Quick and easy out-of-your-box things you can try!

These are quick and easy little exercises that you can do to get your juices flowing. Do something different. Do something that you would not ordinarily. Be brave and think only about the process and not the end result. When you are done, then you are done. Do not try to fix it later. Leave the finished product overnight and then come back to look at it again. You might see it in a different light. Are you happy with it? You might want to put things that you do quickly or intuitively into a notebook, journal, or album. Come back to it once in awhile and take a look at what you make when you don't overthink something. Is that the real you? Do you feel satisfied to have done it?

I am not a very reflective person. I just do it. I do things quickly without overthinking things. I get very focused and work intuitively until I feel that it is done. I leave it overnight and come back to it. I might add or take away a few things but I usually go with my first effort. The one thing that I do think about is composition. I do pause for that. It might take a day or two to figure out that one thing that makes my piece feel complete. I think I do my best work when I am just doing and not thinking about what it will look like but what can I do to it next.

These exercises can be done in small size like ATCs or about postcard size. How big or small you go is up to you. I like postcard size because I can easily put it into a book.

1. Cut up several geometric shapes and cut out some different sized lines - width and length. Have several sheets of the same sized card stock or paper ready to go. Set your timer to 2 minutes. Choose 6 shapes and lines and position them on your paper any way you like. It is up to you if you want to glue it down. Once the timer goes off, then you have to stop. Do it again on several sheets of paper or card stock. When done, go away and get a snack or go pee or something. Come back a little while later and look at what you have done. How you positioned your shapes and lines tells a lot about yourself. Are you abstract or literal? Do you go all over the paper or are you linear? Which shapes did you choose? Did you leave a lot of negative space (blank space)? Did you feel the need to fill out as much space as possible? Did you make an art doll out of your shapes and lines? Did you do repetition? Are your shapes all lined up? Are all your shapes and lines the same size or different?

2. You decide what materials you want to use to do this: crayons, picts, text, etc...You will create a piece using only black and white. No other color except black and white. What materials did you choose? What was the hardest thing about doing this?

3. Cut out several people in different positions from a magazine, old book, or whatever. Cut the people in sections: head and neck, torso, arms, legs... Use a piece of paper or card stock as your background. Your background is not important here. Take your cut up figures and put them into a bowl. Mix them up and then pick several pieces. Make a collage or mosaic out of the ones you have picked. Do NOT put them back the way they were. That would take all the fun out of it. Think about putting the body parts back together in ways that are not humanly possible. Have fun with this one. What do you get out of doing this one?

Okay, I am sleepy now. Please let me know if you try it. Posting picts is optional. I would like to know about your experience. Yeah, I do want to see how you did, but will not push it since these exercises are highly personal.

Belinda