Unfiltered Pages: entry 004- I Procrastinated Until I Ran Out of Excuses

As excited as I am to have 4 pieces going into ‘Colors of Inspiration’ exhibition at Authentic Arts Gallery end of September, can I be brutally honest with you? I haven’t started them. True, I have had a busy first part of the year and I already had planned on using the summer to paint this series. I have piddled, cleaned, napped, read, and done so much laptop work; that I am literally out of things to procrastinate with. I was to start my series 2 weeks ago, once my other projects were finalized. And my 4 canvases sit behind me, blank and crying to be used.

I am not beating myself up too much, though, which is good. (and new for me). I know I needed rest because I had some big creative pushes the last few months. But, could it be something else, too? It sure can.

You see, I have these very nice, expensive, new canvases that I am trying for the first time. I only have 4. And all 4 of those are going into the exhibit. See the issue here? They are too precious and I am not going to get it right the first time.

And then I read the part about procrastination and perfectionism in ‘We Need Your Art’ by Amie McNee and oh boy, did that hit hard in the chest. Ok, Amie, I see you seeing me. I am putting so much pressure on myself that I have done everything BUT pick up a paint brush.

Recognition is the first step to recovery. In my brain, I KNOW that this is my body keeping me in the ‘safe zone’. However, I know action begets inspiration… not the other way around.

I have been creatively blocked the last 2 weeks… even today.. I am sitting here writing a blogpost about being blocked instead of turning around and picking up the dang paintbrush already!!!

Here’s what I am going to do… I am going to take Amie’s advice and set my timer for 10 minutes and just start the first layer. Which is usually easy and light for me. (journaling/mark making with some charcoal and adding water for smudging).

You know what… I am going to do it right now. BRB!

Ok, well that took care of that! I unboxed each canvas, took off the floater frames, hung them on the wall and got some scribbles down. Blank canvases gone! whew!

So, that is what I decided to do to help me this time with my procrastination. I recognized it, journaled about it (here on the blog with you), and with music pumping, I jumped up and got something non-threatening onto the canvases. Small marks with graphite and charcoal. Not scary at all. Painless, really… so much, that I am laughing at myself now.

Now it’s YOUR turn! What are you procrastinating about? Do you recognize what fear it is on the other side of that? Is it perfectionism, comparison, vulnerability? Please share, I would love to hear some ways that you have pulled the plug on procrastination?

*note, these canvases are natural duck cloth that come in floater frames. Blank Inspiration makes it easy to take the floater frames off, paint and put them back on. Each canvas comes with its own packaging so that you can turn around and use it again to ship your painting to its new home.

Make painless, easy marks.

Journaling has always helped me clear the clutter and take action. And then making easy, background marks are something you can’t really regret.