2010 Artistic Retreat: Making it last forever

Photo from: Stuck in Customs



Day 7: Visual Immortalisation

My Darling Devotees,

When I came up with the idea for this retreat week, it was an idea bred from necessity. The reality of how art-centric my year is going to be had just hit me and I was wondering where I would get the inspiration to get everything done. I had also noticed how many of you, my devotees, had resolutions that involved improving your artistic skills. That's when I decided that a retreat week devoted to learning how to find inspiration in everything around you was exactly what we all needed , and I feel like this goal has been achieved. We started off this week by establishing where we were coming from stylistically by looking through our past work. Then we really begun actively seeking out sources of inspiration by watching movies, visiting the library and other places that tend to make creative juices flow. Over the past couple of days I've been asking you to not only visit these places but to try to think out of the box, by brainstorming ways in which you could translate what inspired you into your art.


Now, I want you to immortalise this week by putting all of these ideas and points of inspiration into two visual media you can always refer to: an inspiration board and an inspiration portfolio. The board should be kept somewhere you can easily see it when you want to work on your art, preferably in your room or studio . The portfolio should really be a sort of book that only has works in progress and sources of inspiration, no finished works or pictures of finished works. The idea is that your most inspiring visual pieces should go on your board and your larger or more word-intensive pieces should go in the portfolio. I also recommend that you have a digital back-up of your portfolio.


This has been an amazing week and I for one am sad to see its end. I've learnt so much about myself and the things that move me this week and I hope you have too. I've also learnt a lot about you my darling devotees, through the comments and suggestions you so kindly left me under all of the parts of the series. Thank you so much for partaking in this artistic retreat with me. Like I mentioned before I have a problem with finishing projects that I've started and only recently realised what the cause may be. I needed to finish this series to show myself that I can complete things I've started. Your comments encouraged me to continue writing and coming up with new ideas, and showed me just how fantastic you people are. Part of the reason I started this blog was to meet people who shared my interests, people I could influence positively and that could influence me positively too, and I really feel like that's happening. Once again, thanks for your participation and good luck in all your artistic ventures.


Assignment Summary

1. Gather all your major pieces of inspiration, select the most attention-grabbing and aesthetically pleasing pieces and pin them to your board.



2. Type up key words that inspire you and that describe some of the pieces on your board and add them to the board, too.



3. Put the more detailed and word intensive pieces in your inspiration portfolio; key pages from your retreat notebook could be removed from the notebook could be added too.



4. Put digital photos, online links and other digital inspiration in a digital portfolio.



5. Begin to document any art that you do and create a finished products portfolio.
   
   

My Interpretation:

This post by Luinae of More Magic Always, I feel really explains how to make an inspiration board. I already have an inspiration portfolio (that I'm currently updating), but I've never had a board before and I'm really excited about making one. When I'm done, I'll put the pictures in a separate post. Finally, I want you to feel free to record your work in whatever format suits you best i.e. if you dance, you can video your routines, if you sing, record your songs, etc, as long as it accurately records your achievements and lets you see how much you improve each day, it's fine.

Be open to new experiences and your life shall be fulfilled.
-Me

Love you all and Stay inspired,

P.S. So let me know what you think. Was this retreat helpful? What did you like? What would you like to see next time? What quotes, pictures, links, etc are on your board/in your portfolio? If you have any links to pictures of your boards or portfolios you'd like me to see feel free to put them in comments, along with your answers, below.