San Francisco Co-Chair Artist Ellen Howard’s Recent Adventures and Thoughts!

Posted August 6, 2020

One of the things I enjoy the most about being involved with the CAC is hearing updates from our cherished and valued members. I wanted to share Ellen’s most recent artist newsletter and encourage you all to subscribe if you haven’t already.

Hope you are all having a great summer!

Best,

Marlo De Lara, Director of Chapter Development

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“Along the Path”, 9×12

“Coastal Cypress”, 11×14

Value Study

The Arch -color study

The Art of Showing Up!

“You choose the future with your actions each day.”

This way of thinking really is helpful. Wherever you invest your time, the results will compound, like interest on the money you invest over the decades. If you want a better future, go small. Focus on the actions you’re going to take today, tomorrow, and this week. Trade grandiose goals in for small actions you can take right now and build upon.

Small is extraordinary.” –James Clear

I’ve been reading James Clear’s book on “Atomic Habits” and how making small changes in your daily habits can amount to huge improvements over time in reaching your goals and achieving success. I also see these habits as ways that we regularly show up for ourselves, our family, friends, our community and our careers. I believe that during Covid it has become even more important to pay attention to each of our ways of showing up and not retreat into solitude or a giving into a feeling of isolation. For me, making sure I carve out time to exercise, read, play with my dogs and meditate are ways I have shown up for myself. Keeping myself mentally and physically strong helps me to show up in other areas of my life, in my career, and with my family and friends.

I recently taught a online Zoom workshop with the Mendocino Art Center. For many artists and instructors this has been a new way of receiving instruction and teaching. I was excited to teach this class for several reasons; I really do love teaching and connecting with students, I was comfortable with the Zoom technology and I was very familiar with the gorgeous Mendocino scenery. However, as we got closer to the scheduled time of the workshop, I had low attendance. I knew that if I went forward with the class it would not make a lot of sense from a financial stand point. The Art Center really wanted me to teach this workshop and something in my gut told me to move forward regardless — to show up. I spent many days pouring over photos of Mendocino, doing eight pencil drawings, 5 small values studies and 4 color studies in preparation for this class. It was important to me to show up prepared and at my very best to give value to my students regardless of the class size. The workshop went very well and I thorough enjoyed meeting these students. The blessings of having a smaller class enabled me to get to know the students better, share our artistic stories, and enabled me to give them more one-on-one feedback. It was very enjoyable and less stressful (even though I lost internet connection once and had to reboot!). My workshop students really needed to connect and to get instruction. I was grateful that I had made the decision to move forward and teach. I believe the need to create art, having instruction and providing a sense of community during this time is vital. The happy and unexpected result was that 3 days later, because of the great student reviews, the art center reached out and asked me to teach another workshop for them in September. I am excited to do so!

Showing up for ourselves and doing our best work regardless of the outcome is one of the most powerful things we can do. For me, it bring a great sense of well-being and I enjoy feeling that I have helped someone and contributed to their learning process in their artistic journey.