Spells for blessing an art studio?

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wisehedgewitch

Spells for blessing an art studio?

Post by wisehedgewitch »

Hi. Merry meet everyone. I'm rather new to spellcasting and creating sacred spaces. I was wondering if anyone has a good way of blessing an art studio. I haven't painted for a while because of life circumstances now I can get back into it, I lack confidence to start. I thought a spell and blessing might help me cleanse my area and get rid of this negative vibe that's there. Any ideas people?? I'm grateful for any help given. :)
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Firebird
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Re: Spells for blessing an art studio?

Post by Firebird »

Hi wisehedgewitch...I've been looking around the board, I'll see what I can pull up...also Circle Network Magazine has a house blessing that is great, you might want to contact them and see if you can get a hard copy.
https://www.circlesanctuary.org/index.p ... azine.html
I browsed the spell category here and got as far as page 13...you may want to peruse that forum and see if anything would work...here is a couple easy ones.
http://everythingunderthemoon.net/forum ... 22946.html
http://everythingunderthemoon.net/forum ... 21467.html
good luck and happy creating!
Firebird
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Evoking the Inner Child & Silencing the Inner Critic

Post by Kassandra »

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Hello wisehedgewitch. Your post is dear to my heart because I am a creative person, and I majored in art in college. First, since firebirdflys, in her usual fashion, posted excellent suggestions on the spells/ritual aspect, I wanted to comment on the “lack of confidence” aspect of your question, which I have found could be overcome by connecting to the emotion of “joy.” Then, I wanted to touch on the “sacred space” aspect, which is extremely important, too...hope that's OK. Below is an approach that is a little unconventional (and kind of funny, actually), but it worked really well for me.



The Problem: Monkey Chatter of the Inner Critic

But first, I had to deconstruct where the lack of confidence might have been coming from. Here’s my hypothesis: it may be “voices” in your head of the criticisms you’ve endured your entire life, even your own self-generated criticism from that dreaded “Inner Critic” we all have. If we let them, these voices could get so loud sometimes that they drown out our “creative voice,” making it difficult to create, impossible to even enjoy the creative process. In Buddhism, they call the voice that makes it difficult to meditate "monkey chatter."

Years ago, I had “went professional” and my artwork started to sell, I started showing at galleries, winning awards, etc. But, my mind became occupied with everything else but the painting, the drawing, the creative process itself. Suddenly concerns of the business end of it, meeting deadlines, talking to the right people, being in the right shows for the right reasons, became this nagging, critical voice (same thing happened when I started doing readings. I had so much fun studying subtle phenomena, but then working for someone else, or going into business for myself, suddenly caused all these mundane concerns to distract me and bye-bye went the joy). The mundane things are very necessary, but also very distracting, and if we don't learn to rein in the Inner Critic, they can become extremely stifling.

Yeah, all that monkey chatter gets to be a total killjoy. :x

As is the case with most problems, within the core of the problem itself lied the solution. So, if lack of joy is the problem, then connecting to joy is the solution. I tried “guided meditations.” I tried hypnosis scripts. I tried special drawing exercises designed to “release creativity.” But, nothing worked. Finally, during one of my regular meditation sessions, I asked my spirit guides, “What do I need to do, here? What do you suggest?” A box of crayons, and a coloring book popped into my mind's eye. Here’s the process I followed.


Mom.jpg
Mom.jpg (44.61 KiB) Viewed 3774 times
One of several portraits I've painted.




The Solution: Inner Child Coming Out to Play

In order to diffuse the critical, distracting “voices” when it came to making artwork, to totally circumvent it, I found it helpful to try connect to the “joy” of creating, the joy vibration itself, and only focus on that. In other words, it’s not important to draw or paint well, but it’s important to experience the joy in creating. The best way, I found, to connect to joy is to access your Inner Child, to call it forth. Otherwise, we will overthink any creative process. The Inner Child has to be part of the creative process at all times. This, I found, was vital to my “artistic recovery.”

