own creativity, participants discovered new contexts for their ideas and new images upon which to dream. Best of all, they found each other. Future plans were made and support networks created. I was so happy to be able to teach everything I love, and nothing I don’t. For the first time as an educator, I got to give everyone straight As – Authorization, Authenticity, Audacity, Action, and Accountability.

As one participant wrote afterward,

“Carrie’s pathos was so evident. She has walked this path and wants to open her heart to others. This sincerity came across every moment. I would recommend this course to any person searching to boost their creative confidence. No matter where someone is in their journey, we can let go of the past, examine the present and set goals for the future.”

If you’re interested in enriching your creative journey and reclaiming your sense of play, I would love to see you at my next workshop on Saturday, January 19^th, from 9am to 5pm.

Register early and save!

Workshop Fees:

Registration (by January 15^th, 2013)

• $325 for single attendee

• $290 each if you register with a friend!

Remember, “play” is “work” without the judgment. To ring in the new year, give yourself the gift of yourself. Dust off your dreams and call them to ACTION.

Email me at carreseid@cox.net to register, or join the event page on Facebook to get connected and learn more!

Happy New Everything!

Carrie

I loved teaching art, but hated giving grades because I didn’t want to inhibit my students’ ability to take risks.  I consider risks and failure to be the lifeblood of creative output. Three years ago, I quit my university teaching job to pursue my own work and work with other artists on my terms.

As a university art instructor, I witnessed so many talented people crippled by fear when approaching their own creativity. Because of this, I’m fueled by a strong desire to share what I have learned about dispelling the fear of taking risks and making career decisions, questionable color combinations, or just plain “bad work.” Tomorrow, I’m thrilled to launch my new series of workshops on Creative Confidence. I’m looking forward to a lively interchange between a talented and diverse group of friends, colleagues, and former students who have become my contemporaries.

In tomorrow’s workshop, we will eliminate the mental blocks built by our fears through a multi-dimensional curriculum and bolster our confidence in any creative endeavor – not just those in the artistic fields.

Albert Einstein developed the concept of “possibility thinking,” giving oneself permission to think extraordinary things. I’m excited to finally have the opportunity to inspire people to be their extraordinary selves.

If you are interested in joining me for future workshops, please email me for a schedule of upcoming events.

See you tomorrow!

Carrie

carrieseid@cox.net