My Morning Kitties

by Suzy Engelman Block

UGH!!
Getting down to work in the morning! Why is this such an issue for the artist?  Well, there's the computer. The phone. The weather. The fate of the world. There is a lot on our minds!

My 'morning pages' a la Julia Cameron, used to do the trick, but fizzled out. What to we do in order to transition every morning from that huge overwhelming scary world to our funky little inner pea brains? Start and finish a small but stimulating project, of course! 

I bought 4x4" canvases and dug right in ...painting up a hurricane... one little baby storm at a time. Pretty soon, one kitty turned into 3 and in a very short period of time, I was sitting on a massive glut of kitties!! I must say I woke up every morning raring to go, adding to my collection with glee. Eventually I became so motivated that I added other projects to my schedule.

So what did I learn? First of all, the act of doing anything is always better than doing nothing!  Besides, when you do nothing, you never really know when you're finished! AND tangible action stimulates the creative process in ways we cannot imagine...It is only by 'doing' that we see what can actually be done.

We all hit a brick wall at some time or another... It is inevitable in our creative life!!  BUT, It's important to remember that walls are made of itty bitty bricks. Always begin ... one brick at a time. Or in my case, one  kitty to 2 kitties to 3 kitties to....

How do YOU kick-start your
creative day?