Now, children love to play, and a way to get any child to come out and play is to first present it with toys. Toys automatically trigger our Inner Child. Talking never works, reasoning is totally ineffective. When the child in us sees the toys, knows it’s OK to come out and play, that it won’t be bombarded by that mean, “Inner Critic,” only then will it appear. Since you are artistic, the toy your inner child might relate with the best is a either a coloring book or a paint-by-number set.

I know this might sound silly, but it worked for me. Buy either one, and for the next two weeks just color/paint. Don’t start any “real” projects yet, until you gain some confidence in just moving color around, just playing with images and textures and perspectives, key word being “playing.” Basically, just let the Inner Child have her way for a while. It sounds like it’s been a long time since she has. Do a minimum of one page of the coloring book per day (or do one paint-by-number painting per week, or both –your Inner Child will really love you, then!). Do this, or something similar according to your own situation (I just used the coloring book example ...if you’re more into sculpting, for instance, buy one of those Sculpey clay sets and make some childlike, pretty ornaments or something).

This exercise will circumvent any lack of confidence you feel! I promise. After you feel good and confident, after you’ve connected to that joy and you could literally see the Inner Child beaming from your face whenever you look in the mirror, only then start your “real” art projects. And for “maintenance,” whenever you start to feel anxiety coming on from that Inner Critic trying to rear its head again, stop all projects and bust out your toys for a few days.

I will address the sacred space part in my next post. Got to go now.

Box of crayons.jpg
These crayons saved my life, creatively-speaking. :wink:


Lion King coloring book II.jpg
This might sound hard to believe, but I had a really difficult time
coloring in this coloring book, at first. My Inner Child was so tucked
away, it didn't know how to come out and play, didn't feel it was
"safe." But I was persistent. I even kept my crayons and coloring book
in my purse during the day, and I'd work on it if I had to wait for some-
thing. After a few pages, the Child did come out and play, and the joy
returned, too!



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Gaining Confidence by Mimicking the Masters

Post by Kassandra »

By the way, "wisehedgewitch" --I love your username! We really could use more of those around here. Welcome!!

Anyway, before I tackle "sacred space," another fun idea just came to me today for re-gaining artistic confidence I needed to hear these things, as much as I needed to say them to you, if that makes sense. Here's a great "intermediary exercise" to do after the art toys exercises above, and before delving into your "official" artwork (or as a fun break from it). It is a logical "next step" after building up the "joy" vibe with the coloring book exercise above (or whatever art-toy you used). Basically, it is just selecting a piece of artwork created by a famous artist, and reproducing it, using materials as close as possible to the original. I don't know if you ever did that in an art class before. It accomplishes several things:

1. Gets you moving your art materials around fearlessly, and with a goal in mind
Somehow, with it being "somebody else's" design instead of yours, there's this sense of not being able to make a mistake with it. So, it alleviates fear, and you gain confidence.

2. Gets you "into the head" of the famous artist
Why'd she use this medium for this subject? Why'd she paint this painting in this particular palette? etc. As you re-create the piece, you'll start answering these questions spontaneously. It's like an art history lesson --directly from the original artist herself.

3. You might add new lifeblood to your old routine
You might discover new methods of creating artwork that were not your usual method, and which may inspire you to try these new methods on projects of your own design, thereby "kickstarting" your return to artmaking.

4. You develop a "spiritual relationship" with that artist and/or that artwork, which you will never forget
Having reproduced it, every time you see a picture of the original artwork you'll have more of an intimate understanding of artist, and you'll have a tactile, experiential understanding of the artwork itself, rather than just an intellectual one.

Henry Moore sculpture.jpg
So, say you wanted to mimick a Henry Moore sculpture like this one,
for example. You'd draw a sketch to scale on graph paper, say "one
inch equals five feet," or something. Then, you'd sculpt a reproduc-
tion, staying as true to the original as possible.



OK, just thought I'd share that. I had a good time with this exercise in several art classes I took in the past. Hope it helps. More later...
:wink:


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Re: Spells for blessing an art studio?

