End of Year Advice: Sandra Duran Wilson
This is part of the end of year advice series. Guests from the show offer suggestions on how to use an hour a day to get better at painting and share some of their own goals (and how they set them) for the year ahead. Don’t miss one! Sign up for the newsletter here.
Sandra Duran Wilson (Ep 20) is a mixed media artist living in New Mexico. She works in series and often works with themes of physics and chemistry as science is a second love of the artist.
On an Hour a Day:
In the beginning it is necessary to set a foundation and instill a habit. Once something is second nature for you then it is best to dance with time. Begin with 10 minutes a day and build up to an hour or more.
It may also be accomplished in bits and pieces of time. Curiosity is your greatest ally and clear vision can be the driver on your creative journey. It takes practice to develop both and just like exercise it must become a habit. Begin with practicing clear vision meditation or writing for 10 minutes. This will allow you to explore your vision on what you intend to create.
Stretching your creativity muscle is the most important daily task you will ever do besides eating well and staying healthy. Exercising your creativity or your what-if muscle as I call it is like weightlifting. Begin small and over time increase the weight and repetitions, building up the time. Some days it may feel like you're moving through mud and your vision is clouded but keep to your schedule. What you do within that time will enhance your ability to create.
“The what-if muscle powers your curiosity.”
The what-if muscle powers your curiosity. There is a game I used to play with friends that would spark our imagination. We would grab a common object and then come up with as many alternative possibilities of what the thing could be. Nothing was impossible so a beret could be a frisbee, a swimming pool, a rabbit house, a pillow stuffed with clouds. Daydream and imagine possibilities. Let your imagination flow from one topic to another. My mind can take me from a grocery list to a new project idea and then jump to a solution for a dilemma in a matter of seconds. The more you work your what-if muscle the faster the ideas will synthesize into solutions.
Build up your time of imagining and try tracking your random thoughts and ideas. Put them away and then periodically revisit these wonderings. They might just spark a whole new project. I wonder what would happen if I…..
Setting Art Goals
Goals indicate a place to get to, but setting intentions involves being in the state daily, so I don’t create goals, I set intentions for the new year. I write about the process on my blog at Awakening Your Creative Soul. Look for it on New Year’s Eve. It is a process of cultivating attention and awareness.
You hone in on the desires and state of being that you are looking to manifest. It isn’t a list like finish x number of paintings, sell so much art or make a certain amount of money. These may be results of your intentions, but it isn’t the end goal or place to get to. It is about finding your desired emotional connection and as I call it creative frequency. The word or phrase is a touchstone to bring you back to your intention. Write the words down and leave them around your space where you will encounter them throughout the day to remind you.
Looking back over this past year I think the world had a collective word of “unprecedented.” My phrase for 2020 was Compassion and Synchronicity. These feelings were fleeting and sometimes difficult to reach during this pandemic year, yet knowing that is what I wanted to manifest kept me coming back and grounding myself in those feelings. I was able to let go of fear frequencies and move into knowing that I was right where I needed to be. I created a free YouTube program for all the creatives stuck in isolation to share and connect. Now I move into 2021 with a new word and I invite you to embrace the wealth of possibilities that are hiding right inside of yourself.
Learn more about Sandra Duran Wilson here:
WEBSITE / WORKSHOPS / INSTAGRAM / FACEBOOK / YOUTUBE
Wilson mentioned her Awakening Your Creative Soul blog. You can find it here.
Listen to Wilson’s episode at the top of the page or here. Get new episodes (and articles in our End of Year Advice series) sent straight to your inbox by joining the newsletter list below.