chronicle Issue One
CONNECTING, CAREER PLANS & COMPASS WORDS
Welcome! I’m so glad you decided to join me at the Chronicle.
My art-making life started not that long ago, so this all still feels new and fresh to me. I’m so glad you are here to join me in this newness. If you don’t know who I am, then look at the “About” page on my website. But please come back, we have some things to talk about.
Today I’ll share with you one of the many
strategies I used to help in developing my style and voice,
something I call Compass Words.
When I started making art back in 2016, I realized early on that I needed to make lots of art to learn and that this was called “practice.” But I also recognized that this practice needed to be practice with purpose. I developed some strategies to help me in my practice. In this issue of the Chronicle, I’ll share one of those strategies. Something simple and basic—what I call my “compass” words.
But first, let’s talk about the where and why of this newsletter and a bit about the career plan I wrote to help me become a working artist. While working on this plan I developed most of the strategies I would use to help me find my way and still use today. It is where I first came up with my compass word idea. If you want you can skip ahead to “Compass Words” but if you are curious about my plan and all of the other things, read on.
Apologies to those on the mail list. It looks like the main link in the email did not work!
But you did find the full issue! This is all new to me, so I'm not surprised I messed up something. The lesson is learned. Hopefully.
I’ve been wanting to create a newsletter for some time but finding the time to put it together was not so easy. Just like everyone, I live a busy life. I have a full time day job, care for hearth and home, family, and pets. I illustrate and make art in all the nooks and crannies, and I make those spaces as large as I can.
As each issue of the Chronicle is delivered, you will find out more about my travels as a working artist and how I got here—the bumps and peaks alike.
The choices I made to carve out my art life and develop my style and voice. Specifics about techniques, projects, and time management. And some fun things too because those are a big part of my art-making. My goal is to perhaps help and inspire. Maybe even make you feel better about your own journey because I made dumb mistakes and you’ll get to hear about them. Oh yay!
Why did I choose to spend my time making a newsletter? First, I love sharing and helping. It’s this first-born child’s mission in life. Next, I’ve been disenchanted with social media and was looking for a better way to connect with you. Social media was just not doing that connecting thing very well anymore.
Please use this connection I’m making with you to reach out and comment and ask questions. That would help this first-born child achieve her mission.
I made piles and piles of artwork to find my style and voice. I started with colored pencil and pastels on brown paper. The brown paper was not as scary to me as a blank white sheet of paper.
Better know as my “Action Plan”
The development of style, voice, mark-making techniques, material choices—all the things that make your art identifiable as your art, is a unique journey for each of us. Because I am a type-A list-maker and organized person, I decided to make my style development a serious and planned thing—a list and strategy thing. I’m sure this is not for everyone, but it was my way and worked for me.
I spent a lot of time working on my plan—writing, thinking, looking, and reading. If art making was going to become my new career—my new business, then just like for any career change, I needed to have a plan in place. This became my “Action Plan” which I penned back in 2017. I built this plan by gutting one of my day job client’s business plan (they were calling it an Action Plan and I liked that) and filling in my own text under their categories and sections. (You’ll hear more about this plan in future issues of the Chronicle.)
This all sounds a bit cold and calculating, doesn’t it? Art making after all is supposed to be the result of some sort of passion and emotion, and warm and fuzzy things. About fun and joy—freedom and expression. But let me tell you this, the reason why I made this Action Plan was because the art making was the thing I thought about each morning when I woke up (and still do). It was the thing that kept me up late at night painting. It was the thing that I wanted to do all the time, more than taking care of myself (I’m not saying this is a good thing). I was hooked and obsessed. So, I knew that I needed to make art my new career. And in my world that meant that I needed a plan in order to make that happen.
My Action Plan is pages and pages long and filled with all sorts of things that were/are meaningful and helpful to me. Today I’ll share with you one of the strategies from my plan. Something simple and basic—my compass word idea.
The idea for what I call my “compass words” came from being the mother of an athlete. My son was an athlete all through high school and college and believe it or not from his training I found a useful art-making strategy (several actually). His sport was individual based as opposed to team based, and thus it was more focused on mental fortitude. He had to search within himself to gather the energy, will and excellence to achieve in his sport.
During the eight years in his sport my son traveled all over the country to compete. He was trained by former Olympic athletes and sport psychologists. It was during this training that he was told about cue words. Have you heard about them? They are a little like magic.
For athletes cue words are words, phrases or even acronyms that help you stay focused and motivated during practice and competition. They can help if you get caught up in your emotions and can help you bounce back from adversity and failure. They can be the essence of what you want to achieve and where you need for your mind to be to do so. Cue words are unique to every athlete. You chose the word/s or phrases that are the most powerful for you.
What a brilliant idea! I liked this idea so much that I decided to use cue words for myself as a practice and style development strategy. I call my own cue words my “compass” words. When I first wrote my Action Plan, I listed all the things I wanted my art to be. It was a mix of words and phrases. At the beginning I choose four and now I have five. These cue or compass words are unique to my art, art practice and what I want others to see when they look at my art. (I’m not going to share my specific words with you, to maintain their power for me, I need to keep them to myself.)
Let’s explore what I mean by choosing words or phrases that work as cue or compass words for your art-making. Let’s say you want to be an illustrator of graphic novels and you want to choose words that will help you during your practicing and learning. You will choose the words that help you stay true to the style and vision you have for your artwork. So, you might want your words/phrases to be something like: clear line; expressive figures; Tintin-inspired; provocative, etc. Or maybe you want to be a surface designer and your words might be: calm and thoughtful; folk art and vintage inspired; muted color; new twist on grandma’s florals.
