Lyn Bishop : Sharing Secrets

The end of the year is always a time where many of us become introspective, thinking about the past 12 months and the upcoming new year ahead. For many years now, I have approached this process with anticipation, sprawled on my studio floor with a large piece of paper, crayons or markers, and mapped out the stepping stones to accomplish my dreams for the year to come.

I skipped over this process in 2009 and 2010. My life was in turmoil at the beginning of 2009 and I had too much sadness and fear in my heart to allow myself the luxury of my yearly dream session. I stumbled through 2009 relearning how to live without a master plan. I lived in the moment, and followed my heart from one adventure to the next.

Then came 2010, and I felt a tugging to get back on my path again. January came and nudged me to plan for my yearly dreams. I had some ideas, but nothing seemed solid, so I let go of all expectations, continued to listen to my heart and allowed myself the freedom to explore without feeling there needed to be some goal at the end of the experience.

This freedom of living moment to moment was refreshingly new for me, and during that time I felt that I could hear my inner voice that had been shut out by all the “you should” things in life. “You should work on your relationship”, “You should go back to graduate school”, “You should move to San Francisco”. I found new ways of being in the world, ways that were more intuitive, more in tune to nature, and to my own rhythms of life.

After this time of living without schedules, goals or objectives, I found a deeper trust in my own instincts, and found I was hearing my inner voice more clearly. That voice continued to become louder throughout 2010 and began to lead me out of the dense jungle of all possibilities and back onto my life path. Those jungle experiences have given me the opportunity to reevaluate my diverse life skills and rearrange them in ways that lead me in new directions that I could never have found without stumbling along without a plan in the jungle of life for a while.

As I approach 2011, I see my vision clearly, and know that the quiet time I spent without a master plan is leading me into my biggest dreams yet as I step out of the jungle and onto the road to manifest my life’s work. I am again luxuriating in the process of designing and planning my dreams.

Resources for Inspired Action or Non Action:

LifeHack: Why Doing Nothing May Be The Best Action Of All

Lisa Sonora Beam’s Goal Setting for Creatives

Poco a Poco, it’s an everyday Spanish phrase for little by little. That’s the best way to describe my process for the past two years while this blog sat quietly, patiently awaiting my return to the creative process. Life changes do that to you – make you quite for awhile.

It’s been almost two years since I left the comfort of my Bay Area lifestyle, with so many friends and creative opportunities all around me. I moved first to Costa Rica, and then began spending my time between Costa Rica and Panama, and now, I’m living full time in Panama, in a mountain community where the air is fresh and the hills are always green.

I’ve had small periods of creativity and artmaking, but lacking a studio space it was difficult to spread out and enjoy the process. That was only an excuse. The reality was I just wasn’t ready to let myself luxuriate in the beauty of art. Instead, I embraced nature and the wonders of the tropical rainforest jungle, exploring a world that was totally new to me.

But these days I’m feeling the pull of my creative spirit, and feel the deep need to embrace my process again. My materials are changing, as I don’t have all the high tech goodies to play with here, but the fundamental current of my creative spirit remains, and is calling me to come out and play again.

As I recreate my art and my life here in Panama, I am embracing the fact that I have always been a Creative Entrepreneur. I want to thank @VenessaMiemis for sharing her plans to attend a Creative Entrepreneur workshop in Mexico, and giving me the courage to visit Lisa Sonora Beam’s blog site which gave me the kick in the pants I needed to begin writing again and sharing my creative life with you once more.

For the last several weeks friends have been sending me all kinds of election year artwork. Barack Obama’s candidacy inspired artists wordwide with his Hope and Change campaign. I’ve posted some favorites below. Visit the Art of Obama site for even more artwork. Leave a comment with URLs to share other election year art.

OBAMA Anatomy of a World Leader, by Alex Grey

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Back in June, ARTSHIFT San Jose began seeking nominations for their first annual ARTSHIFT AWARDS. In an open process, anyone could nominate a Silicon Valley artist, event, organization, curator, educator or exhibition for special honors and a cash award. Last week the winners were announced at a special party and ceremony held at Orchard Commercial on North First Street. (By the way, kudos to Orchard Commercial for their commitment to our Silicon Valleys art community.)

A large crowd of supports came out to celebrate the arts in Silicon Valley. Erin Goodwin-Guerrero (editor of ARTSHIFT San Jose) provided background information about all the nominees. James Morgan (designer/technical advisor ARTSHIFT), spoke about an online art scene and the Silicon Valley art community in the digital age. JoAnne Northrup (senior curator, San Jose Museum of Art) addressed San Jose and Silicon Valley’s evolving art scene and Kerry Adams (director, Office of Cultural Affairs) presented the two cash awards. (more…)

Naoshima is a small island located in Japan’s Inland Sea. In recent years Naoshima has transformed itself from a traditional fishing community into a contemporary art destination that features work by some of the worlds best know artists.

Benesse House Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum holds a collection of commissioned works that has spilled out from the formal museum into the surrounding village. The Museum is both a place for art and a place for people, offering hotel accommodations, fine dining, and art library. Walking the museum corridors after hours or visiting the library in the silence of night makes for an extraordinary experience, and gives the guests a feeling of living with the art, if only for a day or two.

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