Documenting my creative recovery.
April 19 – April 25
Recovering a sense of Abundance
“This week you tackle a major creative block – money. You are asked how to really look at your own ideas around God, money and creative abundance. The essays will explore the ways in which your attitudes limit abundance and luxury in your current life. You will be introduced to counting, a block-busting tool for clarity and right use of funds. This week may feel volatile.”
Week 6 Tasks
1. Find five interesting rocks!
2. Find five interesting flora
On my walks with my dog, Lola, I’ve been on a lookout for my favourite bushes! Let me show you a few favourites!
- A big leaf yes, I don’t normally gravitate to the trees with these leaves, but today the pattern of this one stood out to me, i like that the veins(?) are yellow but the other parts are darker colours of green and red!
- A little leaf also yes! Another type of tree that doesn’t usually stand out to me, but again the colour stood out again! Yellow really does pop! And also I though the size was really cute.
- I took just like 1/8 of this fern! Would have been a bit much to take the whole thing lol. This is the type of fern that we’d strip of leaves as little kids, grabbing from the bottom and pulling up to the end! But now I always refrain from pulling leaves, today was the exception hehe
- Four and five LOOK similar but actually they’re quite different! Four is from a tree, all of which’s pinnates are that bigger size! I love wondering why they chose such similar plants to put next to each other in their garden.
- Finally, five is from a small bush! None of its pinnates grow any bigger than what you see there. Though once more matured, the colour of the leaves do match that of the bigger version! Very cool.
3. Get rid of five ratty pieces of clothing
You know, I’ve gotten rid of a lot of clothes already! It’s a struggle to find absolutely ratty ones, even my “home shirts” are expensive shirts from comedy shows (I have shirts from Ali Wong, Kurtis Connor, Sheng Weng) but would never them wear out – they sat in my drawer for months so now I just use them as home shirts!
I got rid of my ugly socks, my worn out undies, my tops that didn’t fit my body type or just never went with any outfit. I’ve gotten rid of it all! My closet is actually incredibly bare and is in need of ADDITIONS instead of SUBTRACTIONS !!
So I’m sorry for not doing this task, but I have indeed already Marie-Kondo-ed my closet and most of my belongings 🙂
4. Cook something
5. Send postcards to five friends – unfinished, to send!
I’m really planning this one intensely! I wanna get custom stamps printed… and then custom post cards printed! I can’t rush this one! I wanna make it special, sending post cards is an usual thing for me!!
6. List your favourites from the following categories
Cars: Porsche, my old swift <3
Dogs: Lola, Katey, Koji <333 Oh and favourite cat too? Bonnie <33
Flowers: Lily, Tulip, Sampaguita (Philippine Jasmine)
Trees: fruit trees that attract lots of adorable birds!
Fruits: kamiyas, watermelon, mango, grapes, avocado, lemons!
Vegetables: Do people really list their favourite vegetables??
Desserts: Uhhh I don’t like sweets! Maybe just a tiramisu?
Entrees: Oysters, ceviche, hummus, cheeses and pate
Musical Groups: Love a bit of Post Modern Jukebox sometimes, pop music like Billie Eilish and Sabrina Carpenter, and speed garage DJs especially Silva Bumpa !!
Colours: Periwinkle, Indigo!! Brown <3 AND SILVER !!
7. Reread the Basic Principles and an Artist’s Prayer
I ended up writing a new little prayer the other day in my morning pages, let me share it with you:
May the opportunity for this come my way soon, so my mind can be free from the weight of guilt, making way instead for the lightness of inspiration and, in turn, joyful creation. Amen!
8. Clearing: Any new changes in your home? Make some.
I hung my paintings up… !! On that cabinet I have! It makes me think about painting like all the time now, I hope I’ll get inspired to keep filling it, just like my teen-hood bedroom did!
The set up is a bit meh and messy right now but I’m working on it don’t worry. I think the space is calling for a lamp in that gap to the right:
9. Acceptance: Any new flow in your life? Practice saying yes to freebies.
No freebies have come to me yet, unfortunately 🙁 but I will be on the lookout and I will say yes!
10. Prosperity: Any changes in your financial situation? Any crazy ideas about what you would love doing?
I have really really been thinking about painting. I have been really wondering “could I make money from this?” It’s a scary question. Like, yes, I could paint people’s pets, or some cheesy wedding photos, but that’s not the type of painting that I want to do. Like, that could be an intro of making money while painting but I just really wouldn’t be happy doing that.
