Carrying on the party through ROCK*STAR Nation

My Rock Star Days with Big Nurse, Many Moons Ago

My friend Alicia and I go through periods when one of us will feel that all is well in the world, and our creative energy levels are through the roof.  I'm sure you go through this too. Sometimes we are in that state together, and other times, we use our abundance of what we call "rock rock status" to lift the other to the same level of feeling awesome.

After my grandfather passed away a couple of weeks ago, I was bound and determined not to let myself fall apart. At his burial, my Uncle Billy told the story about how my grandfather and one of his relatives agreed that whoever outlived the other had to throw a huge party. Both men are now gone, and my Uncle Billy challenged the rest of us to continue the party.

I gave myself a couple of days to get whatever tears and feelings of self pity out and then decided to move forward and honor that part of my grandfather's spirit that I cherished the most when he was raising me. His belief that we can all be high achievers and be the best at what we do if we push ourselves is one of the best things he ever gave me. I felt closest to him when I was an athlete. I feel my best when I am competing. I re-immersed myself in my running passion as my own version of carrying on the party.

Because synchronicity is so abundant in this world, I sought out people who were on the same path. I found Magda Cardosa. I remembered her from high school, knew she was close with a few of my family members, and also that she is a kick-ass athlete and super runner. At the same time that I decided to start training, she started ROCK*STAR nation. It's a virtual group of people who decided to make July the best month of their lives. It's a 30 day commitment to get your body strong, spirituality in order, and nutrition in check. I signed up, started training, feel better than I have in years, and am registered for a 5k and a half marathon.

So what does this have to do with art? I decided to tie my artistic training in with my running. Everything I do to train for the races, I am doing with my art as well. Run for an hour, write for an hour. Weight train for an hour, sketch for an hour.

Artists are mental athletes. We need to hone our skills, feed and nurture our imaginations, rest when restless, take part in social activities to keep ourselves motivated and energized towards our goals, and test our training through performances, or exhibitions.

So my next steps towards becoming an art rock star are
: continue training/honing my skills
: get out and see others' work to feed and nurture my imagination
: take one day a week off for rest
: keep moving forward with the salon to create a group of artists for support and accountability
: to look forward and find venues to test the waters with my work.

The next salon will be on Sunday, August 7th. Bring your rock star mentality! Walnut Street Cafe, 10 am. Bring three artistic goals to share, develop and make executable. We're going to MAGDA the art world.


*We'll also be moving around to people's studios if you are interested in hosting at your studio on the North Shore, drop me a line.