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Working Past Resistance and Something to Show for the Effort

The amazing thing about studying getting past Resistance is how it really works.

Yes, I will raise my hand here, I have been slacking on my work. I was on a roll, and now I’m at the point where something has to happen or I am so firing myself. This is no way to run a business.

Subscribing to Steven Pressfield’s newsletters have been a great resource as well as his books. The other day I picked up Do The Work and read a passage that smacked me across the face, hard. It said to read some statements about what we want to do our art, and if we chose one of the lame statements we should just stop right then and throw his book in the garbage.

Wow. But you know what? That’s the thing that made me paint something. Anything. Just do the lousy work already! Process, something great can come of just the process.

Working with watercolors with Marabu pan paints

At my desk looking at an old set of pan watercolors in a tin box my Pop gave me years ago, I thought I’d just try them out. Just a small Arches pad of paper would be enough for a sketch in paint, I figured. I never thought I’d love these old Marabu watercolor paints, but the colors were surprisingly vibrant. By the time I decided I’d done enough I ended up loving my “job.” The paint just flowed on the Arches paper, nice mixtures of colors mingled together within pleasing shapes. All in all, a nice, satisfying effort for the day’s work. Yeah, well, let’s say a half hour’s worth. Sometimes, if I’m in it, that’s all I need.

RedPeppers — Red Peppers ©2014 Dora Sislian Themelis 7×10 Watercolor, Arches paper

Could it be that reading the butt kicking work about dodging Resistance helped? I think so.

Now, get to work!

Resistance is the Devil?

The Dark Apple Hides Shells ©2012 Dora Sislian Themelis, Watercolor, Arches paper

There comes a time when working at the easel becomes a chore, rather than a comfortable experience. Maybe that’s what happens when you turn pro?

Oh, so now it’s a job? Well honey, it is most definitely a job! A happy, fun, exciting job when it all works the way it should.

For a good long while I was whistling my happy tune, sort of, and painting away comfortably. Every day the Muse came by to drop some really good ideas right into my head. Mr. Resistance was nearby, but he was busy doing his own thing, thankfully leaving me well enough alone.

Lately he’s been pestering me to do other things instead of visit the easel. Sure, he says in my ear, painting can wait. Go read another email, check the internet one more time, do some laundry while you’re at it.

Mr. Resistance is the devil. And now I have proof! Wonderful Mr. Steven Pressfield says it, so it has to be the truth. I trust that guy 100%.

His newsletter whooshed into my inbox one day and his words just smacked me upside my head! Bam! Where would I be without him? In the gutter I tell you, with my paints and brushes!

It’s title alone hit me, How Resistance Proves the Existence of God. Hallelujah! He was writing about a pianist who wasn’t playing the piano, doing everything but, and deeply feeling the pain of not being a concert pianist. Pressfield explained in the newsletter that this was the definition of Resistance, that this man was “operating as an amateur.”

Suddenly, he goes on, something snaps in this man’s head, and he does absolutely nothing else BUT practice piano, losing himself in it and every other thing he had in his life besides, like a crazy person. Pressfield says that this proves there is a God.

First given: Resistance is a universal phenomenon of the human psyche.
Second given: Resistance’s sole object is to prevent you and me from becoming concert pianists, writing bestselling novels, founding the follow-on to
Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity.

In other words, Resistance’s purpose is to prevent good from entering the world.
Ergo: Resistance is the devil. Ergo: If there is a devil, there must be a God.

I read this and it took my breath away. Not only is Mr. Resistance the bane of my own existence, he’s the devil besides! OMG!

What a light bulb moment as I read, and re-read Steven Pressfield’s newsletter. I knew it wasn’t so easy to shake off Resistance. This knowledge is powerful stuff.

My thought process on this has certainly changed with this information. I’ll be doubly watchful as I go about my work from now on.

The Twitter Art Exhibit Orlando 2014

Some Sunflowers ©2014 Dora Sislian Themelis 6x4 Watercolor, Arches paper — Some Sunflowers ©2014 Dora Sislian Themelis 6×4 Watercolor, Arches paper

Yesterday I was hit by a lightning bolt.

I started reading Steven Pressfield’s book Do The Work, another kick in the butt about that old bum Mr. Resistance and how to get past him. What is it about how that guy writes about artists’ block that gets me going? I’m not sure if it’s how he says stuff, or it’s because I am reading the words and my brain connects as I read, or both. But man, I seem to get going afterwards. It works!

Here’s the latest thing: There is an art exhibit coming up next month and it’s for artists who are on twitter. The Twitter Art Exhibit Orlando is free to enter and in any flat medium except the work must be small, specifically postcard size. After the exhibit is launched the postcards will be sold and the funds donated to charity. Great idea.

I’ve known about the twitter exhibit for a while now and kept forgetting to do a small watercolor painting to enter.

