motivation – tide & bloom

commencement

“.. because they want to do that thing well and beautifully. and it’s not about quantity. It’s about taking pleasure in the perfection and beauty of the particular. I’m still learning now that it’s about good and maybe never done; that the joy and work ethic and virtuosity we bring to the particular can impart a singular type of enjoyment to those we give to and of course ourselves.

Make use of the fact that you don’t doubt yourself too much right now. As we get older, we get more realistic. And that includes about our own abilities or lack thereof. That realism does us no favors.

Just starting out, one of your biggest strengths is not knowing how things are supposed to be. You can compose freely because your mind isn’t cluttered with too many pieces and you don’t take for granted the way things are. The only way you know how to do things is your own way.”

what’s next

When you’re working a full-time retail management job and trying to sustain creativity in your free time, it can be difficult to stop and smell the roses. It can be difficult to do anything in your off time besides lay on the couch like a petrified mummy. Not too long ago, I had all the time in the world to do exactly that – to contemplate, to plan, to nurture my studio practice. But I didn’t. I dragged my feet, knowing that there was always a tomorrow to continue working on my checklist. And I ended up never finishing, never starting anything really. I was treading water.

It was inevitable that I’d have to return to full-time work. I mean, the drawing thing just wasn’t happening (well, I wasn’t making it happen) and a girl has got to eat and support her caffeine slash shopping addiction. So here I am, struggling to keep up the energy to be positive and motivational for my team at work and baffled as to how I’m going to manage keeping up the pace in my independent pursuits. With the holidays here and in my face, all I want to do is eat and be merry. Can you blame me? I don’t want to keep holing myself up in my house, with my little paints, trying to produce pretty on paper (or bags). But if I stop now, then what? What comes next?

whatever will be, will be

Tide & Bloom officially became one year old last week. One whole year. I honestly hadn’t even thought about what that meant until WordPress sent me the “congratulations, your blog is 1!” notification. In some ways, I’m kind of happy that I didn’t notice or anticipate it creeping up. It shows how comfortable I am with what this is, how it exists, and the purpose it serves. I do not write as a business and I do not plan on how I’m going to be inspired. I can’t say I’ve accomplished everything I’ve wanted since I began this site, but I can say that it’s given me a great deal of joy and pride. It’s not very often that things like that come along in your life, particularly for someone like me.

This journal has been a catalyst for internal growth and a way of reconnecting with what I want for myself in this life. Through trial and error and lots of contemplation, I feel closer than I’ve ever been to figuring out the formula. Yeah, that formula. That mystical holy grail that all us twenty-somethings are desperate for that’ll usher us into full-term adulthood with grace and contentment. One year ago, I had no idea what that would look like or whether or not I had the strength or patience to craft it. Today, I feel like I can breathe easier knowing that great things are worth waiting for and I’m on a path towards finding them.

So, like any other blogger might do, I give you a list of the posts I’m most proud of from the past year. Sure it may be cliche, but I think these deserve a second look since they all were such important moments, all key to making this blog what it is today.

/ preserving your significance
/ parish foods and goods
/ ALL of my Creative Masters and Creative Makers interviews. Can’t pick between them!
/ good italian, pure and simple
/ dear me
/ tips for creating a gallery wall
/ still looking to the wonder

And I also look to the future of course, and set a small list of goals for the second year of Tide & Bloom:

/ more amazing interviews with people near and far who are worth admiration
/ less pinterest and tumblr, more insights into my drawing and sketching
/ lady crush style posts featuring the many inspiring women in my life
/ a recipe post or two? eeeeek
/ if i can manage to get people to let me, more home tours. real homes – full of love and life, not perfectly styled
/ guest posts on food, style, and culture

But I’d also like to hear what you think. Which posts have resonated with you the most? What would you like to see more of?

preserving your significance

The universe, in some sort of weirdly choreographed routine, has allowed me to spend days on end in bed with my computer, a sketchbook, and the remote control. To some, this sounds like a paradise. Nowhere to be, no one to see, nothing to do except be at peace with your thoughts and have the room to create. On the contrary, it’s led me to asking myself some important questions about my role. That’s right – you read right – my role. As a person, an artist, a blogger, you name it. After being removed from active participation in the world, I’m left wondering what is it I do for the world anyways. Like with any other dilemma I’ve had recently, the roads lead me back here to figure it all out.