The words you choose are the ideas, style, emotion, feelings, and overall vibe you think about before you start working, and what you want others to think about when they see your work. You use them as a guide while making your art. You can even create a sort of mood board where you pair your words with visuals if that helps you.
Now, the words can be used for however long you need them. You might only need them while you are figuring out your style and voice. The words may evolve and change over time, and you may always be thinking about them. Or you may just refer to them when you are evaluating a piece of art that you feel is not working. Looking at your words may help you determine why. You may even find that looking at your words can inspire you when you are in a slump.
You could decide to only use a couple of words thus keeping your style development more open because you don’t want to feel boxed in. Your words could be very general like “Don’t be so fussy—just relax—stay loose” or more like a battle cry such as “Push through the mundane—think deeply—get off your lazy butt!” Ha-ha!
I found that when I first started making art I had no discernible style. I was all over the place, without direction and often feeling overwhelmed by all of the possibilities. When I identified my compass words, they really helped me focus and know where to start when I sat down to make art. I could look to my words for general guidance, the essence of what I was about to make or what I wanted to make.
This compass word thing might not be helpful to you. I get that. It’s just an idea that really worked for me and I wanted to share it with you. I wrote my words in a beautiful and quirky script that sits on the bulletin board right above my workspace, along with art from the artists that make my heart sing. It is my inspiration wall. My words are right in the middle.
Thank you SCBWI
I was gobsmacked to learn that I would be the featured illustrator for SCBWI for the month of December. It was so unexpected and I feel so honored to be selected. Anyone can submit their work to be considered. I did that a couple of months ago, but had no expectations to be chosen. But I was! You can watch the interview here. Thank you so much SCBWI!
Please draw from my curio cabinet and Share!
Since it is the holiday and winter magic time of the year, I will share a few of my treasured Christmas decorations.
Feel free to draw the whole collection, or individual pieces and share on Instagram and tag me.
I’d love to share and highlight your work! You can find me @ceecliff_art.
The vintage glass tree decorations belonged to my paternal grandparents. They are from the 1940-1950s. When I look at them, I can still see their Christmas tree covered thickly in silver tinsel and colored electric lights that looked like candles with liquid bubbling in them.
The tiny clay angel is from a manger scene made in Mexico that I bought over 20 years ago. I love the rustic and handmade chunkiness. And I love equally the shredded Mexican newspapers that it all came wrapped in and I still use to store them in today.
My clay Santa Moon and Star are from Italy. Goodness, can these be any more special? They were some of the first ornaments I bought for my very first Christmas tree when I had my very own home. They are both whimsical and magical at the same time. I have several of each and they seem to weather all of the animal mishaps that occur each year with our tree.
The ceramic C is one of many letters I have that represent family members. They are newish and so very lovely.
This is my warm and cozy place, the place where memories and food intertwine. The food from our childhoods is full of memory and meaning. And this applesauce cake is so loaded with both raisins and memories that it must be part of my Christmas every year. The recipe no doubt is decades old. My mother and many of her ancestors grew up in apple country, so recipes that featured apples were plentiful.
When my mother was a very young women in her early twenties, she had three tiny children and not much money. In our yard stood an old apple tree or two, remnants of a long ago orchard. And along a fence row was a line of wild black walnut trees. My creative mother used these gifts of nature to make her first applesauce cakes. We children picked the fruit and cracked all the nuts. I can still see our hands stained yellow from the black walnut hauls. Because we had worked so hard, this cake tasted all the sweeter.
It takes a long, long time to bake because it is a dense and heavy cake. It is lovely in the morning with coffee. Or in the evening with a glass of some not-so-sweet wine.
And as my mother says on her recipe card, if you have any trouble, just give me a call. See you next issue.
Applesauce Cake
1 cup shortening, butter, or vegan butter (your choice)
3 cups sugar (yes, it’s a lot of sugar, but it’s a big cake. I usually cut this to 2 ½ cups and use raw cane sugar for more flavor)
4 eggs
4 cups unbleached flour
2 tps. Baking powder
1 tps. Baking soda
1 tps. Cloves and 2 tps. Cinnamon (add the spices to your taste, I usually add a bit more of each)
½ tps. Salt
2 cups thick unsweetened applesauce
2 cups chopped raisins (I use a mix of black and white raisins)
1 cup chopped black walnuts
In a large bowl stir the shortening/butter/vegan butter to soften. My mother always used shortening, but I’ve made it with both butter and vegan butter with good results. Gradually add sugar and cream together until light and fluffy. Add eggs and mix well. In a separate bowl mix flour, baking powder and soda, salt and spices together until well blended. 3 times add to the creamed mixture alternately with applesauce. Beat after each addition until smooth. Fold in raisins and walnuts. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a tube pan, I use an angel food cake pan because I like the tall sides. Bake cake for about 1 ½ hours until a knife comes out clean. I usually bake it for longer. It really depends on your oven, so be sure to check it to make sure it is baked through. The cake is very heavy and dense, like an old fashioned fruit cake. Enjoy!
Happy Holidays to you and Yours.
Cheers, Cynthia
© Cynthia Cliff — Please do not use any part of this post without credit or permission.