Out of the Blue

• Do you ever come out on the other side of a funk, not really recognizing you were in the midst of it until it clears? You don’t even notice you were feeling blue until suddenly, one day, you feel as if you can breathe easier, your outlook is happier, you have a smile on your face again? Yeah, that’s just happened to me. I’ve come out of the “blue” in the last week and I’m looking back at the last few weeks saying, Wow, how did I miss that?

I’ve been in the “Finishing” mode of the creative spiral, which always leads to tension and stress, and that’s part of it. I haven’t talked about the Spiral of Creativity in a long, long time but I often personally reference it to find my bearing in the sometimes-tumultuous sea of creativity. Once I figure out what part of the spiral I’m in, I can often relax and say, “Oh yeah, I know this part. That’s why I’m feeling this way. Keep moving on.” Each part of the spiral has different challenges and feelings attached to it, and moving from one to the other is not always easy.

With Fall Festival and Philomath Open Studios I’ve been in “Finishing” mode for quite a long while. But the things I’ve been finishing have been different than previous projects and I didn’t recognize it as such. Along with the finishing of the photographic work – finalizing my Treescapes body of work, working on presentation, preparing for the events – I’ve also been transitioning how I interact with the world and my art. It’s been a slow transition from online-only in 2010 and 2011, to more and more in-person today. So that’s all part of it.

There is also the part of transition which is what I’m creating and for whom. My images have always been for me, so that has not changed, but there is significant amount of my creative energy that’s been applied to helping others too. Between writing ongoing series for my blog, creating and teaching classes, I’ve invested a lot of energy in the education of others. Which I love. I absolutely love.

But…

This year I’ve also realized that I’ve given a bit too much of myself. My time, over the last two years, has become more focused outward in the realm of educating others and less inward on what I personally need to do to grow and stay healthy – physically, mentally, artistically. So earlier this year I began to pare back. First, I put Exploring with a Camera on hiatus and restructured my newsletter. Next, I took the summer off of online classes and reduced my blog frequency. Finally, I decided to reduce the online classes to 2 or 3 per year and make my interaction more sustainable. And through it all I’ve felt guilt, because I feel like I have so much to share, I should be doing more. Others are asking for more. And I’ve felt loss, because if I’m not doing this, what the heck am I doing here at Kat Eye Studio? Where am I going?

And that’s the true source of the blue… I knew I needed to make some shifts, but didn’t have a clear idea of where I wanted to go in the grand scheme of my art and my business. While I was in the “Finishing” phase of the spiral on exhibition projects, and in the “Practicing” phase with creating my art, I was in the “Processing” phase on the bigger picture. With everyone else going on, I didn’t even recognize that this processing and developing a new plan was in progress, until things started to come together within the last week.

The funny thing is, the direction doesn’t really change much from what I already had in the works. It’s just that I’m clear on it now. And being clear, I can finally share it with you all. Here’s what’s in the works for the next six months to a year:

• Photo-Heart Connection will continue, and I’d like to expand it to reach more people. I have found this practice to bring so much to me personally, I would really love to see greater participation. I have some ideas about how to do that, but I’d love to hear any ideas you might have too. How can I get it out there?
• Smartphone Art will be an eCourse in 2014. Right now I’m thinking that it will be in April-May, which gives me enough time to put it all together.  In the meantime, reference my Mobile Resources page to keep you going.
• Mobile Tutorials will probably continue at least once a month. I think these will be even more useful once folks have taken the Smartphone Art eCourse, because there will be more background instruction on the “how to” of the apps included in the eCourse.
• Liberate Your Art will be early in 2014, finishing up BEFORE Spring Break this year so I can leave on vacation with my family with a clean slate. I already can’t wait for the fourth year of this swap!
• As for my other eCourses, I will play it by ear what I will offer as Instructor-Led beyond Smartphone Art in 2014. The Find Your Eye series will be available in the next month as On Demand, and then all of my eCourses will all be available at any time. I truly believe this material is just as useful and valuable when learned on your own as with a group. You don’t always need a group for artistic growth. If you have ideas of places I can advertise or better get the word out on these available On-Demand eCourses, I’d love to hear your thoughts! Marketing and advertising is my least favorite thing to do.
• And the biggie, for my personal art, is that I’m going to work toward participating in juried art fairs. This has probably been the area of the most underlying angst for me: Beyond this blog and online sharing, how do I want to get my art out into the greater world? It’s been an open question for a while. I used to think that I just wanted to create for myself and teach, but not sell my work. I have learned though — there is something to be said for actually putting my work out there. It needs to be part of my artistic journey. But… Did I want an online shop? Did I want to pursue the gallery/exhibition route? Did I want to do art fairs? I’ve started and stopped down the path of all three now, because I just wasn’t sure. Participating in Philomath Open Studios the last couple of weekends really sealed the deal for me. I want to share my work, in person, with the people who will buy it. I want to create it with my hands, and have the people take it from my hands and have it in their home. So that’s what I’m going to try next, and we’ll see where it leads.

All of my stepping back from online this past year has made space for something new to come in. In the back of my mind, I knew it would, but I didn’t recognize how. I also hadn’t quite figured out what I wanted to continue to do online.

Feel free to share!

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