Post by Firebird »

.... get the child to come out and play with ART!!! YES! very cool. I have just recently been doing this, because I would procrastinate and procrastinate about doing it so I got a bunch of Cheeeeeeeeeep canvases with the soul purpose of just experimenting and having fun...I have recently discovered water color pencils...what fun! I also made some brown paper books with masonite covers and bound with hemp, for charcoal or conte' .
Cool
Make Art!
bb, Firebird
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Re: Spells for blessing an art studio?

Post by Kassandra »

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That's all very cool, firebirdflys. Inspiring!!

firebirdflys wrote:I also made some brown paper books with masonite covers and bound with hemp, for charcoal or conte'
These books sound intriguing to me, maybe would make a nice "Book of Shadows" that people could try putting together...

Thanks. :wink:


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wisehedgewitch

Re: Spells for blessing an art studio?

Post by wisehedgewitch »

Sorry I've taken so long to get back. Thank you Firebird. There's some wonderful work posted. Creativity has always been a part of my life. Its not so much my positivity towards art/creating itself, its the knowing that I'll have very little time to follow it through so I rush and panic about getting it done, which kills off any talent I used to have. I've got sketch books with me to vent frustration, to grab ideas as they enter my head but only get one day a fortnight alone to implement them. I've asked the Goddess to clear negativity from my studio and made it a productive neat space filled with everything I could need. I got a painting finished Saturday so that made a good start.
Image
It feels good to create.
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Re: Spells for blessing an art studio?

Post by Kassandra »

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:woot:
wisehedgewitch wrote:I got a painting finished Saturday so that made a good start.
Wow. That made a great start!! smileydance Looks good. Each one you get done is a victory. I noticed you said, "talent I used to have" in the quote below. The talent never left, but there's probably a certain sharpness and facility, a level of expressiveness you know you're capable of and have come to expect from your work, a certain standard to which you hold yourself, etc. But exercising the muscle brings all that back, and from the looks of that painting, you've got great muscle, even now!

wisehedgewitch wrote:I'll have very little time to follow it through so I rush and panic about getting it done, which kills off any talent I used to have.
The time factor is frustrating. I tried to be of the attitude "Time works for me" instead of my usual feeling that there wasn't enough of it. For the more demanding painting classes I took (or if I knew a gallery show that I was in was coming up) I had to resort to starting work in my studio at 3am and painting 'til 6am or so because it was the only way I could get anything done (then it was get breakfast going, family and myself out the door, etc.). It was grueling, like military. I could only do this for 3 or 4 days out of a week, not all 7. And it wasn't a regular thing, just when I needed to push. By 8-9pm I was brain dead, of course, but really happy I got the work done.


Thanks for the feedback. I didn't know where you were at with it all, whether my suggestions were even addressing your questions, etc.

Maybe others here have some suggestions for you regarding how they deal with the issues you're facing, or spells or blessings that have worked for them...


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Re: Spells for blessing an art studio?

Post by Kassandra »

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firebirdflys wrote:I got a bunch of Cheeeeeeeeeep canvases with the soul purpose of just experimenting and having fun..
Have you ever painted on wood panels? If you prime a piece of wood (or any other flat surface, really) with a few coats of gesso, you could turn darn-near anything into a painting canvas. lol



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Re: Spells for blessing an art studio?

Post by Firebird »

wisehedgewitch wrote: I've asked the Goddess to clear negativity from my studio and made it a productive neat space filled with everything I could need. I got a painting finished Saturday so that made a good start.

WOW m-Lady that is a fantastic start! Looks like the Goddess is there for you!
wisehedgewitch wrote: Thank you Firebird. There's some wonderful work posted.
You are welcome, however most of the wonderful feed back on this thread is by Kassandra. She has presented some great advise. (I don't think I will be getting up at 3am though :shock: more like I may be up until then!) But then, Yeah...like she said about being brain dead, after being up all day, that is probably not the best time to eeek out my creativity. So I may have to try something different.
Kassandra wrote: Have you ever painted on wood panels?
Yep, actually that is what the masonite boards were for originally, but then I made some of those little books I spoke about. I like to go the Home depot or other lumber yards and get their scraps....usually there are really cheep, or sometimes they give it to me for free ::coolglasses::

Make good Art!!!
BB, Firebird
“There are things known and things unknown and in between are the Doors.”
― Jim Morrison
“All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”
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Re: Spells for blessing an art studio?

