Ida Clare, It's Time to Unlearn Something

Happy Muesday Friends,

I love learning.  I love going to the library because knowledge is just waiting there, dangling shapely legs over the edges of the shelves, seducing me into traveling down a new path I had no intention of going.  Are you as shocked as I am that they let you check out way more books than you can actually read?  And then there is the Internet.  Have a question?  Type it in and bam, the answer appears.  I am in awe that so much knowledge is available for a willing learner.

Having said all the above about learning, I would also like to make a case for unlearning.  Let me explain.  With all the knowledge out there it is so easy to become a know-it-all.  (There, I’ve admitted it!)  It is easy to become rigidly set in ways and harbor ideas that may have moved past their worthiness or validly.  Think how hard it was for people to unlearn that the world was flat or that reality TV isn’t real.

I believe that a creative person challenges the status quo.  A creative person will question what she knows as true and move past what she may have been taught.  If you can do that you open yourself up to the mystery and wonder of the muse.  You become a new beginner and you become teachable. 

Set aside some time to question something.  It doesn’t have to be the meaning of life.  Questioning why you do something the way you always do can give wings to a new method that could make your art soar.  How would your art benefit if you unlearned a bad habit or an old fear?  Unlearn something today. 

Have a creative week.

Hugs,

The Dove Video and Some Critiques

Here is an email I sent out to my friends to get their feedback about this video.  After  you watch it, read the two critiques.  I am sorry this is long, but I think the critiques are valuable and thought provoking.

Dear Friends,

You may have seen this video circulating of The Dove Video.

Here is where I first saw this video. 
http://bit.ly/113aDRo

I was particularly interested when I saw it because I am interested in how we perceive ourselves and how we respond to our inner critic.  The video is powerful and made a lot of women cry according to Facebook posts. I was no exception.

Accordingly, you might want to enjoy the most prominent message which is a general statement that we are all hard on ourselves and that we don't see our own beauty that others see in us.  I did.  I confess I have only seen it once and saved it to put on my blog. Alas, when I saw the (2) critiques that are attached at the bottom of the page on this link where the video is, I had second thoughts.
 
Here is the first critique from: 

Jazzy Little Drops >   http://bit.ly/15d3MdD

Here is the second critique from:

Big Fat Feminist >  http://bit.ly/17UGEAq

I find these critiques to be thoughtful and my reaction: sadness.  Where I had hope that someone (read: a major corporation who sells to women might actually care about their target market) might be having my best interest at heart, they still miss the boat. 

Watching this video and then reading these critiques trigger a third response in me that I must comment on here.  When I have studied different subject matter and came to my own conclusions, I have been most annoyed to discover that there may have been deeper, broader possibilities or meaning than my literal mind might never have considered.  I resented being told what poetry meant.  I could never see that a pattern of stars in the sky indicated a Big Dipper or a Bear Swatting at UFO's.  I felt my own intelligence was in question and that I must submit my own learning to another authority.

So it was with my resentment of being told what I was "really" seeing in the Dove Ad that I read the opinions of the two bloggers.  I found them to be satisfying, thought provoking and worth reading.

This email became too long since I am asking you to take time to watch a six minute video and read two critiques as well. I apologize because I know you are busy, but ever now and then, I need to be reminded how pervasively harmful the culture is toward women even when it seems someone is genuinely trying not to be. 

Now that I've written all this, I think I am going to put it all on Ida Clare and if you are inclined, you are welcome to continue the conversation.  Thank you for your time.

Ida Clare, It's Muesday

Happy Museday!

In my humble opinion, it is difficult enough to live a creative life if you have a healthy dose of self-esteem.  If you spend any time listening to your inner-critic, you know what it means to lose the mental boxing match where you give yourself a good work-over.  A referee would declare it a lose/lose proposition.

I don’t know about you, but I get weary of the smarty-know-it-all, second-guesser that lives rent-free inside my head and can make a good day go bad.

Guilt, regrets, and doubt floods in and creativity stalls to a halt.  What’s a creative chick supposed to do?  Here are a few tricks I use when my Blockhead is browbeating me.

•    Know that Blockhead lies. Find a trusted art buddy who will tell you the truth. 

•    Know that Blockhead wears many masks and repeats voices from the past.  See if you can identify who Blockhead is today.  If you are hearing: “You are so dumb.  You can’t spell.  You can’t write a decent sentence.”  Maybe that voice doesn’t belong to you.  Maybe it belongs to Mr. Wilson in eighth grade English who shamed you in front of the class because he was hung-over and short-tempered.  Tell your internal Mr. Wilson what you couldn’t say in eighth grade.  Stand up for that eighth-grader and tell Mr. Wilson to stop talking.   Realize that you are no longer back there and things have changed and you no longer allow others to shame you.

•    Stop and do something nice for your self to stop the cycle of self-abuse.

If you shudder to think how much you beat yourself up find a way to throw in the towel and step out of the ring.

Hugs,

Ida Clare, It's Happy Muesday

Hello Creative Chicks!

As far as I am concerned most anything can be a muse and for me that goes for this beautiful weather we are having here in Big Thicket.

The azaleas are blooming; the bees are buzzing; inspiration is in the air.  Here is a poster I made that you can print out if you need something a"muse"ing to inspire you to take flight and do your art or do your heart.