As I read Do The Work I got my flash of inspiration: Do the painting! Enter the exhibit!

What genius!

Then I thought, what a jerk! What does it take to sit down and get something done around here? I guess it took that book and the magical words in it to light the fire for me. Hey, whatever works.

One half hour after I decided on what to paint and began to work I was done! I emailed them with my intention to participate in the event. Next I will prepare my little gem for it’s voyage to Orlando, Florida at the venue. I am so excited!

Mr. Resistance Overstays His Welcome Yet Again

The newest watercolor painting is waiting to be finished

Mr. Resistance has been overstaying his not-so-welcome welcome. Work is just not getting done. This painting has been hanging around so long. I just can’t get to finish it.

And, as I have learned, catching cold after cold, (or is it allergy attacks?), it is due to Mr. Resistance. Let me be honest in saying I’ve been letting him get his way.

I’m not happy about it and the Muse is not happy with me either.

Which leads me to believe I must be coming close to an important break through in my painting. Man, I just can’t get back to work for anything!

Here’s what I think: Lately I’ve been dreaming about painting in oils again to work larger than I’ve been recently, and how it would be cool to have a gallery/studio space outside of my home. Of these ideas, renting a space is the most costly and may be out of the question for now, unless I can find some other like minded artists to chip in. It’s just an idea. What do I know about gallery stuff anyway? Nothing.

Apparently, deep down inside, the inner artist-child must be scared to death of these ideas because everything is happening so that nothing happens.

Does that make sense?

Resistance is Bad For Your Health? Wow

Apple with Broken Shells ©Dora Sislian Themelis 7x9 Watercolor — Apple with Broken Shells ©Dora Sislian Themelis 7×9 Watercolor

I don’t know how he does it, but that Mr. Steven Pressfield is one amazing, intuitive guy. Today I read a post on his blog dealing with Resistance yet again, and again, he hits home. I literally hit myself in the head with my hand as I read it.

Where does he get it all?

His post in Writing Wednesdays: Advance Forms of Resistance stopped me in my tracks because I already had an annoying morning of sorta disaster, like he describes in his post.

Tuesday is my day to study with Mr. Resistance. Did I do it? No. Did I post? No. I thought about it, but didn’t act. I did, however, do some work, thank goodness.

Hitting my stride, working out my kinks, feeling okay about the work that’s happening in the studio. I even listed some work in that Etsy shop I have. Yes I know I should be doing that right here, but I have to figure it out first, okay?

Some how I didn’t post yesterday, and today here’s Steven Pressfield, telling me that Resistance is becoming bad for his health! He banged his hand badly, cracked his skull, broke his toe, all as he was nearing the finish of his work.

Amazing thought: he says it’s Resistance! Yikes!

Surprisingly, I’ve been having that kind of stuff going on with me, but not as drastic. Yesterday inside my refrigerator it was snowing. Okay, had to fix that. This morning I knocked over my beloved fresh hot cup of coffee all over the tablecloth, the floor, and inside The Mr.’s shoes. Okay, clean that up. Just before sitting to write this post I put in a load of laundry, was distracted by some other thing and before I knew it the laundry cycle was finished and I didn’t add the clothes to the machine. Yup, it washed nothing.

Just great.

Thank you Mr. Resistance.

Resistance vs Muse

Mr. Resistance is quite a character. Over the time I’ve been studying about him I’ve gained somewhat of a respect for his talent and ability to totally screw up my daily agenda.

I still hate him, but I know he’s there, and what he’s capable of doing to me.

Fine.

However, since I’ve been following Steven Pressfield’s thought process on Resistance, I’ve become enamored of his idea of the Muse. You know, you’ve got to have good and evil, yin and yang, the Good Witch or the Bad Witch.

Mr. Resistance’s other half is this kind of entity.

In Pressfield’s imagination the Muse flies around in her little plane thingy. As she flies by she checks to see if the good little artist is at her easel. If not, she whizzes away. She’ll try again the next day. Not there? Okay, she’s gone again. Stay out of the loop enough times and she doesn’t bother coming back.

The Muse is totally not like Mr. Resistance, who never leaves. Please, leave.

Turning a corner on that creep I showed up at the easel. Low and behold there was the Muse, hovering over head. I sorted through my idea pile, got out the large watercolor block and just started in on this new work.

Twenty minutes in, I stopped to let the paint dry, and a little bit later I tried working in more color to define the shapes and shadows.

I wasn’t so sure I wanted to do this painting, but so what? May as well catch the Muse as she flies by and drops some fairy dust on my scattered brain making the most of the process.

A New Moleskine Notebook

My new Moleskin watercolor sketchbook — My new Moleskine watercolor sketchbook

With my discount coupon in hand, I headed out to the local art supplier in my neighborhood for a little Artist’s Date with myself.

