Another Small Step in Resparking my Making Mojo

One of the first things I did in my 'resparking my making mojo' journey was to sit down with a paper and pen for five minutes and brainstorm. I wanted to see if there was anything holding me back that was an easy fix.  There were plenty of 'headspace' things, like finding time and inclination, but sure enough, there was one easy thing that I could tackle without needing to rearrange my head.

I had been holding off getting the rest of my studio moved into the apartment because I wanted to clean the carpets.  That's it, that's all I had to do.  Because not having all my gear in one place made it easy to make excuses not to make art.  And that's a pretty easy fix - I just checked that the weather forecast for the next day (conveniently a Saturday) was good and made a plan to hire a carpet cleaning machine.  I also let everyone know on Instagram that I'd be doing that so I had some accountability. Thanks to Colleen in particular for keeping me honest!

Saturday came around, four hard hours of labour later and we were done.  That spurt of industry got me rolling and over the next two days I (we!) shifted all the remaining studio gear and got it all cleaned and beautiful, ready to advertise for a new tenant. Phew!

Anyone want to rent a flat?

Now I'm busy sorting my studio gear into some semblance of order and use ability in the new place, but it's amazing how that one simple brainstorm got me motivated. Because I found one thing holding me back that I knew how to fix and could fix relatively easily.  

But what next in my creativity jumpstart program? Viv had commented on my blog how her  'go-to' is her sketchbooks when in need of inspiration, and that comment made me think of my own sketchbooks.  

Sketchbooks are a wonderful tool. You can record those brilliant ideas you have in the middle of a project that you don't have time to work on right then and there, then come back to them later to see if they are as brilliant as you first thought. Just picking up my sketchbook and flicking through can inspire me.  

One of my !00 Days of Faces pages

So I sought out my sketchbooks and my sketchbook supplies while I was unpacking and I scheduled in a creative appointment with myself.  To avoid getting 'blank page fright', I used a sketchbook that was themed - the one I had used for my 100 days of faces work - so I already knew my topic.  I even went so far as to photocopy one of the previous faces I had drawn and use it as a basis for colouring and collage.  I wanted success, because success breeds success. I wanted to achieve a small goal (put together a pleasing sketchbook page) so that I would gain confidence, feel good, and want to do more.

I'm taking baby steps in this remotivation journey. And it feels good so far, it feels like I'll get there.  How about you?  What small goal could you set today to take a step in your creative journey?