This Friday on This Artsy Life we're sharing a glimpse into the life of Marisa from Creative Thursday.
Marisa is a busy lady these days, painting her little heart out, running her shop and managing to teach classes both in person and online! She's taken a few minutes out of her busy schedule to share some delightful and very wise tidbits with us.
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do:
If you follow me on
Twitter, then you know that my bio goes something like this. "I'm
a creative entrepreneur who will never be boxed in, but if you insist on putting
me in a box, you can start with artist" Just because I like to do so many
things!
In
fact most recently I've started teaching both in person and online via an
e-course and I had no idea I would love it this much.
Walk us through your average day as an artist:
My average
day....hmmmm...do I have an average day? Probably not. In fact I'm still trying
to get some sort of regular schedule going, because I have learned that
structure helps support the freedom you get from working for yourself. It's
true, organization helps you be free! Here are the things that I do almost every
day along with some of the things I'd love to start doing.
Wake up and have my
favorite coffee latte, from my favorite barista, Sean, my love who I share my
home and my life with.
Sometimes we use the
mornings to visit together, but if not this is the time when I open the computer
to check email and twitter, and follow links to my favorite blogs and flickr and
if I'm not careful this is also the time when I can be lost quickly down the
rabbit hole and completely forget what is next on my to do list.
It seems that this part of
my work repeats itself throughout my day which can be very distracting, so I'm
working on checking in with the computer only twice a day. I can do it, I know I
can, because this will leave me time to create which is why I started this
business to begin with. It's always important to re-visit why you started your
business from time to time, just to make sure you are still fulfilling your
first promise to yourself.
I also try to post to my
blog almost every day of the week, especially if I've created a daily painting
which I've recently picked this practice back up again. Sharing my daily
painting is how I actually started my blog 3 years ago this month! Fulfillment
of orders sneaks into some days, accompanied by the usual office tasks. Creative
lunch dates with friends sneaks into others. Errands in Los Angeles by car
accompanies other days, always fun if I run into traffic :) That's why I prefer
walks to the post office with Lulu, my great dane. Oh and did I mention that
much of my every day is spent letting Garbo the cat in and out of my home studio
door, which happens to connect to our garden. Sitting outside in the garden on
days when I remember to take a long break, and cooking accompanied by a glass of
wine and more time with Sean rounds out most of my days.
What’s your best business tip for those who are just starting out?
Since I'm deep into my
e-course at the moment, and a big emphasis of the class is about being an artist
online, authentically ~ my tip I tell everyone these days is Be Yourself.
Sometimes easier said than done, now that we can glimpse in on the lives of so
many amazingly lovely and talented people ~ It can be easy to forget who you are
in all of this. But finding your way back to yourself and staying true to your
vision will be the answer to what will make your business and your creations
unique, and it will be your steady, comforting place to return to on the days
when you feel like you've momentarily lost your way.
What inspires you and how do you maintain your creative flow? How do you handle
NOT being inspired?
So much inspires me always
~ my home, nature especially flowers, other artists, blogs, flickr {goodness
some of the imagery is so breathtaking there}, design books and magazines,
movies. It's hard to find a day when I'm not inspired. In fact I have so much
I'm inspired to do, that I don't know where to begin. That is my biggest
challenge in managing my creative flow, deciding where to put my focus. With
that said, I certainly do have days when I feel tapped out creatively and it's
usually because I haven't given myself enough time away, enough down time to let
new ideas percolate and rise to the surface. When this happens, I know it's time
to close the computer and head away from the home for a day trip. This almost
always refreshes and renews my perspective and I feel ready to begin again. And
you know a little secret to jump start the creativity? Sometimes you just have
to sit down and create, even when you don't know what you are going to make. I
learned this from my practice of daily painting, that the process of creating is
often the very thing that opens the door to inspiration all over again.
To read more about Marisa's artsy life check out her blog. Or her Twitter account. Or her little shop :)
Enjoy and happy Friday to everyone!
