After downsizing with Marie Kondo, I thought the joy idea needed a rest. But I kept hearing about a quick class, Finding Your Joy, from Louise Fletcher, and the idea of joy started sounding more like flow, that zone of creativity.

I generally limit myself to just one class a year. I find there’s usually so much information in any class I take that I can build on it myself for months to follow. But — there’s always an exception, and serendipity led to this class as my third for the year. I think maybe I needed a little structure…

I’m also very fussy about who I want to learn from. Do I like their work? Their presentation? Since I’d been following Louise’s podcast, Art Juice, with Alice Sheridan, for a while, I knew I would be all right. When the dates lined up with a Seattle visit, a good match for supplies on hand, I signed up.

Instant Series

For the first assignment, I needed a full sheet of nice paper. I was sure I had them lying around but nope! I had done my future self a favour and ripped my stash of large printmaking paper into quarter sheets, for projects on my small press. Oh well, they were meant to be taped anyway, so I reverse-engineered small pieces back into large. Wish I’d torn them straighter…

The assignment was to ignore the tape, working with just three colours (plus B&W). I sure don’t love this, but I do like what happened when I lifted the tape up.

Even though it was painter’s tape, a lot of the paint went with the tape, but look at those lovely edges! And each piece is using the same palette, not a bad start.

Takeaway: A great way to start more loosely, but choose colours wisely!

Bucking the Trend

Next up, a good reminder to shake things up and experiment. I was to use colours and tools I don’t normally use. For a minute, I thought the subject matter had to be new too, and that was too much. Phew! A familiar format? A landscape it is.

The discipline to look at the piece on the left and see what I DID like, ignoring what I hated about it, was such good practice.

Takeaway: I do love to experiment. Markmaking is important to me, but I prefer my warm colours.

Get Uncomfortable

The assignment was to make something ugly. Doesn’t sound like fun, but it’s basically: invert all the things I like. Aha, a tricky way to figure out what I DO like. Or — if there was something salvageable in these, that too. Nope, I don’t like these at ALL.

Now, I have no problem creating work like that, just to mark the lesson as done. More important to me, is can I move past it? I did work on the first piece a bit more, as I don’t mind the colours.

I added more lights, and more warm colours, covered lots up, and then scratched through a bit. Much better, and more helpful, should I make something this hideous again.

Takeaway: There’s almost always something to like, and it’s okay to be uncomfortable.

Restrictions

Our last lesson laid on a somewhat arbitrary set of conditions, but Louise made the point that any boundaries are fine, and a great impetus to move forward. Having fewer choices really is helpful; I do know this, from my series work and other 30- to 365-day projects I’ve done.

These pieces have paint, ink, charcoal, collage, pencil, all applied in a certain order, with the same palette.

Well, these are different! I sure do like that warm section of my colours. Some of the ink shapes were done with the applicator pulled out of the bottle — those last several circles show it best. I love those marks, and the dodgy method of applying them — that goes on the keep list. And it might be time to expand my love of pink to its adjacent friends of purple, red, and orange once again.

Takeaway: Less thinking, more mark-making and bright colour is a fine plan.

Now What?

The point of the class was to think more with my gut, less with my head — a lesson I need repeated SO often. But my strength, and sometimes my joy, comes from finishing, completing, marking something off the to-do list. How do I get from wild art in a sketchbook to a series of finished work, without using that logical side? I don’t think I do. But knowing when to be results-oriented, and when to be brave and try something wild — that is the question.

What I can do is learn to be more comfortable with the interim, not-done, even ugly state that work gets to, and use some of these joyous exercises to point myself in the right direction again.