No Time. No Purpose. No Talent.

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The line: ‘We teach what we most need to learn?’

It’s true.

For a very long time I viewed my ‘work’ as the portal to creativity. As a teacher of small children I had many opportunities to use my creative talents in service to the children I taught and to a school system sorely in need of teachers who are courageous enough to step out of the mold and into their brilliance.

As a budding entrepreneur, I had a whole new arena in which to dance. It takes an enormous pool of creative energy to come up with new and interesting ways to keep your work relevant and your community engaged when you start your own business. I enjoyed the challenge in that. I still enjoy the challenge in that.

Yet, whenever I was called upon to make art just for the sake of making art, I had this little voice in my head that whispered … no time, no purpose, no talent.

No way.

Each artistic endeavor I attempted had its own set of unique challenges. Like glue sticks, for example. I wouldn’t touch them. I’m sure it had something to do with all the glue I scraped off desks in that elementary school classroom.

Glue and raisins.

In addition to all the glue I scraped from desks, there were those pesky little raisins that found their way to the floor. The children would step on them and then the custodian would simply sweep right over them creating a rather hairy looking spectacle that resembled a bug with Crayola shaved legs.

I finally had to ban those juicy little morsels from the snack menu to keep from tick tacking my way down the hallway at the end of the day, trying desperately to remember to take that shoe off when I entered my home so that I wouldn’t have one more raisin to scrape off one more floor. But I digress.

Fast forward.

I’m no longer a teacher of small children. I’m a small business owner at a weekend retreat. We’re told before we arrive that we need to tear pages out of a magazine, anything we see that has meaning for us. We’re to bring those pages with us to the retreat. My inner pragmatist is fighting me here because this is early in my entrepreneurial journey and this is supposed to be a ‘business building’ retreat. I have no time for ripping up magazines to prepare for a retreat where I’m supposed to be working on my business plan.

I arrive. The retreat leaders hand me a glue stick.

Please. Anything but a glue stick. Surely they’ve heard of double sided tape or those darling little glue dots. No. I have to use a glue stick and I have to participate in this vision board exercise. I paid a lot of money to attend this retreat. I comply. I create my vision board.

It looks nothing like a business plan.

In the years that followed I found myself creating more and more of these vision boards in various contexts. I changed my mind. (inside joke)

Then came collage.

Collage: an artistic composition of materials and objects pasted over a surface, often with unifying lines and color.

I became a collage enthusiast. I started to reward myself with the promise of an hour at the end of a busy workday: a play date with paper, a glue stick, and a few magazines. Who knew?

I found the time.

I made up the purpose (to quiet the inner pragmatist).

And, I let go of the notion that I had to have talent to play in the creative sandbox and just make things.

Eventually I began to see some themes emerging in the collages I created. Over time I even started acting on the secret messages I gleaned from this process but I’ll save that story for my Tea & Chocolate Hour. We’re going to hang out together and rip up magazines and drink tea and eat chocolate. For breakfast. Are you coming?

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Saturday morning, February 14th, 10:30AM (EST)
http://www.timeanddate.com/

We’ll gather together, over tea and chocolate, and we’ll pull out some magazines and a glue stick (yes!) and we’ll see what shows up.

And, for those of you who need a purpose, I’ll also be talking chocolate: how to choose it, taste it and savor it.

There is no cost for this adventure. All you need to do is register here so that you’re sure to receive the call-in information.

Be sure to go through the stream of emails that arrive in your inbox. It’s a bit of a process but well worth the effort.

So tell me, what do YOU dabble in when you give yourself permission to just play?

39 thoughts on “No Time. No Purpose. No Talent.”

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    This sounds lovely. Everything you create is cozy and full of wonder, Sue Ann.

    Dabbling for me means STEPPING AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER! 🙂 And giving myself permission to follow whatever piques my interest at that particular point in time. Taking a walk in the sunshine with World’s Most Precious Pooch, picking up the guitar and singing, cuddling up on the couch with a cup of tea and a book, exploring a festival, taking a day trip to an undiscovered area…

    Hmmm… A walk sounds perfect right now. Tootles! xo

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    Sue Ann, this was wonderful. (So was your invitation to Tea & Chocolate, thank you!) Sometimes I think the things that stick with us (no pun intended on glue sticks) are the lil’ messages we’ve heard and internalized without meaning to — and certainly not ones we ‘gave’ ourselves. Perhaps someone discouraged ‘messy play’ when you were a child? Stared disapprovingly at an art project? (That was the message my late sister ‘believed’ until she attended a Canvas & Chardonnay class and painted the most gloriously vibrant pictures; afterwards she said (at age 58): “I never knew I could paint… and I love it!”)

