Creativity stories and struggles
Hi !
Here I share my thoughts about living a creative life, about how I found more and more fun and joy in making art and looking for creativity by getting rid of my demons like fear, perfectionism, what-might-other-people-think, ugliness (what’s that anyway?), Art with a big A, dogma’s …. Everybody is an artist and everybody is creative!
Please feel free to share your story in the comments in my posts! I read all the comments and I would love to hear from you!
Tell me your story here: info @ barbaraluel.com
You’re rejected.
You’re rejected How many times have I heard that my work was rejected for this or that competition, … I hear “you’re rejected”, instead of “your work is not selected”. It hurts and I take it too personally: I identify myself with my work, I AM my work....
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Draw anything you want with twig and ink
In need of a creativity boost I organized a workshop with the great Malaysian artist Ch’ng Kiah Kiean on 20 & 21 October. It was a wonderful weekend. Ch’ng Kiah Kiean is a generous teacher. His specialty is sketching with dry twigs and Chinese ink. Here’s...
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How about more beauty in the communication with people with dementia?
21st of September was Alzheimer’s day. This September also I started a new art workshop in a second care home for people with dementia. It seems to be quite a success so I’m very happy about it. On the first day we had 4 enthusiastic artists, and this week...
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The Plan is, There is no Plan
I rarely felt so happy to get home. What was I looking for, being five weeks in Italy? What was I looking for that I can't find at home? I was traveling to get out of my comfort zone. Yes I had a lot of fun sketching every day, feeling the sun on my skin felt great...
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Get out of your comfort zone
Last week I organized an urban sketching event for the local cultural center, so some students never had been urban sketching. There was a lady who hadn't been drawing since years. Actually to be more precise: since she was a child, some 30 years ago... It took her a...
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How creativity works : just “DO” and show up, show up, show up
When I'm in a creativity dip, I read Sol Le Witt's very funny and inspiring letter to Eva Hesse, suffering from creative block and self-doubt. Usually I'm in a creativity dip because I don't manage to make time for drawing and painting. The same goes for everybody:...
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What action can you take right now to bring your creative work to life?
Still drowned in work at the office, so I don't manage to draw every day... because I'm tired in the evening and I get caught by "screen-sucking" activities... (Facebook, email, instagram,...) So I crawled up again from work two weeks ago seeing a video from Marie...
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Magic creative flow !
What a strange week... Bombs were thrown in Syria and Afghanistan, and billionaire world leaders are making laws to make the rich more rich and the poor more poor... Power, brutality, starvation, miserable working poor... Depressing. But did you make some art this...
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Let go of stress and reconnect with your creativity and daily life
How much I would like to be "an untroubled wholeness with the world"... [Sarah Kaufman] These last two weeks I have been again much too busy : I feel I'm being lived, rather then living enjoying life. And the first part of me getting lost is my creativity and my...
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Urban sketching in Kenrokuen garden in Kanazawa, Japan
Here's another video about Urban sketching ! This one was made in the beautiful Kenrokuen Garden in Kanazawa. It's one of my favorite spots in Japan. Kanazawa is a very beautiful city, and the Kenrokuen Garden is one of the most beautiful gardens in Japan. I painted...
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