Unblock ME? How?

It’s actually pretty simple.

The Jumpstart Your Art process works along three simple “lines”: Deadline, Guideline and Lifeline.

DEADLINE: Let’s face it -- most of us artistic-types are procrastinators. Without a future outcome to call us to action, we tend to occupy ourselves with anything that isn’t the project at hand. Without a deadline, we never start or else never finish our work. Using the Jumpstart Your Art methodology, you will have realistic deadlines to create art on a regular basis. Your deadline is a date when someone else is waiting to experience what you’ve created.

The way you deal with a deadline is uniquely yours. As your coach, I will encourage you when you need it. But ultimately, when there’s a date that the work must be ready, you find a way to make it happen.

GUIDELINE: Typically you are assigned a random art theme. Typical themes are words or phrases, such as “Royalty,” “I forgot,” or “Cherries.” Really, the theme itself doesn’t matter, as it’s only a springboard for your imagination. If the theme were “I forgot,” one artist may base her work on the excuse a past love used on her; another artist might create a work about childhood, something he feels he has forgotten; yet another artist might be extra clever and say, “I forgot the theme,” and base her work on something different. Under the Jumpstart Your Art methodology, all three of these approaches are valid.

LIFELINE: Lifeline is where your own thought process or feelings intersect with the Guideline. Given a Guideline and a Deadline, the subconscious often manifests the Lifeline when you least expect it, or you’ll hit upon something brilliant as your mind wanders. You learn a certain “artistic vigilance.”

As a participant in a JUMPSTART YOUR ART Workshop, you will embark on a 3-month journey, in which you are given a regular Guideline and Deadline, and you will be part of a Jumpstart Group* that meets regularly. You will be supported by a weekly coaching call for me, in which we check in and work on any issues standing between you and your art. Periodically, there will be a show of all members of the Jumpstart Group – a great show that may include painting, sculpture, music, poetry, etc. The overall theme of the show will be determined by the group itself.

*JUMPSTART GROUPS are “artist clusters” that meet regularly, share guidelines and deadlines, and display/perform their art together. Communities of artists that meet regularly tend to inspire each other. As a participant in a JUMPSTART YOUR ART workshop, you will be part of an artist cluster for the length of the workshop, and the group may continue on after the workshop.