A Joyful Studio/Atelier/Teaching and Learning Place  

Posted by Patricia Cecilia

I have always been a creative person with a classic INTJ personality, so "joyful" and "creativity" and "beauty" did not naturally mesh in me, as I am a perfectionist. (My friends will concur.)

However, over my lifetime, Our loving Creator has molded me and taught me that using one's gifts to their fullest requires both a commitment to improving those gifts through study and practice and the cultivation of "joy in one's work". As far as any art is concerned, I need to be offering of the best I have within me at this moment, for His honor and glory, without self-judgment, with as little self-consciousness as possible, and with joy and contentment.

Many well-known singers and instrumentalists and artists of all types have said that the artistry of art is "making it look easy." Doing so takes practice; not unmindful repetition, but a focused awareness of what one is doing, an keen analytical sense--"what's not working here?"--coupled with a knowledge of how to fix the problem, and then proceeding to fix it with gentleness and a lack of self-condemnation.

This 'practice' comes easier for me in stitching and rosary-making; after all, the finished product evolves slowly in private until I am satisfied with it as the best I can do, and it makes me glad. (UFOs--in stitching parlance, "unfinished objects"--can sit for years in a box until I figure out how to make them beautiful and joyful.) But in making music, the finished product is fleeting, unfixable, unperfectable, as its moment of creation and its brief life are one and the same. And it took the first thirty years of my life and a wonderful voice teacher to finally get through my perfectionism to the point where I can sing with a joyful offering and let it go. (Earlier teachers tried, may God bless them, but perfectionists are stubborn in their perfectionism and do not necessarily listen to that which could ease their burdens.)

So on this blog I hope to offer some insights into learning one's art with a joyful spirit while creating increasing beauty. Mostly I will talk about music, but I am certain other artistries will creep in; I have always been incapable of thinking about or talking about one thing at a time! (For a very funny explanation of why women's brains work that way, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuMZ73mT5zM&NR=1 )

Make a joyful noise (stitchery, painting, sculpture, rosary) unto the Lord, all ye lands!