Balancing Your Energy...

I was reminded yesterday of something one of my college art teachers once said. He said that in order to be the best artist you can be, you must have as many experiences in life as you can. More important than the classes you take is the life you live. Do lots of things - volunteer to plow farm fields, ride rollercoasters, travel, meet people, etc. Then, when it comes time to create art - you will have a rich background of memories and experiences to pull from. I love this concept and believe in it wholeheartedly. I've always considered myself a student of life. And yet, yesterday I was sitting at my scraptable for the second day in a row; wanting to scrap and having absolutely no inspiration. I think I have been so busy scrapping lately, that my life has gotten a bit out of balance. The words of my art teacher came flooding back to me and I said "Michelle - you need to go out into the world and start having more experiences!!!"

If you've ever read the Artist's Way, you know that author Julia Cameron has a similar philosophy. She talks about balancing your incoming energy with your outgoing energy. She suggests doing this by taking weekly "artist dates." Artist dates are chunks of time that you devote to taking your "artist self" on a date, so to speak. This provides for the incoming energy. The Artist's Way was truly a life-changing book for me. If you haven't read it and are interested, go here for more info.

So, anyways, I've decided to start going on artist dates again. I'm going to make a list of ideas - heck I could even scrapbook about my artist date ideas! Yeay! I'm getting inspired already...

Okay, I'm off to create my Project 365 layout. I will be back later to post the results.

Thanks again for stopping by and for your comments - I love to hear from you!