    I realize there are different personality types and tolerances to life’s janitors ;), but I think you’ve discovered a facet of ‘you’ that was squashed like a raisin on a classroom floor. xo

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      Oh yes, Kim. That is definitely a huge piece of the story. Interesting, even though my dad was an artist, I do not remember any paints in my play area. It was a miniature kitchen and schoolroom. Early training for the life I would later lead but no messes allowed. LOL And I don’t even remember art in my elementary school years. I know we had music but art and P.E. were sorely lacking. Here’s to art without outcome! xxxooo

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    Sue Ann – you are such a beautiful writer and woman. Thank you for writing this article. It inspired me to take the magazines here at my mom’s house in Atlanta to pull pictures that have meaning for me this year. In 5 days, something that was on my vision board 4 years ago is coming true. I am having professional photos taken in NYC this Thursday by Christa Meola for my new web site that will launch end of May. I tend to get exactly what I focus on yet I know that it may not come that year. It’s the strong intention that will happen when the timing is right. So write on – I love your work and words. Happy birthday! Mine is Feb. 28!

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      Happy Birthday to YOU, Sherold! I would love to see what you create with those photos. Perhaps you’ll share it even if you don’t come to the Tea & Chocolate Hour. I’m using the hashtag: #lusciouslegacyproject. And kudos to you for treating yourself to some new photos. Can’t wait to see the next evolution of you!

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    Oh my – I so wish I could come and have tea & chocolate with you! And play with glue (I don’t have a bad association yet. Yet.) Can I do it in my new Valentine’s Day PJ’s?? I have always wanted to do a vision board and for some reason I never seem to get around to it. And I always think that I have no artistic talent. Hmm, maybe I’ll have to change my mind about that! And maybe I’ll see if I can get a babysitter for Saturday!!

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      Yes, Laura, yes! That’s what your hubby can give you for Valentine’s Day, an hour to yourself, tea and chocolate in hand, making art with me for no reason. xxxooo

      PJs welcome. I’ll be wearing mine. Fun!

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    You have been reading my mind! I’ve been meaning to get around to a 2015 “vision board” and it’s February and I haven’t done it. I’m very much looking forward to your soiree!

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    I worked the other way around: I’d always loved making collages, yet always poo-pooed the idea of a vision board. Well, I went to a networking workshop and made my very first vb last month. Who knew – it’s just like making a collage with a different type of intention!

    Now I just have to dig out my old manila envelope of magazine pages and join in the fun next weekend!

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    I would love to see your vision boards SueAnn, I bet they are as beautiful and as they are inspiring!

    As for dabbling, I really enjoy creating the digital manifesto art I post each week. The messages feel like ‘nuggets of love’ for the soul.

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    I was giggling to myself reading this because resistance is such a pesky little creature 🙂 Seeing you sitting there with that glue in your hand med me realize that for me it is not glue but the ripping (or clipping) part of the vision collage endeavour that is the hardest. You see I love magazines and I love making vision boards but the part when that beautiful magazine has soon to be torn into shreds…even if the collage that comes out of the creating process is even more magnificent. I want my magazines intact and preferably untouched as well 😉 I shiver and then try to murmur reassuringly to myself “It´s all good, it´s all good”.

    I am so looking forward to be on the call on Saturday with you! And my challenge to myself is to take with me one of the magazines I l all ready own, not to go out and buy a new one (or actually two of the same…)

    Love,
    Carina

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      Carina, I so get this! Here’s how I got over THAT hump. I told myself those magazines have been sitting in my closet untouched, for YEARS sometimes (ask me about REAL Simple) and this gives me an excuse to rip out pages that appeal to me, figure out why (it usually has something to do with color), and then discard or recycle the old magazines creating the spaciousness I so desire in my home and/or study.

