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Hello and Welcome,

It is week 4 of “The Artist Way” re-cap. This weeks chapter is titled Recovering a Sense of Integrity. If you are just joining us, “The Artist Way” is a book about allowing ourselves to be more creative. I am writing each week about my thoughts one Chapter at a time.

I have to tell you that this week I am struggling to find my one mini-lesson from this chapter. In the past three weeks, I have connected the dots from one small action to the bigger lesson. But this week I don’t see it. I understand the definition of integrity and I certainly believe it is important to have integrity for all aspects of one’s life. But I am not really getting the connection to my creative life.

There is, however, a “tool” in this chapter that intrigues me. The author Julia Cameron, tells the reader to use this “tool” for one week. Ironically, she calls this “tool” reading deprivation. Again I am not making a connection to Integrity but I am intrested in her argument that not allowing ourselves to read or watch TV or spend time on social media for a whole week does open the door to other things. She puts it this way.

“No reading? That’s right: no reading. For most artists, words are like tiny tranquilizers. We have a daily quota of media chat that we swallow up. Like greasy food, it clogs our system. Too much of it and we feel, yes, fried.

It is a paradox that by emptying our lives of distractions we are actually filling the well. Without distractions, we are once again thrust into a sensory world. With no newspaper to shield us, a train becomes a viewing gallery. With no novel to sink into (and no television to numb us out) an evening becomes a vast savannah in which furniture-and other assumptions-get rearranged.”

Surprisingly, Julia wrote these words in 1992. In case you aren’t old enough to remember this was a time before the internet and cell phones. I don’t believe anyone could imagine how much more our lives would be invaded by media in 2019, but I would argue that it makes Julia’s idea of reading deprivation all the more difficult and necessary. Today people talk about unplugging. The lesson is the same. “Look around and live in the present physical moment and engage with it.”

Last weekend without meaning to my husband and I choose to do this very thing. At the time we didn’t realize we were making the reading deprivation choice but in hindsight, I can see that it was one of the consequences of our decision. Now I am not necessarily recommending our decision as it came with a few other deprivations as well, ie: sleep, concentration, productivity, and at time sanity. But it sure is good for making us pay attention to our physical world. 🙂

Meet the newest members of our family, Lola and Slyder. Our two 4 pound bundles of love and crazy.

Perhaps it is not surprising that I am behind on my posting schedule this week and I fear it might get even worse in the weeks to come. In the span of writing these last couple of paragraphs, I have cleaned up, three puddles, and one very unpleasant mess and spent a little time playing tug-of-war and other puppy games.

So I guess we had better get on with the craft project already.

This is the first project from my Trashy St Patrick’s Day House Tour. I am calling it my St Patrick’s Day Bag Bouquet. Below are my faux Craspedia Billy Buttons made from some marbles and split peas.

I also made these white flowers from some plastic grocery bags, bottle caps and scrap cardboard.

To add a little greenery I made these shamrock shapes made from a green plastic bag.

The “vase” was an old pasta jar painted with gold spray paint. You can see the full tutorial in the video below.

If you are interested in getting caught up on The Artist Way series you can check out these links to my other posts and projects.

Week One – Recovering a sense of Safety – (With upcycled pie tins made into a twisted valentine tree)

Week Two – Recovering a sense of Identity – (With upcycled found objects candlesticks)

Week Three – Recovering a sense of Power – (With my trashy St Patrick’s Day House Tour)

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Upcycling,

Advertising Disclosure: Upcycle Design Lab may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website.