Everything comes down to my story; what story I want to tell and getting great at telling it, through every medium.
It’s just about doing. How can my car reach any destination at all if all I do is think about turning the key?
Counting, an exercise
This week I need to keep track of all the things I’ve spent this week! I’m keeping a little notebook in my purse as a log.
You know, I think I need to continue this habit for a month to really get a feel of what I spend, especially since I get paid once a month haha. Some weeks I’ll only buy essentials, others I’ll decide to treat myself. I’ll get back to you…
Money Madness, an exercise
I’m to complete the following phrases:
People with money are fortunate and probably had parents that could financially help them in their life to get to this point.
Money makes people feel like they have something to keep chasing.
I’d have more money if I was more confident in myself and my skills and my knowledge.
My dad thought money was – Dad didn’t really say anything about money growing up.
My Mom always thought money would – Mom didn’t really say anything about money growing up.
We kids didn’t really ask much about what our parents made, they never really told us if they had much money or no. We knew we weren’t rich and we weren’t poor, we didn’t get everything we wanted but we had what we needed and a little bit extra. The most we’d really talk about money is just being told if something was too expensive to buy, and usually we’ll do fine without it (meaning it was superficial), or figure out an alternative. We got used to not asking for much, and it turned into our parents being able to get us more meaningful things for our birthdays and Christmas.
Both my parents supported whatever studies or direction their children showed interest in and pursued, it was never “you won’t make enough money.” Like they always believed that we were capable of anything even if entry to an industry might be difficult.
In my family, money caused – is it money or is it society that causes difficulty and life hardships? We have never been in abundance of money, my parents are paying off a mortgage to live in a property far from the city, my sister, brother and I all live paycheck to paycheck. There is no abundance (yet) to say what money has caused, we have yet to have money to know what it can cause.
Money equals in my mind: stability and freedom.
If I had money, I’d pay off my parents mortgage, buy myself a house, and fund myself a studio so I can pursue art.
If I could afford it, I’d help those in need, especially in the Philippines.
If I had some money, I’d upgrade my office/art set up, and maybe buy some new wardrobe bits!
I’m afraid that if I had money I would spend it all on food and dumb stuff. Buying heaps of things but never pursuing anything.
Money is something I’d like to have and not worry about or focus on.
Money causes causes people to act weirdly towards those who have less of it?
Having money is not the dream, the dream is to help the world somehow and find happiness in creativity.
In order to have more money, I’d need to put myself out there in the big, wide, scary world.
When I have money, I usually tell myself I’m saving my spare money, then over the next month, spend it all…
I think money hard to get a hold of and hard to hold onto.
If I weren’t so cheap I’d use my creative things more frivolously knowing that I’ll be able to refill it whenever I need to.
People think money will solve all their problems. Or we pray that this thing that we’re forced to chase our whole lives can solve our problems.
Being broke tells me that I’m able to live with a bare minimum of spending. It shows me what my essentials of living are. If I looked at that list and compared it to how I spend now, I could likely see the unnecessary things to cut out which would allow me to have a little bit more to save or spend on more meaningful things.
Week 6 check-in
The Artist’s Way has questions for me to answer specifically in my check ins, let me answer them now!
How many pages did I keep up with in my morning pages? Every day! Though I’ve been leaving it too late at night. I’ll be commiting to mornings again.
Did I do my artist date this week? Yes I did, I went out to re-buy a childhood book; Oh, the places you’ll go! I’ve been thinking about this book for years, something about it’s story really speaks to me, and I feel as though lots of people would connect with it as well. I have this really strong feeling to redraw it in my own style and world, basically just parody it and see what comes from that practice…
Did you experience any synchronicity this week? Yes! I’ve been using post cards as my thumbnails for these blog posts and this week Julia tasked us with sending post cards!! My mind was blown, such a small choice that somehow lined up with this course!
Were there any issues significant for my recovery? Yes my addiction to this video game!! Ughh but it’s so fun… just a few more logs…
And I had a second, special, multi-artists’ day with my brother and dad!
We all went out to the city together just to use our mini cameras! Mine is the Cyber-shot U, Dad’s is Olympus, and my brother was using his Kodak film and my dad’s Cyber-shot! I wonder how their photos turned out <3
Here’s a few of my favourites from my camera today!
I’ve been so obsessed with my little camera, I export my photos almost every other day (I can only take 61 images on it at a time, the card is 32mb small!) I’m growing my archive hehe
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