Arts and Wellness Wednesday - Episode 166

In today's show I take a look at the work that I have been doing, working with fabrics and stitching, in preparation for an exhibition that will be taking place in a couple of weeks.  Also the idea of planning and how not to be drawn into overwhelm.  The stitching to me is a very therapeutic activity and it is great to be able to pull the work together a combination of stitching, fabric manipulation and embroidery techniques.

Social Media

I have also been considering changing up my approach with social media, and look at the need for us to share our work and be more strategic in the content that we are going to share.  I am in the early stages of my planning but it is coming together  We all have something to share and we just have to get out of our own way and get on with it, we have a mission to get done.

I also wanted to share with you some events that are taking place this week and into the new year in regards to the Arts and Health events, and I have provided links below for you to take a look at:

Photography, Mental Health and Creative Expression, Arts SIG Conference – 11 December 2019
Join artists Daniel Regan and Antonia Attwood to learn about their creative arts practices in mental health and their work in social prescribing, and participate in two workshops on mindful making.

Dementia & Imagination: Art as Inspiration, Artists as Researchers, Derby – 17 December 2019
The University of Derby's Arts-based Research in Dementia cluster invite you to attend a seminar in their series of arts-based and creative approaches to dementia care

Early Stage Dementia Awareness training, Arts4Dementia – 24 January 2020

Training session designed to give arts facilitators greater understanding, increased skills and confidence in communicating and working creatively with people experiencing the early stages of dementia and their carers

The Art of Ageing Artfully, Midlands Art Centre – 5 February 2020

This event, produced by Midlands Arts Centre on behalf of The Baring Foundation and Arts Council England, will explore the role of creativity, arts and cultural change in the experiences of growing older and ask if a medical model of old age can address the creative and cultural realities of our lives

A Culture of Care: Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance national conference, Derby Museum – 19-20 March 2020

The theme of the event will be care: care for one another (participants, practitioners, commissioners); care for the environment; and caring economies

If you have been able to attend any of the events do let me know how you get on.  Stay blessed and be a blessing

Creating an Art Journal - December Journal

Art Journal Creating for December - with Amanda Trought

I decided to step it up a bit and create more Art Journals.  I love creating them and have so much paper, and other materials that it makes sense to bring them together and start using them for the work that I want to do in them. 

Part 1 of the Art Journal Process

Creating an Art Journal page is something I do as part of my morning routine and I wondered if others did the same.  I decided to use up the materials and try not to purchase them as you can customize them to your own suiting and use the Art Journals you want to use.  You might be one of those people who want to purchase them but I guarantee that once you have really got into making your own journals, choosing your paper, binding them in a particular way then you won't be the same.

The video this month is far longer than I had anticipated but it gives you over two hours of tutorial that you can watch at your leisure, see what tips you can get from the videos and pull them together in the Art Journal of your own creating.  You can use all the tips or just a few, the main thing is that you have fun along the way.  Let me know how you get on, if you need additional information do not hesitate to let me know.

Part 2 of the Art Journal Process

Each month you will get to see a new art journal in the making.  I use simple techniques and have fun in the process.  You can also join me on my Patreon Blog where I give a few behind the scene tips to my process.

Season 2 - Creating in Faith - Happy

Happy

What would you say your general mood is from day to day?  Sometimes there are external things that can allow to have an impact on our overall mood and we then respond to things in a negative way.  Does that mean that we scan not be happy despite what is going on around us?  Can you have an argument about something and still be in a happy frame of mind?  Listen to the Podcast

Going through an electrical and water outage at the same time over a period of 8 hours really helped me put things into perspective.  It isn’t until these things are gone do you really appreciate what you could do when you had them, how much you depend on them and what impact not being able to do the things that you took for granted would have..  All of our appliance ran out of charge and we were then faced with reading, writing and having a conversation rather than all having our heads in a screen of varying size – which despite no lights I appreciated the pause.

I was reminded that I love writing and it is something that I have kept up, but I was also able to get on with some writing that I really needed to focus on but never found the time.  We just had to find a way to make it work for us, without getting annoyed that the lights went off, as that wouldn’t have solved anything and we would still be without light and water.

