Secret #8 - empowering alliances

Wow - how can it be Friday already?
The next chapter in my 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women Bookgroup is how to select empowering partnerships and alliances.
Collaboration is an interesting way to get energized as an artist, and my last two entries were posts showing work done by an amazing artist with whom I share two journals that travel across the country.
Alliances are often this - a singular project that inspires and moves me forward - I do lots of mail art and artist trading cards, and this builds that sense of community and connection that being alone in the studio doesn't always provide.
I also read and read and read some more - creative authors and story tellers help me feel that I am on the right path - diarists and novelists have so much to say about the creative process.
Of course, like lots of us, I spend time (too much) on line looking at other people's work. This can be a bit sabotaging, also, and can make me feel like I am not original or creative enough. But a bit of on-line connection (like this book group!) is really uplifting and encouraging.

and in my friends, I am very choosy, and can only spend time with those who get me. If someone has no clue what I am about, I find it too tiring to train them. Quirky people seem to need quirky friends, so this tends to be my tribe.

One big key I wish I had known way earlier in my life -- when someone is supportive and positive about your work - HOLD ON TO THEM. I can't recall all the relationships I have let go due to me moving, or starting a new phase, of people who did really care. I wish I had them all in a circle so I could thank them.

An artist partnership is a very creativity building thing, and those of us to have them are lucky! I once had an awesome group with 3 other women and we painted together on large canvases - we ended up having a show in NY (see it here) an d that was a wonderful thing. We ended up growing apart and going our own ways artistically, but I will always be uplifted by the memory of the energy and connection we had while working together.



"No my friends, darkness is not everywhere – for here and there I find a few faces illuminated from within. Paper lanterns swaying among the dark trees." --Carole Ann Borges