Vulnerability Required

Shifting a life to a new place for an extended time is exciting. It is also scary. Friends, family and co-workers express their envy and yet beneath my own excitement is a foundation of apprehension. Why? Because in all my experience of 'starting over' by moving to a new place, there is a great deal of vulnerability. Lots of unknowns, lots of loneliness, lots of re-learning and new choices. I don't do vulnerable as well as I did a few decades ago.

Early in my Texan upbringing I learned that the qualities most admired in women are self-sufficiency and a smile as real as the heavy makeup and as big as the hair. Needless to say, this kind of front has never been my style, so I was pleased to escape to California as an art student in the 70s and then all the way Down Under as a bride in the 80s - boomeranging back to Texas in between and for a few years when our first was born. Adapting to new places while also trying to remain true to oneself is just plain hard sometimes.

Vocabulary and accents shift, habits are re-defined, thinking expands, and understanding deepens. The real work, though, is in rebuilding a support structure. Finding a trust-worthy friend to share joys and struggles. Finding playmates to share the wildly fluctuating quality of creative ideas and dreams. Finding fellowship to mine the gems that come from deep and hidden places of faith and considered thought. That gets harder as time marches by and fewer peers are in my vulnerable start-all-over space with me with the same interests and ideas, never mind a similar background!

Apart from my patient husband, there is nobody within 500 miles who really knows me - and vice versa. The days can get long in a temporary home when it lacks people, possessions and purpose. Meanwhile, friendly-yet-superficial social interactions reveal an impatience to truly belong here. The phone is too quiet. The calendar too empty. So there is only one thing to do. Get involved in something!

One activity has been to attempt to renew my drawing and painting skills. I was so nervous at the first (private) class that it took me over an hour to make the 'quick' sketch shown in the layout above! I was happy that I could still draw well enough that it looked like a face, but not at all happy with either my technique or the likeness.

So, once again I am embracing vulnerability and putting myself 'out there' because it is the only way to break through and find connection with responsive people. Since creativity is also by its nature vulnerable, I struggle with pushing as hard as I know I should to develop as an artist. I am going to work on that in the coming months and see what happens, regardless of whether what I do is 'good enough' or not! It is not showcase time, but a time to stretch.

While the crisp fall air shines through its kaleidoscope of colourful optimism, I am back on the school bus of life again, bouncing down a new road and wondering who will meet me here and sit beside me to share the journey together.

 

These layouts were created using Janet Scott Design's fun kits in the A Bouquet of Freshly Sharpened Pencils collection. (A line I often quote from one of my favourite movies.)

Need More White Space?

Take a deep breath. Ahhh! Feels good, doesn't it! In layout design, as in life, one of the essential elements for balance is the use of white space.

'White' in the design sense is the area left empty of text or graphics. This space is necessary to allow your work to 'breathe'. When a layout is too full it can suffocate much like cramming into a phone booth with a bunch of friends. It may seem like fun at the time, but it isn't a place you'd want to linger in for long!

I know it can be difficult to choose what embellishment to use, what typeface font to employ and how many photos to display. And then after those choices are made, arranging them so that they look pleasing is just as challenging. One trick is to be sure the layouts have some balance with your use of white space. Look at your layout and ask yourself:

1. Where does my eye go first?
2. Does it move around the page?
3. If not, where does it get stuck?

Ideally, your eye should notice everything on the page - but not at once! You will need to decide a hierarchy. What is the main drawing point (what will bring interest to your page - the title, the photos, the colours, the embellishments?). Then arrange and size the elements accordingly until your eye flows easily (like effortless breathing) around the page...lingering the most on the most important things in your design.

Here are some pages I created with Janet Carr's bright pastel colors and strong graphics in her "The Bunny Trail" kit. (These layouts fell together so quickly - it is a delightful kit!) Hopefully you will see that the white space (empty space) in these layouts allow for balance and movement.




Of course the more information your layouts include the trickier this is, so here is a 2page spread I did using the bold colors and patterns of Anne Quade's "Daffodil Dreams" kit from Fishbowl Designs. I hope you can see how the white space not only frames the page but allows movement between the pages. Of course there are other design elements at play, but the white space (especially the margins) helps to keep what could have been a very busy layout more inviting. Or at least that what I hoped to accomplish here! :)



In a similar way, I am realising that my life needs more white space, too! It's too easy to add and add and add. It isn't always tangible 'stuff' either. Some of it is emotional stress stuff. Some is just busyness. So, in addition to scrapping for fun (my last post) I am starting to cut loose from some of the things that have filled my heart and mind too much and have strangled some of the joy.

Like in a layout, it isn't just about emptying, purging, tossing out (although it may involve some of that). It is about adding room so that the chosen elements of life can be arranged and sized to to work together ... making room to breathe.

White space isn't as empty as we might think ... maybe it is where the real creativity happens! Creative White Space - I want more of that.