Mentally Strong Women on Off the Wall Friday

Weekly report on my Block of the Month Quilt....Yes, I'm still finishing up the curves.  I thought I would finish them last weekend but 9 hrs later I'm still doing them.  It seems like they are going to go on forever.  The nice thing though is I"m really getting good at doing a curve seam and I'll never shy away from them again.




So today I read an interesting article about Amy Morin's latest book, 13 Things Mentally Strong Women Don't Do.  As I skimmed through the list, I realized that most of them I follow in my everyday life and that's why most people think I'm a bitch forceful personality.  But my artistic side....well....that's another matter.  Plus, I also noticed that #1 was They Don't Compare Themselves to Other People and we just covered that earlier this month. It got me wondering if we took that list and applied it our creative selves would it make us stronger artists and therefore equate to stronger pieces.

hmmmmmm....Maybe.....So  here are some more things Mentally Strong Women Don't Do

#2  They Don't Insist on Perfection  .... so perfection is a double edge sword...in your art work you want to strive for  masterful technique but you don't want that desire for perfection to paralyses you from  completing your work.

How to conquer this??

• Practice, Practice., Practice  ....I'm a firm believer that practice makes perfect or almost perfect
• Know when good is good enough...that doesn't mean let technique slide but know that perfection is not the goal of your art .  What you want to say with your piece is the goal of your art.
  

#3  They Don't See Vulnerability as a Weakness...I don't need to tell you that showing your work is scary , I mean, really scary!!  Most people don't get what we do and if they do they might get what we are doing at that moment.  But acknowledging that your scared is not fault....nor is asking for help...or that admitting you're not sure of your artistic direction..There is strength  in that knowledge. 
So use it....how....

• Look for a mentor, a veteran artist or a critique group
• Take time to journal and reflect on what you feel your weakness are and your goals
• Come up with path but admit that you're not quite sure where its taking you

So those are a start......I promise to get through the List in upcoming weeks and intersperse what I'm doing in my studio.   As I have said - it feels so good to be getting back to my old self.

So What Are you Doing Creatively?