"Now we are about to begin."
The Snow Queen. Hans Christian Anderson.
When I first started coaching, one of my goals was to create a schedule that allowed me to spend time on my creative work. Today I took a major step towards that goal. This was my first official Studio Day. I've promised my creative spirit that she gets Thursdays until the end of this year, and then we'll talk about what happens next. (I have a funny feeling Thursdays are locked in for a very long time)
I got up at 6:00 this morning so that I could take care of some business and promised my creative spirit that we'd be in the studio at 9:00. As 9:00 got closer, I felt resistance rising. At 9:02 my spirit got insistent. I could literally hear her saying, "You promised. Let's go."
And so I did. And I started working on a project that has been in my heart for years: The Snow Queen. I see this as a multi-disciplinary theatre piece and today I sat down and plotted out the first story (there are 7) - the characters, the flow, the space, the sounds. I looked at the words, the images, the themes. I read the text out loud while playing different kinds of music in the background to discover different tones. (This is really fun. I'd really recommend trying it, maybe with some of your favourite poetry) I played with the dialogue. Sometimes my studio time sounded like me saying a sentence over and over, faster, slower, repeating one word, shouting a few, starting again. It was a lot of fun, totally engaging and 100% pure love.
And so, although I wasn't "doing nothing" as Soul Coaching requested of us today, my creative spirit, for the first time in a long, long time, was still.
Isn't it amazing that the first line of the show is "Now, we are about to begin."
Today I appear on Life Dev as a part of a series of interviews with creatives. How awesome it coincides with my commitment to Studio Day! If you're interested in hearing a little bit more about my creative life and my advice to creatives, you can read the interview here.
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12 comments:
I feel this strong urge to welcome your Studio Day into our lives - So Welcome Creative Spirit and Studio Day, we are so glad you have finally come together as we know that your time together will be of great joy to us in the future!
I love the "picking of a day". Mine is Tuesday. Right now it is an office day, I hope it becomes a thought-leadership day in time! I loved reading your post today! Be still my heart.
It's good to know someone else has a bossy creative spirit too! :) This experiment sounds fascinating, I can't wait to see what you create.
Blissings~*
You are unfolding into your greatness. I am so happy for you!
The Snow Queen. One of my favorite fairy tales! :) Snow is water. Perfection! Sounds like an amazingly fun spirit creation! :)
Yay for you, Jamie! What a delightful creative process you shared with us. I am, too, wanting to bring more & more art into my life - to be surrounded by it.
LOVE that first line.
Thank you for this glimpse into your studio day...it inspires me to think of how I can do something similiar. I love your seeing your process. I also want to read up on the snow queen....sounds fascinating what your doing with it.
I am also the most "still" when I am creating something, sewing or collaging silences all the noise around me.
Love your comments on stillness! Years & years ago (mid 70s) one of our friends was in a local production of "The Snow Queen" - it was one of those dark tales that I loved as a child - the mirror slivers in the heart, distorting vision is such a powerful image. & an overlay between the Snow Queen & the Queen in the Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe.
I look forward to the unfolding of this story.
I'm glad that you got that creative time in Jamie and worked on this project that I know is do dear and near to your heart.
Hello!
I'm following you from Sacred Suzie.
I just loved reading your post. I'm so glad I found your blog space!
oh, Jamie...you have no idea how inspired i am by this idea of "studio day"!! :)
hmmmm....yummy. :)
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