Creative Chicks Poster

You can either right click and save it to your computer or click this link to download it in poster form.

Have a Creative Day!

This post is linked up to these blogs:

Today's Creative Blog

Ida Clare, It's Easter

Good Morning Creative Chicks!

Probably when you get here I will be out cavorting with that guy with the big ears.

And you think I mean the Easter Bunny!!!

"Ida, you're giving your readers the wrong impression.  You don't have a boyfriend."

Oh shuddup.  You are the most humorless woman. The only thing getting laid around here are the eggs out in the splendor of the grass up and down my street. 

Now, Ida Clare this is an Easter Bonnet if I ever saw one.

No, I just want to get outside in this lovely springtime weather wearing my Easter bonnet or in my case a three-color wig.  The style around here is to have parts of your hair dyed about three different shades if you count the darkest ones at your roots.  Really?

I can hardly maintain the one color God gave me.  There are fates worse than dyeing your hair, but every time I see that silver pathway working its way toward my forehead, I can't think of any.  If they had only told me I was going to need to know  chemistry to mix the ingredients to color my hair, I might have paid more attention in class.  As it is, I only know how to light up Bunson's burner.

But I digress.  I just want to wish you the Happiest of Easters spending it with your loved ones and families.

 

Hugs,

P.S  I am making you a little printable poster of this later in the week.  Check out the Freebies button. -Ida

Ida Clare, It's Bunny Wisdom

All I need to know I learned from the Easter Bunny:

  

So you are now up-to-date on all the bunny wisdom that I care to illustrate.

I would like to acknowledge these website that so graciously post and share images to use and enjoy providing hours of intense goofing-off time trying to make silly decisions that mean nothing to anyone but me and these rabbits who have been tooting their own horns for decades and never complain, so I will do it for them.

Thanks to:

The Graphics Fairy

The Vintage Moth

Sweetly Scrapped Art

Magic Moonlight Free Images

Funny Pica

Microsoft Clip Art

I had fun doing these, but nothing else got done and I stayed up really late last night so that I am staggering around here sleep-deprived since they just had to be ready by Good Friday, according to my internal task-master.

Tomorrow, I am going to try to install the Pintrest button, so if you see that I was successful, please pin this post for me.   I need some new readers who leave comments, unlike you who come and go and only eat the snacks. (I'm kidding, of course!) I'm not complaining.  See my smiling face frozen into place.  It's been like that for decades too.

Ya'll have a Happy Easter!  Eat lots of candy because, according to the Easter Bunny, you can never have enough candy.

Hugs, 

This post is linked to Brag Monday at The Graphics Fairy

Ida Clare, I beg your pardon

I already knew what I wanted to write about this week.  I have been thinking about it for a while and I am trying to create a short e-book to go with the topic.  Alas, my short e-book gets longer every time I work on it.  (This has been going on for weeks!) Since I cannot present you with what I thought I was going to write about I have had to cast about for another subject.

What should be no-big-deal from anyone else's point of view seems to be huge to my BLOCKHEAD.  (My all-knowing-bossy-expert-on-all-things-Ida internal-critic is named Blockhead and is alive and well in my head, thank you very much.)

Ms. High and Mighty Blockhead is hammering me because I’ve changed my mind instead of congratulating me for still having a mind in spite of everything.

I won’t bore you with the nasty dialogue I am hearing inside my head: mean words I wouldn’t say to an enemy, I use to bludgeon my poor artist-self.

I can bet you know what it feels like to be confronted by small and not so small disappointments: 

•    Not doing what you said you’d do
•    Not starting or completing a project like you’d planned
•    A project not turning out like you’d hoped
•    This list could go on forever

It takes an amazing amount energy to live with disappointment, guilt, regret, and self-recrimination that it is no wonder we don’t do our art or resist doing what we love.  If you have to run the gauntlet of these feelings before you can resume your work, how can you expect to physically and mentally make yourself move forward?

I say, we need a daily forgiveness ritual. 

•    Goofed off yesterday?  Forgive yourself!
•    Left the cap off the tube of paint?  Let it go!
•    Didn’t finish your e-book? Grant yourself a pardon! (You deserve to live!)

Do you know that sound of the needle being pulled across a record to stop the music? I can hear it right now as the thought of forgiveness brings my idea to a screeching halt by a crabby old perfectionist with beady eyes pointing a crooked finger at me while scolding me with these pearls of wisdom:
•    “You’re letting yourself off the hook.”
•    “You’re tolerating bad behavior like you always do.”
•    “You’ll never create anything if you don’t hold yourself accountable.”

What is unforgivable is already done.  You can allow your Blockhead to have his or her way with you and wallow in the muck or you can choose to give yourself a break and start where you are.

Put the needle back on the record and play the music to the commercial that McDonald's used for years.  “You deserve a break today…”

•    Give yourself a break today. 
•    A forgiveness break. 
•    A letting-go break. 
•    Beg your own pardon…and grant it.

Don’t get hung up on the term, “forgiveness.”   The root of the word forgiveness means to let go.  Or you can always pardon yourself.  I like that too.

Start your day or your creative project by forgiving you for all the stuff you didn’t do; or didn't do well enough; or didn’t get marked off your to do list.

Humming that little song, “You deserve a break today…” made famous by McDonalds is your trigger to let go.

Have a carefree creative week,