      Uh oh … I see ‘purpose’ creeping in here. LOL

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        I knew you would understand 🙂 And I am savoring your words, reading your comments for the second time, really taking in the message. Creating spaciousness is what I crave and long for! OK , small moves, small moves…

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          Small moves, indeed, Carina. You would giggle watching me move things from one pile to another as I attempt to declutter my home in anticipation of the new floors. Discarding found objects is so hard!!

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    Laura W from Texas

    This made me think about resistance. When doI encounter it? What is behind it? Usually fear. I have been leaning in to playtime lately, although it seemed counter-productive. But there’s something about play that gives you energy for ‘work.’ Going outside, catching a 72-degree day, and going to the playground is how I dabble -rollerblading, the swing set, maybe a walking path.

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    Laura W from Texas

    Just another thought…sometimes we think we have to have talent or creativity to start. But we don’t. Those things tend to come out thru the process.

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      That’s such an important point, Laura, thank you. What a beautiful portal into creating something with no expectation yet completely open to finding beauty in what we’re creating. Art without outcome. xxxooo

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    Sue Ann, I would love to see some of your collages! I’ve always deemed myself “uncreative” in anything art-related, but as I get older and stop caring about what other people think and start caring more about the process itself, it’s become easier to create.

    And I have to admit – not a fan of glue sticks. 🙂 My vision board these days is a big 4’x6′ magnetic whiteboard that I keep updated with some of my favorite pictures and quotes.

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      Perhaps I’ll open a fb page where we can share our works of NOT art! I do like your magnetic board idea AND I invite you to try one of those glue sticks. *tee hee*

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    I just started drawing and I can so relate to your feelings at the retreat. I have magically found time and I am learning to love the process instead of the final product!

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    I love this! I have been putting off my art, because I didn’t feel like I could create anything beautiful, and “didn’t have the time.”

    I FINALLY carved out the time, and I’m creating things just for me, sometimes beautiful, sometimes not so much, and both are okay.The process has been so healing for me.

    One thing I found helpful to get over my hurdle of creating art was to draw mandalas, whatever I wanted to put in a circle. It’s been amazing, and I’m now over my block. Doing collages is pretty awesome too, the perfectionist has a harder time taking over when it’s simple like mandalas and collages 🙂

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    I understand the need to have creativity in my life and encouraging that in other people’s lives – be it with cooking a beautiful meal, planting in my garden, writing in my journal or using my watercolors. I have tried to make a vision board with magazines, glue, etc and that didn’t totally resonate with me, but I love making a vision board on Pinterest. And no glue! 🙂

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    Thank you fro the invite to the ‘Tea and Chocolate’ sometimes I need to invite myself to move away from this computer. What better day to conquer new things but on Valentine’s Day. Maybe I reserve a little me time in the morning. Thank you for the reminder to get creative.

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    Chocolate, tea and collages? I’m signing up. I’m lucky in that I still have some sparkle of “getting messy,” thanks to my daughter who wants to be both a doctor and an artist. Together we paint and draw and she once helped me make a collage in a large notebook. I enjoy making collages—and love seeing what emerges in my life from them—so I shall “see”you on Saturday.

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    Oh where to start I paint sew draw and dabble in photography. I must find more time to incorporate them all into life on a regular basis. Limiting social media is a must for me.

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      I hear you, Dana. Social media can be such a rabbit hole. For me, it’s a constant balancing act but then I think, if not for social media I might never have found all these creative outlets or like minded people with whom to create! I look forward to seeing more of your creativity in all of its gorgeous forms.

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    i have been feeling so energized by my vision board for this year!

    i’m with carina though – i have problems ripping up my beautiful magazines. i parted with 2/3 of my belongings in may 2013, but still kept many magazines. to avoid desecrating my own, i created my vision board among friends and used theirs instead!

    and, yes (echoing kara), mandalas are magical.

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      I hear you on the magazines, particularly the more art filled ones but then I think to myself I’d rather see pieces of those magazines in my art journal over a stack of them sitting unopened on a closet shelf taking up space. I love it that you used your friends’ magazines rather than destroying your own to create your vision board, April. That’s adorable. xxxooo

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    This is really great, somehow there’s this inner voice in me that says” why should I do this stuff, ” but true indeed that creating our own vision board helps a lot. Thanks for sharing. Great post.

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    I have made my vision/dream board during a training seminar in a business I joined. It works since it puts all the basic elements in your life in a perspective that you work on to achieve.

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