It brought back memories of being a child and the lights going out and our big sister would make it fun, - back then you did more things together as a family, without the distractions of the computer screen and the tv (which only had 4 channels)!  We were always able to look at things from a different perspective which didn’t have stress attached to it.  We knew the lights would come back eventually so we did something else until it did.

Is happy your constant state of being, happy within yourself, your state of mind, not looking at what you think things should be, knowing who you are and what you stand for.  Things don’t always have to go the way that we expect -and we know that we are the creators of our own reality. Don’t expect others to ‘make’ you happy or feel that it is your duty to ‘make’ someone else ‘Happy’ – it is not your responsibility to make others happy. 

Take a moment and consider how you are feeling at the moment, think about whether you are in a happy state of being, check out the Art Journal page video, and the monthly Journal that you can join me in making and see if you are further inspired in your journey.

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Realityarts Podcast - Creating in Faith - Happy

Creating In Faith Encouraging Recordings are to bless and inspire you to be the best of yourself. It can be really great to pull out your art journal/Journal and express what comes up for you either with images and colour, with words or with both. Check out the weekly and monthly videos to help you spend more time in your art journal.

You can get additional information by showing up on my blog, you can see the show notes HERE

If you would like to see some behind the scenes, images and additional tips HERE

You will find the 2 art journal videos available to consume at your leisure - the Making of the art journal for the month and an art journal page process - Check these out HERE 

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There are so many FREE ways in which you can support the podcast and the work that I do on some of the other channels and it is always a blessing when you connect -

• listening each week and leave a comment
• Subscribe to any or all of my channels, visit the
• YouTube channel (remember to hit the notification bell)
• Let me know how the content impacted you and if you were inspired to make changes/additions to your work or life.

YouTube www.youtube.com/amandatrought

Blog - http://realityarts-creativity.blogspot.com

Patreon Blog - http://www.patreon.com/realityarts

Twitter - www.twitter.com/Realityarts

Instagram www.instagram.com/realityarts/

Facebook www.facebook.com/realityartss/

Check out some encouraging boards on Pinterest

Artwork available from the title image HERE

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I also have an Arts and Health NHS Network for information on activities and organisations working in the field. You are welcome to join, it is a FREE resource and if you have any activities or want to talk about your work you are welcome to send me the information and I will see that it gets uploaded. You can create your own profile on the network and connect with others who are passionate about the arts in health too.

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Creative Encourager - If you want to talk about creativity and the direction you are going and need a listening ear, sign up for a FREE 30 minute call http://bit.ly/Encoura

New Season - Creating in Faith - Podcast Episode on Realityarts

Weekly Podcasts

Creating in Faith

Well I have come to the end of Season One of Creating in Faith and I have decided to shift things up a bit for the next season which will begin tomorrow!!!

For Season Two I will be sharing more Art Journaling tips and techniques which will accompany each podcast episode 

on my YouTube Art Channel 

YouTube

My Patreon Blog will also have some behind the scenes video for those who want to take their art journey even further.

Realityarts Patreon

You will be getting a monthly video where I will be creating an art journal, and I want you to look at the supplies you have, any unfinished journals you started making and you will spend time completing these each and every month.

Weekly podcasts posts will be accompanied by an art journal page video as well with an encouraging word.  I am thankful for all those who have stopped by and connected.

I have selected some of the podcasts that you can take a look at, and spend time thinking about some of the points raised in each episode and what it means for your own creative journey.

Fruit

I am really looking forward to sharing the art journal videos with you along with the podcast episode

Mothers

Each episode is created to inspire and bless you, helping you be your true creative self, getting out of your own way as you inspire others

Space

It has been an amazing journey creating the content for the podcast and I have grown creatively as well.

Stepping Out of the Boat

Come and join me for Season Two and see how the episodes can inspire you - having the faith to know that you can be creative.

Change 

Time for changes and reflections as we go into the next series.  If you are an artist who is interested in the impact of the arts on our health and well-being and you would like to join me on the podcast I would love to hear from you!

Looking forward to growth and the journey, stay blessed and be a blessing.