I want to discuss the importance of preserving your own significance. It’s one of many in the myriad of mid-20s lessons everyone (particularly women) needs to learn, but I don’t think there is a formulaic solution. It’s a quiet conflict that happens within us and can bear greatness and determination as easily as it can surrender and settlement.

art is life: beginning a new year

So it’s that time of year. You know, the beginning. And everywhere you look – tv, social media, blogs – you are reading or listening to something about crafting goals for the year ahead. As always, I’d like to think that I’m different than everyone else, but really I’m not. The start of a new calendar year is a ubiquitous marker of time and instead of being cynical and ignorant about it’s importance, I’d rather join the bandwagon and do whatever it is I need to feel like I’m ready for what’s up ahead.

I don’t think I can go a traditional route of making a list of all the little goals I’d like to accomplish because it just feels too mechanical and all the more difficult to follow. There are generic things I’m always trying to improve in my life no matter what the month – trying to eat healthier, trying to be more patient, trying to be active, trying to be a better daughter/friend/partner. The turn of the year doesn’t really mark a new motivation for any of these things because I’m always in progress, always working on getting better at them.

art is life: be who you are

In almost any situation in life (and in art), I will stand behind the motto “be who you are”.

This can get a little bit complicated, as I’m sure you know. Most of our adolescence is spent learning how to act and how to present ourselves in the right light, in order to be on the right path. We learn to play the part of success because that is what everyone wants for their child (and for themselves). The problem is that success comes in infinite shades of grey and as we grow older, it gets more difficult to tell which shade is our own. You can spend your whole life trying to become some picture of perfection you had implanted in your head and suddenly realize one day that it is not you at all.

four simple goals

Cath and Lar inspired me by their sweet and simple lists of goals for the rest of 2013. There may not be that many days left in the year, but that doesn’t mean we should just resign to complacency until we’re coerced into having resolutions. There’s no better time than now to begin working on the everyday awesomeness of life. Do what you can and don’t feel guilty about the rest. Here are my own little goals to complete before the new year…

art is life: the goal of balance

The year of 2013 has been quite a doozie for me. I’ve had three different jobs and teetered back and forth between “my dream is to become a full-fledged professional artist” and “god, I really want to be able to buy this pair of boots”. It’s driven all of my friends and family crazy, I’m sure, but is also completely necessary for me to move forward. Underlying all of the insanity, my ultimate goal (which maybe I’ll see a glimpse of by the end of the year) is to navigate the roads to achieving balance. Balance between being practical and being a risk-taker, balance between being a homebody and a busybody, balance between listening to others and listening to myself. Balance between art and life.

Art and life have always been at war with each other within me. It’s always been, choose one or the other. Be great at one or the other. But I’ve never been able to give up on either and so I’ve been struggling, pulling both of them along at once, sometimes equally and sometimes not.

steadfast in transition

Being in your mid-20s can often feel like you’re on a long-ass road trip with an unknown destination. At times it looks like freedom, nothing tying you down or stopping you from where you want to go. Each city passed marks the progress you’re making and every bit of the journey makes the trip feel precious and all the more worthwhile. Other times you wonder if it will ever end, if you are even half-way there yet, wondering how long it will be until you find peaceful stillness and a comfortable bed.

This has been the story of my life for the past three years…

i am a princess

Sometimes I like to end the tiring work day with a movie; an escape from reality. A reminder of the poetic beauty in life we seem to forget in the day to day grind. Last night I decided I would pop in a childhood favorite, A Little Princess. Please tell me you’ve seen it. If you haven’t, it’s totally a must see (I’m serious) for every daughter, sister, mother, and best friend. I had been feeling stumped on what to write for this week’s linkup until I was reminded exactly why I loved this movie. The main character is sort of like the spirit guide or guardian angel that we all deserve to have whispering in our ears; her unconditional faith in the magic and beauty of the world is more poignant to me now than ever.

I fully realize the level of cheese I’m at when I’m spouting sonnets about how much I love this movie, but I’m just a sucker for films/books/anything that reminds me of the hope we all used to have when we were children. We believed we could be princesses, we could be artists, we could be anything we want if we just believed in it hard enough. Where does all that optimism go when it disappears? Does it transform into resignation and regret? Could it ever turn back into what it once was?