Finding the Mojo in Your Creativity

What do you call your creative spirit? It seems to have many names, such as Mojo, Groove, 'thang'. Everybody has a name for the juices that flow through our veins, get our hearts pumping, giving us that adrenalin high where we just feel like we are riding the big wave. We got the midas touch, we are on fire, baby! Isn't that the best feeling in the world? It's almost a manic feeling. We start painting, or sewing, or glueing, or dipping things, colors make sense, all the pieces just fall right into place, and life is GREAT!

But then, it always hits us. That feeling like our boat just hit bottom, and we are stuck upstream without an ore. That's the crash and burn part of the Mojo cylce. But everyone forgets that part, nobody wants to acknowledge that little nasty cousin of creativity. If Mojo had such a cousin, I think his name would be No-jo! When the Mojo is gone...there is only one thing to do:

Clean your workstation, re-organize your studio. Paint the den. Wash the dog. Just get out of the whole studio altogether, because only one thing will happen if you don't, it will get worse. And then, you'll just feel depressed.

Mojo needs space, it's a very tempermental energy. It seems to be affected by the phases of the moon, or maybe even, the cycles of the weather. It waxes and wanes, it gathers strength, it runs like a hurricane, hits like tornado, and then...it always, always, and ever, leaves some kind of disaster behind. Like the dirty dishes in the sink, the dust on your car, the junk mail piled up in the kitchen, oh God...the smelly things in the back of the fridge! See, the thing is, Mojo can't be constant or else we would forget about all the other things in our life that keep us grounded to the earth. Our daily life, our kids, our husbands, our mothers. (Not necessarily in that order).

So, create, and enjoy. Make those masterpieces, and let the Mojo take you...But, remember the three R's; Rest, Regenerate, and Renew yourself.

Isn't life a bowl of cherries? Some would say it is. Why not consider each of our experienes in the light of a cherry? Some are rotten, some are ripe, some are sour, and some are so darn sweet that it keeps you eating until your belly is full. Of course, all the cherries aren't sweet, we all know that. Sometimes the very last one in the bunch is over-ripened and just plain yucky, and there you go biting into it with these great expectations, until your taste buds communicate to your brain that all is not well in Cherryland!

Oh, well. Better to have tasted a yucky cherry, than to have never tasted one at all.

Perhaps it's the forbidden fruits we should watch out for...cherries are harmless enough...right? I guess that would be whole other collage topic!

In loving Memory of Brianna

Dear Sweet Angel, you have wings
now to fly. You are free. Nothing
can hold you down or keep you
from seeing and feeling the love
that surrounds you. So many voices
wish you well. So many hearts are
breaking because you will be so
dearly missed. But, you are free
sweet one. And we pray your journey
will bring you peace. That your heart
will know the lightness and joy that
your life has brought to ours. We
hold close to each other now, dear
one. For we will surely miss
you.

Brianna Lauren Grant
Jan. 12, 1990 - June 15, 2007

On the subject of Tag Art...these are some of my recent creations. These are so much fun create!

I thoroughly understand how different time looks to different people. Depending on where you stand on the globe, time is relative. Yet, time is so precise. So unyeilding. Just ask the age lines on my face, they tell me every day that time waits for no one! Happily, I realize too, that time spent living is time well spent. It is hard to deprive oneself of our depressions, and our lows. We need them, to regenerate our hopes, to refuel our aspirations. When we awaken from those states of self doubt and worry...the world is new once again. Our playground! So here in this piece I hope to add a bit of thought to the value of time, and how each of our experiences are necessary to carry us to our next one, and then the next.