Background: 

The original motivation for pursuing a permaculture diploma was to establish a creative practice and become a confident designer. A wide range of self-directed projects can be achieved using permaculture as a guide thanks to its endless adaptability. 

I have always been passionate about painting and creative writing in particular. As I have studied for my diploma over the past few years, I have gradually realised I have the tools to shape any course of study or direction I desire and I want to honour both my creative practice and my commitment to learning more about tools I can use to give shape to any project I wish to pursue. 

Design Process – The Creative Process. 

( I found this in a book called Change Here Now by Adam Brock and originally cited to Laurence Halprin in the RSVP cycles.)

•  Goals

My main aim:  

To create a sustained creative practice.

Sub-goals:

• Use permaculture to design a routine and commitment and vision. 
• Setting work goals and igniting momentum and confidence.
• I want to design a path that feels intrinsic, organic and tied to my own journey.
• Simplicity of design

Observation 

“What is going on ?”

Past Experiences

•  I Have always drawn, painted, written and made art in one way or another. It is something that is deeply nourishing and meaningful for me (especially when I shift the focus from result to process). It allows me to shift things, and also produces something I can look at tangibly. 

• The axiom: as above and below, is an apt mantra for personal practice, I see it as encompassing a holistic way of being, a reminder to nourish the roots and remain with the larger process and live the questions (  as poet Rainer Maria Rilke put it). So it can be in internal journey

These observations may or may not be useful to the overall design process and are in no particular order.  

Key points: 

• I want to nurture the work that I have started and delve into the beginnings of projects and ideas I have built up. Looking at whether they are seasonal, perennial evergreen or deciduous. I also want to let go of anything I don’t need to create space. 

• Using deep time as a metaphor if I allow space and commit time and energy ideas and work will seep through and start to shape themselves into larger pieces.

• Plan is to build a complete  work – a collection of poetry & pictures based on the works that I have already started on the themes of birth, connection and germination – to give me a specific time bound goal. A container and something completed !  

• Also using small and slow solutions is the only way to grow meaningfully I have grappled with the reality of where I am now vs where I “should be” but is often a matter of starting, trusting, momentum etc – Reminder: anything truly rewarding and worthwhile takes a long time, struggle and hard work. Build rest, self care and recharging into that! A book I recently reread Care of the Soul by Thomas Moore he states a good cure for self destructive impulses is having an image of oneself and loving it. This attachment takes away a compulsive desperation to make something in the outer world which can be the driving force of overambitious ideas of achievement or perfectionism all of which blocks real authenticity and satisfaction.  

• The soil or ground of one’s life needs to be nurtured. What goes in is reflected in what comes out. By having access to an allotment and the opportunity to incorporate white space into my daily life, I have a tangible sense of gratification when I work with the land and allow my mind to nestle ideas, emotions, and content that allows me to keep my sanity and pace during the slow development of the larger themes and projects. To keep momentum, Julia Cameron’s Artist’s Way suggests artist dates and consciously nurturing the subconscious through activities that can take root in our minds and hearts. In addition, I need to reduce the amount of polluting distractions I am exposed to and pay close attention to what I read, listen to, and do.

Principles: 

David Holmgren Principles that tie in with the concept of the design, these were very helpful to think about. 

Slow and Small Solutions 

The meaning we can discover when we slow down and allow ourselves to truly see the small and everyday is encapsulated by William Blake’s idea of seeing eternity in a grain of sand. 

In shifting our vision with  deep observation the sometimes consuming desire for more and more stimulation and distraction disperses, allowing us to see the depth and beauty in the everyday and the ordinary. 

In a practical sense it means that I can take ten minutes to write something or sketch something out or mediate and look at or listen to something interesting around me and do this often. 

Use edge and value the marginal

I can create time boundaries around it so as to nurture small pockets of time ongoing emergence. Being committed to building patterns within the day – 5 minutes to write or sketch can be the seed to a bigger piece of work is the key to truly creating and exploring meaning which entails letting go of perfectionism and daring to create and stand by that process.

Value diversity

Having a few different approaches to wellbeing honours our need for change and flux throughout life.

Taking photographs, drawing and learning new recipes are a few simple ways that this principle can inform the design.

Integrate, don’t segregate. 

Instead of needing to separate art practice from life or needing a lot of time or space, having something simple like a notebook to practice line drawing in with me or a notebook of poetry will help me integrate it with my daily life. It also allows me to see the artistry in what is there in the world around me rather than something separate and illusive. 

Designing

Transformer

Much of what is needed within the design is a dissolution of what is blocking me and things like procrastination. I  read a good quote about sustaining creative practice which basically said – don’t just vision the result, vision yourself doing the work. 