Post by Kassandra »

firebirdflys wrote:I like to go the Home depot or other lumber yards and get their scraps....usually there are really cheep, or sometimes they give it to me for free ::coolglasses::
hahahaha Back in the day, I LIVED in Home Depot's lumber scrap yard! hahaha
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Re: Spells for blessing an art studio?

Post by Xiao Rong »

What a gorgeous painting! You are so amazingly talented, Wise Hedge Witch! (also, great advice from Kassandra!)
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Re: Spells for blessing an art studio?

Post by DPhoenix »

So much great advice and it seems you're on your way so I don't have much to add.


When I'm in a funk I just paint through it. My art becomes dark and sometimes disturbing (to myself though sometimes others like it) but for some reason it's almost a way of purging it from my system to get access to the part of me I want to come out in my painting.

A WONDERFUL author on this topic is Sark. I recommend her books everyone. Whether you want to be creative, already are creative or having creative blocks... her books imo are the creme ala creme. Not only are they creatively helpful but life helpful. Alot of her stuff could be considered self 'help' and 'improvement' books (Which I love and have a huge collection of, Tony Robbins FTW!).

Here's a short list of some of her books:
Sark's Journal and Play!Book : A Place to Dream While Awake
Make Your Creative Dreams Real: A Plan for Procrastinators, Perfectionists, Busy People, and People Who Would...
Eat Mangoes Naked: Finding Pleasure Everywhere (and dancing with the Pits)
Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper: Gifting the World with Your Words and Stories, and Creating the Time and Energy to...
Transformation Soup: Healing for the Splendidly Imperfect

Anyway hope that helps, keep up the good work and Goddess Bless! <3
Burn to ash we must
Purification by fire
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wisehedgewitch

Re: Spells for blessing an art studio?

Post by wisehedgewitch »

There are some fantastic posts and they're really inspiring. And no....I don't think getting up at 3am would work for me either. Mostly because my studio is outside and lit by a lamp. I'd turn out some really dark painting literally lol. And I've also experienced the disaster of "success" as an artist. You suddenly become a factory line that has to churn out work to keep gallery owners and promoters happy...which actually means...profiting from you. I does kill your creative instinct. My plan is to paint from home and just sell on good ol' Ebay. That way I paint what I want and profit directly without killing off my enthusiasm for painting.

I've read about the Wiccan/witch faith and how creativity is a large part of it. I have a friend that is a white witch with amazing power that is also a great artist. I am an Australian and the Pagan faith is largely a mystery there but since I've been living in UK (2 years now) I've learned a lot and met a lot of Wiccans....many of who are artists. Creativity is all about visualisation and inspiration I guess. The 2 go together well :-) I like this forum. Its full of positive people and brilliant feedback. I'm off for a read of old posts before I go to work...and start my day well :-)
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Re: Spells for blessing an art studio?

Post by Firebird »

wisehedgewitch wrote:I've also experienced the disaster of "success" as an artist. You suddenly become a factory line that has to churn out work to keep gallery owners and promoters happy...which actually means...profiting from you. I does kill your creative instinct. My plan is to paint from home and just sell on good ol' Ebay. That way I paint what I want and profit directly without killing off my enthusiasm for painting.
Excellent plan!!...maybe some day you will own a gallery?? Then the profits are yours and you could have shows when you wanted.
I think there is really a large pagan population in the UK, ...finding people to circle with should be relatively easy, ....here I will send you a link to the witches in your area...well... I'll put England down and you can go from there,
http://www.witchvox.com/vn/gr/ukgb2_gra.html
many blessings of much creativity!
Firebird
“There are things known and things unknown and in between are the Doors.”
― Jim Morrison
“All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”
― RWEmerson
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