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Current Rants and Recent Rambles

Ramble for 01-26-04: You are the most important person at your worktable. 
Folks:

As Korkie and I have been discussing, you are the most important
person at your worktable. No one can dictate to you what colors to
like or what subjects to get inspired by.

You are the only one who knows what is right for you. Trick of it is
folks aren't used to indulging themselves without feeling a bit
guilty. Females especially. Being nice to ourselves comes after work,
school, family, job, congregation and community. When that self
nurturing should be the first thing you do.

Brain Massage for Believers: God loves you, right? God has forgiven
you for all past transgressions, right? Well, respect that and love
and forgive yourself for ever forgetting that. Say that to yourself
10 times a day until it creates a groove in your brain and becomes
part of your belief system.

Brain Massage for everyone else, would you have been given the need
to create, to express yourself, for enjoying color and design, if it
were for nothing? Are all your efforts only going to be to please,
serve or administer to others? I don't think so. Got an itch to
create, scratch it. Got a hunger to express, go for it, because it is
only in the doing that you satisfy that hunger. Otherwise it turns to
sadness, I believe, bottled up and frustrated.

Get out of your own way people. Get rid of all thoughts of you're not
good enough, you're not deserving of personal expression. It's poison
to the artistic soul to be censored, limited, or driven by what's
popular. 

It comes as a shock to some, I'll bet, when I remind them that the
artist resides within each of us. We all have a personal and private
song to sing, fueled by our dreams, which can only be discovered by
each of us for ourselves. Oh Darn, more introspective work...work,
work, work. We got to look inside to get the stuff that holds us back
rooted out, bypassed, see?

There's a sadness that is found in some, when they realize that they
never asked themselves what they wanted before considering everybody
else: family, boss, friends, pop culture. Kick all those influences
to the curb for a minute. Step aside mentally and ask yourself

what colors do I love
what designs call to me
what topics uplift me
what are my beliefs

The belief bit is a mine field, for some of our beliefs are self
diminishing, "I can't do that in a million years." or "I'm not
talented enough." they are the self diminishing voices. They are part
of a belief system we have to discover, root out and replace
with "I'll give that an effort." and "How ever it comes out it is
where I am in my creative journey." and "It's my life and I'll sculpt
what I want to." Gosh darn it and heck.

Contrary to rumor I'm not here to tell you what to do. I'm here to
ask you "What ya want, honey?". Come to Demo and just ask. It's like
this... we're neighbors, we chat over the back fence, you come to my
crib to visit, I ask you "you hungry?" and you say, "Yes."

then I ask, "What ya got a taste for?"

This is how this list works, how the demos work, what I do. But I
can't do a thing if you don't ask yourself what you want to express
to the world by way of your clay and minis.

Bunch of times in Demo I just stop and have a smoke and drink my
coffee while I wait for the ClayMates to make up their minds as to
what we're going to do next. "Oh anything you want, NoraJean." Well I
want to do my laundry but that would be hella boring in Demo.
Someone will type "Canes", and then I ask "Colors?", then they got to
think about

what do they want

what a alien concept, someone asking me what I want, gosh... people's
minds go blank a lot, just ain't used to it.

Well get used to it. It's the first and most important step. Before
buying clay, before getting books, before reading about what other
folks have done, before getting all worked up not knowing which of
those things out there you're going to do first. It won't set right
unless you've asked yourself... does any of this help me express my
inner visions, sooth my soul, heal my haggard heart? If it doesn't
then it's not relevant to your creative effort.

I'm laughing here because what I'm encouraging you all to do is be
sassy, don't doubt yourself, don't pay no mind what any nay sayers
might say, to step forward and reveal what is in your inner heart of
hearts. Got to be sassy to do all that is my reckoning and you got to
love yourself enough to allow it to happen.

That's the doorway to all that you can create, love yourself, God
does, and if it counts at all, I do, ergo the rants and rambles, of
which this has been one.

xoxo

NJ
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