Building a creative practice, or anything worthwhile in fact, means being able to deeply immerse yourself in the work which then has an almost indescribable life of its own. (Building personal style is an organic process and one that requires dialogue, trust and momentum and love of what we are doing.)

Table: Blocks, and transformers

Blockage	Sitting With it	Transformer
Procrastination	It becomes uncomfortable, energy builds if left too long	Doing one small thing, getting something moving, changing mediums ( paint don’t write, take photographs, cut things up.
Feeling uninspired	Can feel heavy, frustrating, end up ruminating on cliches	Take heed of what I am taking in, read a poem, go for a walk – think of things in  lots of ways
Self critical	Feeling like my skills are not where they ‘Should be’ ending up giving up	Allowing myself to have fun being bad at something, putting music on.
Impatience	Seeing the end goal way off in the distance and feeling like I can’t get there !	Appreciate: I have so much already started and in pieces and feedback and reflection has been very encouraging and important.
Overwhelm	Having a sense that things are just too much, feeling overwhelmed by inputs	Simplify: an analogy of the small doorway. I need to pare down and concentrate on the seeds I have started with the attitude of abundance and seeing what is there already.
Comparison	Being stuck in a comparison pattern I don’t see what I am doing, only what I am not.	Allow myself to get back to the physical reality of what I am doing and why, I almost named this design the

How to display/share my work with the world. Because this motivates me to do more, improves mental health. What are my options?

• Website: create own for free
• Paid subscription website: £12 per year
• Instagram
• Peer support
• Shop selling cards
• Shared art project (find someone to work with e.g. Edinburgh friend)
• Being paid for art? (is my creative practice included in the work I am doing anyway?)

Option	Positive	Negative	Interesting
Website Create Own Webpage	Have a certain amount of freedom, Can put a lot on there. Is fairly open in terms of how I do it. Free options and can upgrade.	Needs a bit of output, sometimes it is unclear if anyone looks at any of it ! They certainly don’t without having external links.,	I have really enjoyed looking at very simple websites recently, there was an old belief that everything needed to be on there.
Paid, Online Portfolio	It comes up high in search results if you just look for a name. The cost is quite low.	Not sure who looks at it. It is good for when I have submitted examples of my work.	They are good virtual holding places with high resolution.
Instagram	It is super easy to use, and images and words can be uploaded from a phone. It is good for inspiration too. Very easy to network	Getting distracted there is very easy. It is also a very competitive place so it is hard to keep up with people who devote a lot of time to making videos etc. Can feel like an energy drain.	Social Media can encourage adjusting style by hitting you with popular algorithms which creates a skewed version of reality. This is really obvious now when I engage that what I see is linked to what I have looked at previously.
Having Stock in Shops	Means I could potentially have customers and visibility.	Means I have to preprint and produce things. Could end up as a loss. Hard to get stocked by bigger/busier places as there is a lot of competition	Physical things can be motivating ! I like things that are not all online !
A collaborative art project	New energy, a feeling of connection, support, new ideas.	Needs a initial bit of organising, am dependant on peoples schedules and can be sidelined by people	The energy of doing something with someone else may produce interesting results ! It could also be very motivating.
Being paid for things ( Am I being creative in my existing projects )	I have a job and other projects that can benefit from creativity. I also do things with the family.	Sometimes I miss out on the peaceful intention if I allow myself to just get swept up by other types of busyness.	Can be great to link up with wider projects and let that push me on in terms of skill and output volume.

Inputs (important to think about ) 

• Time is obviously an important factor.
• Silence, simplicity and space. 
• Nourishment: in terms of taking things in and having time to digest them. 
• Ease of access to materials and opportunities. 
• Outputs
• Increased skill and confidence.
• My own self expression as a pathway to meaning and identity. Belonging starts with ourselves. I feel more alive when I am creative. 
• Awareness and understanding of personal interests and abilities: clarity to see the direction I want to go.
• A body of work.

• Current Patterns
• 

Patterns 

Being drawn in a few directions – the branching pattern comes to mind.

The honeycomb pattern – sometimes it feels like lots of separate projects i.e. without any central cohesion means the energy can dissipate or lose out to each other. 

More positively I could look at the honeycomb pattern as a holding pattern and one that means that not everything needs to be merged. 

Creating positive spirals of abundance is also a good way to create unknown positive benefits that may influence other aspects of my life.  

Having a daily pattern that compliments what needs to be done will make it easy to keep going. 

Input and Output Patterns 

I thought about wellbeing and the inputs and outputs 

I made this image thinking about the idea of inputs and outputs, with a reminder about what I put in.

•