Summertime....and the Livin' is easy............

Apparently I was destined to take an unplanned summer hiatus from the studio...who knew?!

The break serves me well as a snapshot for recognizing my vulnerability to creative disconnect and the experience is a lesson that fuels my impetus to forever renew my license to create.

To organize my learning and facilitate a committed connection to my creative nature, I'm focusing on an MCSA (Master of Creative Studio Arts) curriculum which will be an intuitive and organic (read: "self-taught" ;) pursuit of practical experience in the creative studio process as a way of life.

Fall 2009 MCSA Curriculum

Creativity - Studio Process

Readings:

McNiff, Shaun (1998); Trust the Process: An Artist's Guide to Letting Go, New York, Shambhala

Whether in painting, poetry, performance, music, dance, or life there is an intelligence working in every situation. This force is the primary carrier of creation.

If we trust it and follow its natural movement, it will astound us with its ability to find a way through problems - and even make creative use of our mistakes and failures

There is magic to this process that cannot be controlled by the ego. Somehow it always finds the way to the place where you need to be, and a destination you never could have known in advance.

When everything seems hopeless and going nowhere.....trust the process.

Color Expression

Readings:

Quiller, Stephen (1999); Painter's Guide to Color, Watson-Guptill Publications, New York.

Innovative and accessible color-theory techniques to train your eye to see and use color in
exciting ways.

Leland, Nita (2008); An Artist's Guide to Harmony, Contrast, and Unity, Northlight Boo ks,Cincinnati Ohio

The learning themes for Fall09 are:

1. Establish a consistent internalized trusting connection to the Creative Process.
2. Explore the world of color as it relates to abstract and objective compositions through creative play with digital painting, acrylic, and oil pastel mediums.
3. Maintain sketchbook and blog practices as conduits for discovery, connectivity and ongoing documentation of commitment to the Creative Process.