I had a mission: buy watercolor paint colors I ran out of, and get a Moleskine watercolor notebook for doodling and sketching.

Mission accomplished! The notebook is one of the smaller sizes. I really didn’t want to commit to something too large so I wouldn’t be discouraged. But you never know, I could be annoyed by using a small book too. Then again, the price of the larger was much higher so I sprang for this one.

The instructor at the NYC workshop I participated in used a Moleskine for her sketching. I thought it might be good to keep me from arguing with Mr. Resistance. Nothing expected by a doodle or a quick sketch, no commitment to a huge new painting, to experiment with brush and paint.

Process, not product.

Just staying in the game, so to speak.

The Pleasure of Participation

June Sunflowers 18x24 Watercolor ©Dora Sislian Themelis — June Sunflowers 18×24 Watercolor ©Dora Sislian Themelis

In the midst of the stuff around here with Mr. Resistance I had the pleasure of participating in another shopping event. While “he” and I struggle with our competing thoughts about the hows and whys of art, it ended up that I would be the only artist vendor among jewelry, make-up, accessories people if I decided to attend.

I’ve shown at this event in the past, and it’s a lovely restaurant with great shelving for art display. As before, I set up my watercolor paintings on the shelving and my hand knit accessories at the tables below.

It’s good practice to show artwork at these shopping events because you just never know who might be interested. There’s a lot of great feedback, shoppers were really impressed and asked great questions about my work. Meeting different people, talking about my process and exposing people to art is always a nice experience.

My Art at Pop Up Event — Watercolor Art on display

Also great was that I sold a few knit pieces and the restaurant owner bought this watercolor painting of sunflowers.

The fun part was that each of us was so excited, she to have purchased art she loved, and for me to sell a painting I loved. It’s nice to know it will be going to a new home.

Thrilling, actually.

When Resistance is at Bay

PatmosGoats — Patmos Goats ©2013Dora Sislian Themelis 9×12 Watercolor

While I go on and on about not meeting the requirements of the latest challenge, something clicked inside my artist brain the last few days.

Just to keep you updated, I’ve been reading Steven Pressfield’s wonderful book on Resistance, The War of Art, again. It was a wonderful help in the past and is now.

That, and this 30 paintings in 30 days challenge. Or, as I should call it, my Not 30 in 30 Challenge. Man, I am so far behind I’m not going to bother to catch up.

The thing is this: I know I want to paint, but something has to spark my imagination. Like Steven Pressfield suggests, I have to just do it, be present, sit down at the desk and be ready for the Muse/Spirit/Whatever to inspire. More about the wonderful Mr. Pressfield to come.

The garden is fading. The colorful flowers are gone, their stems are drying, everything is either green or brown now. None of my shells appealed to me. Neither did the apples I like to use. The last few paintings had apples and shells together at the beach. Ok, but now I needed something new. Some photos from my summer trip appealed to me and I chose a few to try. I sketched the scene quickly in paint and as it dried I worked in more detail, just feeling satisfaction in the process and the colors.

When Resistance is at bay synchronicity abounds. It felt really good to get something on the paper. Done.

Today I decided I wanted to paint this same scene from my photos again, but differently, going for an even sketchier feeling. The day was free, nothing on the agenda, the house was quiet, and the equipment was ready.

Pushing myself to look at the whole rather than just the subject, I dropped in paint and tried to mold the forms with color being mindful of the wet areas. Watercolor is unforgiving. To keep the work fresh I moved around the paper to drier areas. Twenty minutes and this is where I stopped. I went back to it after it dried so it has more detail than you see here.

Another day, another look-see.

The Challenge is the Challenge

Wildflower Bed, 7x9 Watercolor @2013 Dora Sislian Themelis — Wildflower Bed, 7×9 Watercolor @2013 Dora Sislian Themelis

Challenges, being what they may, are quite possibly not my bag, as it seems. In my very heart of hearts I thought I could be one of those people who thrive on just such a thing. You know, those special kind of individuals who need to one-up the next guy, break out of the pack, be numero uno, go for the gold!

It’s an admirable quality, I thought, one which I might try to muster up inside myself to push harder to achieve some artistic movement toward an end.

Hello. It’s just not happening over here. Not happening.

The 30 in 30 Challenge I signed up for is not living up to my very lofty expectations. Ahem.

Might I say, without any anxiety on my part, that this is Day 16 in the challenge and the most I’ve painted is…SIX!

And you can ask me if I care. I don’t care at all. The thing is this-I should care! I signed up! I added my blog, my name, and one painting, and I should really care how it looks to the crowd of artists who number over 400 in this event and are fully participating. But I don’t feel any remorse at all.

I look at it this way:

The idea of the challenge piqued my interest
The challenge pushed me to get back to painting
I started seeing my surroundings in my dreamlike/artist way again

I win anyway.