The Jazz Underground radio show and creativity have become a ritual for me. It’s something I look forward to every Tuesday night with great anticipation. I usually start to prepare about an hour before the show. First, I put on my lucky tank top. (Often when I have extra paint at the end of a session, I use it up painting on my lucky tank top!) I’ve had the tank top for about 14 years now, which is weird, I know. It’s practically held together by paint! I also wear my lucky pink bandana and sweats that I can get paint on. I like to be able to get wild and messy! Tonight I put an old sheet out over my nice rug. I decided I was tired of getting paint and wax all over the rug when I make art there. I don’t like having to stop to clean up. I put on some jazz albums of my own and start to bop around the house in anticipation of a two hour art/jazz extravaganza that is almost like a meditation for me. I get out a bunch of art materials I might use and put them on the sheet. I have several projects in mind that I could work on. That seems to help me: to have that vague framework. I noticed that when I have no project in mind, it can be hard to get anything done because I need a starting point. What I really love is to paint to the jazz and let the music move me. It makes me think I was born too late. Perhaps I should have been a beatnik! Haha!
I make a pizza, pour some wine, make sure Bonsai has gone out, and then wait anxiously until 7PM. I don’t sip any wine until Ryan Lee plays his first tune. Then I start dipping my toe into the universal river of creativity, oh most magical of places! Sometimes I am moved to dance or take a bite of pizza or a sip of wine, then it’s back to creating. I am happiest in this state of being. This is when I feel the most “Me.” It’s what I picture heaven will be like.
Tonight I worked on a journal for a wonderful class I am taking by Lisa Sonora Beam called "Creative Practice." The sketchbook I am using is from a previous class, and I wanted to give it a whole new look. Tonight the music really sent me to some wonderful places! Sometimes it feels like Ryan Lee is a mind-reader and is playing the show just for me. Every song was so perfect!
I always feel so much joy when I do this weekly creative practice painting to the jazz. I am so excited and ready for this new class with Lisa, establishing a daily creative practice. This will help me in countless ways that I don’t even know about yet, but I am excited to find out! Since I consider myself a creative person first and foremost, it seems fitting that I have a practice where I am doing something creative each day. I felt drawn to this class, and lately I have been following those feelings of being drawn to things. It feels right to follow these urges. I anticipate the changes to come! Isn’t anticipation the best feeling? It’s a magical place, and a state I wish I could be in always.