Inspiration | ArtSpirit7

February 24, 2015February 24, 2015

Joy-Lily Transforms Fabric into Art

Joy-Lily, San Francisco-based Fiber/Surface Design Artist. Photo by Mary Gow

It’s as long as a professional NBA basketball player is tall. That’s the size of a silk painting of two gargantuan brilliant red and orange sunflowers painted on silk fabric that bring to life the stairwell of her home in Bernal Heights. It’s called “Georgia’s Poppies,” made originally as a sarong that now functions as a wall hanging.

Joy Lily’s been around fabric and making clothes most of her life. Originally from Detroit, she’s the daughter of a dressmaker. “I was grounded a young child by a mild case of polio, so I made a lot of art early on.” At age 20 she began her career as a graphic artist and illustrator and for the next 16 years she designed ads, book covers, brochures and logos in New York City.

On a visit to her brother in southern California, she discovered batik (wax resist dyeing). She was captivated by this magical technique and even convinced a client to use it for a series of recipe illustrations.

She’s called Bernal Heights home since 1986, and here she’s pursued her passion as a fiber artist / surface designer. “I don’t weave or knit, but plain fabric is just not safe around me. I will dye it, paint or print on it and lately I’ve been chopping it up and sewing it back together. I’m making quilts from this ‘art cloth,’” says Lily.

"Tree," painting on silk by Joy-Lily. Photo by Mary Gow — “Tree,” painting on silk by Joy-Lily. Photo by Mary Gow

The patterns and colors in nature inspire her, as well as her travels, and the accidental effects of the dyeing techniques batik and shibori (Japanese resist dyeing without wax also known as the grandmother of tie-dyeing and involves tying, stitching, clamping, or wrapping fabric).

“Shibori makes an artist out of everybody,” she said.

Lily’s written a book for quilters of all levels (including complete beginners), called Carefree Quilts. It features perfection-free quilting techniques and what Lily calls her “quirky quilt blocks.” Autographed copies are available directly from her.

Wednesday afternoons Lily instructs a quilting class in Bernal.

By special request she will teach a four-hour workshop on how to hand paint and dye your own silk scarf. The host gets complimentary tuition if she brings 8 people together to take the course.

You can see more of Lily’s work and enroll in classes at http://www.Joy-Lily.com or visit her studio by appointment.

February 8, 2015February 9, 2015

It’s All About Your Bass

“You are creators, and you are vibrational beings. You are more about electronics; you are more about electricity; you are more about vibration than you are about the physical stuff that you think you are about. This physical stuff that you think you are about is all vibrational.”
–Abraham (Excerpted from the workshop: Spokane, Wash. on July 07, 1999)

With the 57th Annual Grammy Awards last night, I’m reminded of the song that was number one on the music charts for eight weeks in the summer of 2014, “All About That Bass,” written by Kevin Kadish and Meghan Trainor.

In an interview with Billboard Magazine target=”_blank”, Trainor says the song is all about loving yourself and your gluteus maximus.

From an auditory sense, your “bass” is your vibration. And often what we attract is what we’re putting out in our vibes. What we get is what we see.

I remember long ago when my sisters left for college. We three had shared one small bedroom. I repainted the walls in the tiny half bath we had shared. Then I put up a bunch of photos of various places in the world. I wasn’t really thinking of it as my vision board. There was a picturesque scene of green rolling hills that look just like what I see in northern California. Another photo was of a skier coming down a mountain in Austria.

Staring at them everyday must’ve made an imprint in my subconscious because I got myself to those rolling hills and to skiing in Austria – an accomplishment for a girl from humble beginnings.

What kind of neural pathways are you making with your thoughts? What kind of vibes are you putting out in the world?

About the Art:
I took a photo of my red mouse on my red mouse pad. I then applied the Paper Artist app to the photo.

February 6, 2015February 19, 2015

One of My Coaches

What are your action items?

What progress have you made to get those done?

What’s the big picture goal?

Those are just a few of the questions life coaches ask.

One of my current coaches is Darren Hardy, who’s a motivational speaker, author, and publisher of Success Magazine.

I’m getting daily coaching and mentoring by subscribing to Darren Daily. By signing up you’ll be reminded to strive for excellence, stay fit, don’t look for external validation.

His daily messages are delivered Mondays through Fridays via email, text or both.

The dailies are concise.

In a recent post I mentioned graphic facilitation. Some of his videos use this technique.

Hardy also has some excellent tips for goal setting in his book, The Compound Effect.

He shares these forms online for free. Here’s the link. The downloadable forms are available in several languages.

You can sign up for your own dose of Darren Daily at http://www.DarrenDaily.com/

January 23, 2015January 24, 2015

Tips for Getting Unstuck

For the past four days I’m posting every day on my blog because I’m participating in Wendy Kao’s Seven Day “Your Turn Challenge.”

Over 850 people are participating. I can’t say I’ve seen any of my posts on the site – except for Day 2’s entry. But I’m going ahead and submitting my posts there and here on my blog each day. You can see the results of this challenge at http://yourturnchallenge.tumblr.com.

There’s a suggested topic for each day:

Day 1: Why are you doing the Your Turn Challenge?
Day 2: Tell us about something that’s important to you.
Day 3: Tell us about something that you think should be improved.
Day 4: Teach us something that you do well.
Day 5: What advice would you give for getting unstuck?
Day 6: Tell us about a time when you surprised yourself.
Day 7: What are you taking with you from this Challenge?

Today is Day 5: What advice would you give for getting unstuck?

The best advice I give for becoming unstuck is to use the methods that have worked for me:

1. Identify your deepest fears.

2. Remember your WHY.

3. Surround yourself with doers.

4. Work with a mentor or accountability partner.

5. Create a new ritual.

6. Rocking chair exercise.

7. Take baby steps.

8. Fail first.

One of my favorite methods is the rocking chair exercise. I first saw it in Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. Imagine yourself 85 years old in a rocking chair looking back at your life now. What would it feel like you did or did not do the action considered?

Another favorite is a combination of No. 7 and No. 8.

To get a painting going when I’m stuck I squirt a few colors on my palette. I tell myself I’m going to make a terrible painting in the next five minutes so the expectations are very low. And that gives me the freedom to take a baby step and get a new layer on the canvas.

To me “procrastination” and “being stuck” are synonymous.

I once asked the artist known as SARK what she would tell someone about overcoming procrastination? And her response surprised me. She said maybe there’s a good reason for waiting and to procrastinate some more until you’re ready for the next step.

Which brings me to one last piece of advice to someone stuck:

9. Trust the process.